Tagne 2001

Alan's Diary

Day 23 - Friday 20th July 2001

see also Andy's Diary for today

At 12.30am there was no moon and the night was very dark. I had bad thoughts of an unknown crevasse field and a heavily corniced ridge, so we set the alarm for later. I went to sleep hoping the moon would rise, not realising it had already set.

Waking reluctantly from the most comfortable warm sleep I had had for ages, barring the cold feet, I heard Steve muttering: "I wondered why my feet were wet. My waterbottle seems to have leaked." Yet again there was a pool of water at the bottom of the tent, swilling round our feet. I considered it strange that Terra Nova can make a groundsheet that lets water in but refuses to let it soak back out again. Maybe they should make waterproofs out of this material, reversed of course. We cleared the water from the tent and I pulled on my now soaking plastic boots. It was late and the sky was just lightening with the dawn. We set off anyway, wanting to see the E ridge close up and to make sure the climb would be possible.

Steve went cautiously through the crevasses, and the col turned out further than it looked. A bergschrund and a steep little slope led to the col and a long view into Spiti. At first sight, the ridge looked quite tricky. A looming vertical step seemed to bar the way. Of course it would turn out to be shallow angled, but at least it looked good. We wandered a little way up the ridge and indeed it was quite easy. Steve suffered another spontaneous unfastening when his camera lens dropped off and fell down to the glacier, vanishing forever.

Now we knew that we should be able to climb Sagar. The sun was now pumping heat into the snow below us. It was the sunniest day yet. I wanted to get back through the crevasse field before the snow bridges turned to mush like the day before. I virtually dragged Steve back through the crevasse field, making the tent in 30 minutes. I have a particular dislike of soft snow and a desire not to add any more crevasse falls to the list.

After a short delay at the tent for Steve's sleeping bag to dry in the sun, we made our way back to ABC. We arrived at midday, thoroughly exhausted from the heat. After lunch, we saw Narinder approaching. He told us the news - Tagne had been climbed! After suitable congratulation, Steve rushed off to meet Andy and carry his sack the last few hundred metres to ABC.