Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pitch of awkward mixed ground before fixing the rope, and descending in the
afternoon storm to the sitting bivvy Voytek has excavated in the hard snow.
'We have a problem,' he says. 'Krzysztof is worse today - he thinks he's in Po-
land.' The night is cold and starry. For the first time on the climb we are sat togeth-
er in bivvy sacks and gain warmth and strength from that.
Day nine: Voytek leads five pitches of mixed ground to the summit ridge. It is
some of the hardest technical climbing of the climb. I jumar up close behind
Krzysztof, watching his every move and helping and encouraging him as best I can.
We reach the summit ridge at around four and our horizon broadens into a wide
vista of big mountains - so much space after so many days focusing primarily on
the two dimensions of the vertical plane. Views of the high Himalaya open up to us
in all directions: Trisul, Devistan, Dunagiri, Kalanka and the massive ever-present
goddess, Nanda Devi. We traverse the summit and descend the steep soft snow on
the ridge between Changabang and Kalanka. Krzysztof is behaving irrationally.
'Now we must glissade, faster, quick down.' He points toward the glacier 6,000
feet below. There are ice cliffs, rock buttresses and crevasses in which we would
tumble like clothes in a drier before they swallowed us up, but in his pain and deli-
rium, he sees only the hundred feet of fifty-five degree snow.
Voytek angrily reprimands Krzysztof in Polish. I notice that Alex has untied from
the rope and retied with a screw-gate, not closed. If Krzysztof or any of us fall, he
will quickly unclip. I follow suit. We descend safely to the col between Changabang
and Kalanka and cut a comfortable platform under a rock overhang and relax a bit
for the first time in days. We are now running short of gas and food, so supper is
minimal. This is the first day it hasn't snowed. A golden sunset saturates the
clouds resting quietly at the feet of Nanda Devi. It is our stunning reward.
Next day we descend the flanks between Changabang and Kalanka, the line more
or less of the original ascent in 1974. In the late afternoon, we reach the glacier.
Alex and I traverse across to the bottom of the route to collect food from the cache
we have stashed, having run out of food on top. The glacier is heavily fractured and
we both fall briefly into holes. Returning to Voytek and the semi-delirious
Krzysztof we cook a big meal and enjoy our best sleep for the past ten days. We are
released.
It would take us two more days to reach base camp. I drew the short straw to stay
behind for a second night part way down the glacier to care for Krzysztof, who was
now quite weak. Next morning, Lech and our liaison officer K. T. arrived at our
