Day 12 - Summit Day (4,900mtrs)

Up at a bit after 1 to prepare. My knees aren't great but I take rather a lot of ibuprofen which should get me through the day and most of the mountain is roped so there should be little need for me to do much downhill walking which is what seems to be causing me the problems. Gus is feeling better so hopefully by moving at a sensible pace and the drip feed of chocolate he should be able to make it through the day.


Setting off

We set off at 2am in a cloudless, starry sky. It is actually a lot warmer than at first it appeared and so we all get a bit hot on the hour walk from base camp to  the start of the climb.



New outfits warmed up

The first few sections are not that steep but are quite long and tricky and have fixed ropes on them - also as it is dark we cannot see the extent of the drop below. This means that they are more of a physical (strength and fitness) than technique test.

 



Having a (well earned) break

After a bit we can see the huge Freemont mine that creates a swathe of lights at the end of the valley - the first sign of anything man made / civilisation that we have had for some time now.

Then we manage to lose the path and head up a random and very steep gulley that has some interesting moves, no protection or any ropes. You can almost hear Zac's concern as he knows that ne is responsible for health and safety and that that has just gone out of the window! However it is less amusing when we get to a very steep section with a very long run out - if you fell here you would slip for several hundred metres on very sharp rocks and whilst you might escape broken bones if you were very lucky you would be cut to ribbons. I got half way and then found a lack of good foot and hand holds for further moves as well as a better understanding of what was below from the comments of the others who had been looking down more and lost my conviction in refusing the help of a rope.



Its a long way down if you slip

Our guide who had already completed the section dropped a rope and we all climbed out to find that we were back on the main route and at the base of the climb up to the top ridge. I went up after him and so got to see the sun rise whilst waiting for the others to come up.



Dawn over the opposite side of the valley

From there is was onto the Tyrolean traverse which was actually easier than the one we did as practice back in May. However there were a plethora of ropes and to be safe we attached ourselves to all of then which provided a lot of friction to pull against.



Getting ready for the Tyrolean



Don't look down!

After that we moved along the ridge

which in general was fine but had a couple of tricky parts where we moved between two mini sections. This meant one or two pretty difficult moves over thousand metre drops but mostly it was very tough mentally struggling with vertigo as you can't not look down whilst climbing down! After those we just had to climb the last short section up to the summit where we spent quite a while taking photos although there was a fair bit of cloud so we could see very little of our surroundings.



Cheesy, but rather good!

 

Team Millet!

 

 Unsurprisingly, the weather came in after a bit which was our cue to head back down.

The descent was the reverse of the climb with us abseiling most of the way down - other sections were rope assisted descents where you walk, step backwards or jump down a slope holding onto a rope to control your movement.

The main problem with the abseiling was the quality of the ropes. Many of these were thick, wet and elasticated - such characteristics make it very difficult to control your descent and so not much fun at all as I ended up bouncing all over the place and having very little control. My technique suffered from this and I took to just holding the ropes to help me down further on. This was probably less safe but it was much more fun and rebuilt my confidence for some of the later abseil sections where the ropes were not so bad and so I could move at a decent speed again.
Then all of a sudden we came round a corner and it was not far to the valley floor, and then the hour or so walk back to camp for a well earned rest and some food and drink.

Our times were:
Start: 2am
Summit: 8am
Depart: 9am
Camp: 2pm

This was a very different climb to most summit days in that it was technically challenging (especially once I could see what I was doing!) but not very physically demanding. You normally feel pretty elated at having made the summit and the stunning views you have from the highest point of the continent but here it was more a sense of relief that I hadn't fallen and had managed my vertigo despite the fact that it had really slowed me down at a couple of points. Overall we were pretty quick on the way up (6hrs) but slow to get back down again (5hrs), but it was an excellent and very different summit day.

We finally had a good view of the mountain in the afternoon after getting back. We went round the left hand end of the ridge immediately in front of the picture and then ascended via the crack just to the right of the pinnacle on the right in the middle of the picture and then back along the ridge to the left to the summit in the middle

There has been no real improvement to my knees in terms of the swelling and my wound has continued to deteriorate. It has now tripled in size and despite cleaning and dressing it twice a day continues to discharge quite an amount of worryingly coloured liquid and is now swollen quite a long way round it and it feels as if the swelling is going down into the knee as well as radiating out - that is pretty worrying as it is a sign of a pretty bad infection.
The way back out is four or five days of mostly downhill through the muddy rainforest we came in via and this poses quite a risk of long term complications for both problems - the damp and mud mean that it won't be possible to keep the wound clean and dry so that will get a lot worse by the time we get out and if there is something nasty in there at the moment (which I suspect there is given the ongoing complications) it won't be possible to organise a quick extraction if it flares up. The downhill will make my knees really painful and swollen and whilst I can treat those symptoms with more ibuprofen, who knows what long term damage I will be doing to my knees and how long they will take to recover - I am spending the whole of December on Antarctica and then 2.5 months on Everest next year and don't want to jeopardise those for a few days walking in the rain and mud!

There is a potential to exit via the mine that is next to the mountain but this is (and justifiably so) very restrictive so I get the various wheels on motion for that although this is seriously inconvenienced by the fact that the satellite phone cuts out every few minutes when whichever satellite we are using passes out of contact with the valley we are in and then it is 20 mins to half an hour before the next one comes into contact. The fact that as usual it rains most of the afternoon and evening which interferes with reception does not help.
Anyhow, over the course of the evening things slowly fall into place and I get to bed feeling that there is little else that can be done. Stay tuned for our epic exit!