Day 8 - Acclimatisation walk

Today's plan is to walk up to 4,700 mtrs and stay there for a while to really move our acclimatisation on in preparation for the summit at about 5,700.  You really want to start early as then the snow and ice are hard and it is so much easier to walk on hard ground than when the snow gets soft and you sink in as well as risking getting your feet wet in the puddles. The sun as always is very strong at altitude and when the wind is not blowing it can get pretty hot which causes the snow to melt or soften quickly.

We get a reasonable start - only about an hour late by the time everyone is up and has their gear and crampons on. But again the group moves really slowly and in the end we stop only briefly at about 4.500 before heading back down.

This performance will lead to an interesting discussion on how we head to the summit. In addition is the issue of the snow cats. Most, if not all climbers, take a ride on one of the snow cats from the Barrels (at about 3,800) up to 4,700 or even 5,000 on summit day. I am very keen to avoid this as you can't really claim to have summited a mountain when you have been carried for at least half of your summit day. However, to walk you are asked to start at midnight which combined with waiting for the group on the snowcats to reach the meeting point and combined with waiting for them continually higher up will lead to a real risk of cold issues - especially if the weather is bad.

We meet in the afternoon to discuss the arrangements. The forecast is for poor weather over the next few days but not so bad as to prevent summiting. One of the rules of mountains which do not tend to have stable weather is that you go when you can go as even a slight deterioration in the weather can prevent a summit attempt and you don't want to have wasted your one reasonable day waiting at Base Camp. However most of the group are not in a state to go tomorrow.

This provides the opportunity for Gus and me to go for the summit and avoid all the problems that going en masse would involve - split group between walkers and riders on the snowcats, cold issues given the pace and the risk of the summit attempt being called off as both guides need to accompany people turning back. It is never nice to split a group in this way and a few of the others are noticeably upset when I mention the possibility but after a bit people recognise that it is not such a bad idea.

The problem is that neither of the guides want to do the summit twice and so we will need to pay another guide to take us there. Vladimir tries but is unable to find an alternative but feels happy coming with us as long as we pay him that fee. Dave is not sure enough of how he will be feeling for the second attempt with the rest of the group (especially as this is when he will most likely be required to take action or tough decisions) so does not come either.

So we prepare for our summit bid by trying to get some sleep in the afternoon (but not really succeeding) and early dinner and then an early night to get up for a 12:30 breakfast and 1am departure. As it is just Gus and I making the attempt and the guide thinks we are both strong, I was able to negotiate a one hour later start time.
Needless to say that for various reasons I don't sleep much that night.