2007-09-23

Puja, Fixed Ropes and Acclimatization

Annapurna Range from Camp II

The weather is good and time flies by here in Nepal. Life in base camp (BC) is simple and easy going, mostly focused on food. After three days in BC I went up and had my first taste of Dhaulagiri, The White Mountain.

Since I arrived in BC the weather has been very nice and stable, lots of sunshine and not much wind. To climb an 8000-meter peak you need to spend a lot of time getting used to the altitude, acclimatizing as it’s called. Once I had my tent, our toilet tent and all my gear sorted out I was ready to check out the mountain and start acclimatizing.

The mountains here in Nepal are sacred and the Buddhist people believe that the god’s live in the mountains. Therefore, before you begin climbing you have to do a ceremony that is called Puja to show your respect to the god’s. The Nepalese people here in BC built a Chorten (Buddhist monument) out of rocks and attached to it was prayer flags in four directions. On top of the Chorten was a photo of The Dalai Lama and offerings like rice, cookies, chocolate bars etc. The ceremony was held by Buddhist monk who was singing and saying prayers as we threw rice towards the Chorten. After the Puja you have permission from the god’s to set your foot on their mountain and you have their support during your climb.

Summer has been hard on Dhaulagiri. It’s very dry on the lower slopes and the snow level is around 5500 meters. The first part of the climb is a cracked up glacier that is called the icefall. The Seracs (ice pillars) in the icefall fall regularly making a brumming noise giving us climbers something to fear. You don’t want to be anywhere near the Serac falls therefore the climbing route goes on the right hand side of the ice fall, on the lower parts of a big rock wall. Without snow on this part it’s a mix of sand, rocks, and ice. Horrible, if you ask me. After that you walk on a flat glacier for a bit until it gets steeper up to the northeast pass of Dhaulagiri where you’ll find camp 1 (C1), at around 5700 meters (18,700 ft). Apart from the sandbox in the beginning the terrain is fairly easy with only a few hairy crevasses (cracks in the glacier) to cross. My first time on the mountain was a long struggle to get up to C1, where I spent the night. It took me six and a half hours to climb the 1000 vertical meters up to camp and during the night I didn’t sleep much due to an evil headache. That didn’t give me much confidence for the future. The next day I went back down to base camp.

Everyday life in base camp is simple but comfortable. I have my own tent where I sleep and keep my clothing and gear. In our kitchen tent chef Budhi and his assistant Kansha are serving breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. It’s like having my mom here in camp. All I have to do is to show up to get an excellent meal. Other than that there is time to read books, listen to music and cruise around visiting the other climbers.

Fredrik on the way to C2

The climbers that are here this year to climb Dhaulagiri are a big Japanese team with about thirteen climbers, including six Climbing Sherpas (Nepalese porters), a Dutch-Austrian team with four climbers and one Korean climber with his two climbing Sherpas. In the last few days a French team and a Polish team has arrived as well. It’s a good mix of people and we’re having a good time.

The Japanese team has hired Sherpas to fix ropes on the mountain making the climbing safer and easier. The ropes are fixed along almost the whole climbing route. I heard a figure of 2800 meters of rope only up to camp 1. Personally, I think it takes away some of the exploratory experience you get from climbing a mountain. It has one positive thing though, if you follow the ropes you will never get lost.

The second time on the mountain I slept one night in C1 before I climbed up a gentle snow slope towards the northeast ridge. On the ridge it got steeper and there were a few crevasses to cross on the way to C2 at 6500 meters. After having dinner with a view of an amazing sunset on the Annapurna Mountains I tucked myself down in to my thick sleeping bag to get some rest. My sleep that night was disrupted by yet another evil headache. During the days I feel fine but during the nights the nasty “high altitude man” is giving me a few punches in the head. To get the most out of this acclimatizing trip I climbed up the ridge to about 6900 meters before turning around and heading back down to C2. I spent a second night in C2 feeling a bit better and the next day I skied down to C1. It started with cautious turns in powder on the steep ridge and went big cruising turns in sugar snow on the slopes down towards C1. It was an amazing experience to ski on the slopes of Dhaulagiri with mountains like Annapurna and Nilgiri in the background. Felt good to finally get some skiing after some weeks of transportation.

Now I’m back in base camp and I will stay here for three to four days to rest before I go up again. I?m feeling well acclimated so next time I will aim for the summit. If everything goes as planned, the weather is good and I’m in good shape, I will summit Dhaulagiri at the end of the month.

Looking forward to more skiing.

Dhaulagiri from the air

10sept07

On the road, again!

After a week in Kathmandu things have finally started moving here. With a smile on my face I’m on my way to the mountains.

It all changed last Friday after a few days of grumpy me. I was close to exploding in anger believing that the airline had lost my skis and climbing gear. I had started working on plan B: finding gear in Kathmandu, so that this wouldn’t be the end of the trip. Most of the climbing gear and clothing was possible to gather from friends and shops. Skis were more difficult, at least, there was nothing from the 21st Century to be found.

I asked myself, is it safe to go to Dhaulagiri with the gear that I’ve found here? I didn’t have to answer that question.

Friday morning I went on one of our routine trips to the airport to look for the ski bag. The man at the lost baggage desk, who I was sure couldn’t say anything other than “bag not found,” said something different this time.

“Bag is here!”

I wouldn’t believe him until I saw a man dragging my ski bag towards us. All my gear was right in front of me after a weeks detour. In a second I was a changed man, all the anger was gone and I couldn’t stop smiling.

Having sorted out the gear problem I got on the bus for the six hour ride to Pokhara where I was greeted by a massive rain. I guess the monsoon is not quite over yet. Walking back to my hotel from a restaurant in the evening was like walking in a shallow creek. It was water all over the place. I had one day of sightseeing in Pokhara and went on a boat ride on the Fewa lake, visited the Peace Stupa and the Devi’s waterfall.

Sunday morning I got up early and went to the airport to catch the flight to Jomsom. Ghorka Air took me along for a mind blowing experience. As the small propeller plane rose through the clouds we were in the middle of an amphitheatre of beautiful peaks. The Machhapuchhare, also called the fish tail mountain, the four Annapurna’s and Nilgiri to mention a few. Last, but not least, I got the first glimpse of Dhaulagiri. That was a great feeling.

In Jomsom, Budhi, my bace camp cook, and his brother, were waiting for me. They trekked here from Beni, three days journey, with the food, gas canisters and all the rest of the gear that couldn’t be flown on the plane. As soon as I got my bags we left Jomsom and walked one and half hours down the valley to a town called Marpha and the Snow Leopard Lodge were we were going to spend the night.

Monday the trek towards base camp will start. It’s a serious trek going over two passes (Dhampus and French pass) that are higher than 5000 meters. If everything goes as planned we will reach Dhaulagiri base camp (4700m) on Wednesday.

For more info about Fredrik and the Dhaulagiri Expedition check out his website www.fredrikericsson.com