Day 9 - Island Peak Base Camp

It has snowed quite a bit overnight which adds character to the village we are - it is going to be interesting to see what this does to conditions further up the mountain.

Again we only have a short trek today - about 2.5 hours or so - so it is a pretty relaxed morning but everyone else has left the teahouse by the time we have breakfast. I am still struggling somewhat with the usual breakfast fare but enjoying the toasted cheese sandwiches.
The trek itself is fairly gentle and the trains of yaks a people ahead of us have cleared a handy path through the deep snow - I doubt we will be so lucky heading for the Island Peak summit!



Island peak is on the left

The path heads up from the main valley and then circles the base of the peak

to base camp in the narrow valley between Island Peak and the neighbouring large ridge and close to the start of the main route up the mountain.

I say close, but in fact there are a lot of people here so we end up quite a bit further down the track than we had expected!

There is no mess tent at base camp as we are only here for one day so we are brought food and drink in our tents. After a high carb lunch of pasta, potatoes and vegetables we do some fixed line rope work on the steep slope next to the camp. This is ascending with a jumar and coming back down in either full abseil mode, light friction mode or just with the rope wrapped around your arm to control the descent. The downside to the quicker modes of descent is the damage done to your gloves as the rope feeds through them - hence the cheap counterfeit gloves we bought in Kathmandu.

After that we prepare our gear for tomorrow as we will be leaving at 1 am (after a number of lazy days the expedition is getting serious!) and it is surprising how long it takes to get organised and make good decisions at that time and when newly arrived at altitude. The camp will be packed up and taken back to Chukung whilst we are on the mountain so we will need to pack everything we are not taking as well. Supper is brought to our tents at about 6 and we invite Paddy to join us for a friendly chat but then spend the time grilling him about gear. After supper he heads off to check on the rest of the group as a few people seem to be struggling with the altitude. By about 7pm we are all in bed trying to get some sleep in preparation for getting up at midnight for our long day ahead. 

This is definitely a different style to Aconcagua and the North Pole where we had to be much more self-sufficient - pitching our tents, cooking for ourselves etc. Even on the climbing practice the Sherpas were expecting to do all our carabiner and rope changes. However it is all done in such a nice and friendly way and the Sherpas, porters and cooks all seem to enjoy showing you their country and helping you enjoy it.