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I was enjoying Alex's company, hearing about the last two big climbs, seeing the
scale and the style of what he had done and what he intended. I understood now
why Messner said that Alex had the purest style and vision of anyone then active in
the Himalaya. Alex was completely unsullied. Unlike all the rest of the British
climbing community and Messner himself, he had never been on a big siege-style
expedition.
Next morning the rain lessened, although the cloud swirled around the gorge
blocking all views of the mountains we knew were there. Machapuchare is sacred
to the local Gurung people and also Hindus, who believe the peak is home to
Shiva. The snow that blows from its twin peaks, the spear of Shiva, is thought to be
divine incense. The sign told us that all meat and eggs were banned beyond that
point. I felt a twinge of superstitious guilt as I remembered our tins of spam and
meat bars and put it out of my head.
'Two more days, and we'll be in base camp,' I said to Alex as we gathered pace
and, with it, warmth.
'The weather better improve or conditions are going to be crap.'
The rain fell again in sheets. A couple of river crossings were as scary as any
climbs we had done. We took turns crossing first with a rope, climbing from
boulder to boulder in the torrents of white water, and then set up elaborate double
rope handrails for the porters. Machapuchare was towering above us somewhere
on the right, but Shiva offered us nothing but swirling rain clouds that as we got
higher turned to a freezing mist filled with sleet.
We had a cold, damp night crammed together with our porters under a huge
boulder. Alex was as suspicious as ever and checked the soundness of the boulder's
footing. We talked about our close encounters with huge boulders on Bandaka and
Changabang. I had been lucky over the years with falling rocks. Alex had twice
been hit and injured, once in the Alps and a second time the year before on
Makalu. As he was telling me again, my own fears found a focus.
'You will look after my little boy, won't you?' Jean MacIntyre's voice echoed
around my head. But I no longer knew how to look after Alex. It was how he
looked after himself that mattered now.
The sun broke through at midday and shone on the splendid white walls of the
sanctuary. The south face suddenly filled the space in front of us. We knew from
earlier expeditions that base camp was tucked into a fold between the lateral mo-
raine of the glacier and the steep hillside that rose toward Annapurna South and
Hiunchuli. But this was not where the porters had expected us to stop and an extra
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