Tagne 2001

Andy's Diary

Day 33 - Monday 30th July 2001

see also Dan's Diary for today

In the morning I woke up to find it darker than usual. A layer of snow, the first we had seen this low in the valley, had covered the tent. This was a pain. The scree on the way back would be all the more treacherous covered in snow, and the tent would be wet and heavy. I took a photo of the tent and then shook off the snow.

I waited.

At 0500 there was no Shepherd

At 0600 I gave up. He wasn't coming, the snow had put him off, and not even Rs.300 (far too much, due to an early blunder) was enough to tempt him. I decided to do a ferry myself, cross the rivers and then return to ABC as I had discussed with Dan before. I should have taken everything out of the kit bag and put it in my own sack, but I was keen to get going and the Shepherd hadn't seemed to have had any trouble carrying just the kit bag before.

I had to move fast now because I had started late. I put on some warm clothes and grabbed my Lekki pole. The screes between Base camp and ABC were endless, but it made a change to see them covered in snow. I got to the first river and began to cross. I stepped up onto a rock and found myself in the river, swearing. Even before I got up I knew what it was and striking the rock with the sharp end of my pole confirmed it. Verglas. A thin, invisible layer of ice covered the wet rock. I was totally on my own so I crossed the rocks with care. The sack proved to be much more uncomfortable than it had been at the start and was really beginning to annoy me. I struggled on to the final river and dumped the gear making a careful note of where it was. The cold of the morning was now gone and so I was able to ditch most of the heavy warm clothes and return to ABC with virtually nothing. It was now about 10:00 but I absolutely had to cross the rivers again as soon as possible. I was really flying now: I had no load and I had a deadline. I managed to cross the second river soon after 11:00. Returning, the scree was as endless as before, and the snow had melted. I returned to my tent and tried to find something to do. I didn't win a single game of patience that afternoon either. I hate patience. I found, despite my unnecessarily lengthy preparations, that I had ferried my spoon down to the river. I had also eaten all the interesting food the day before. Thus the highlight of my day was a meal of instant mashed potato eaten with an ice screw. I prepared for the next day's carrying and caught an early night. Jon and Dan did not come down that night as expected. I wondered if they had spent a day waiting for better weather, or if the attempt had gone on longer than expected and they had been forced to come down in the dark and spent another night at Camp 1.

I woke up early again and packed up the tent. There was no snow. I made the now-familiar journey down the never-ending scree for the last time. This time I had packed my sack really well, and although it was heavy it was stable. The verglas was gone from the streams and I had plenty of time because this time I didn't have to get back again. When I got to the second stream I found the kit bag and ate some of the mint cake that I'd left in it. I ditched my sack and carried the kit bag out of the valley to the top of the bank. Then went down for my own sack.

At the bottom I ate more biscuits. I suddenly felt as if I should look up at the ridge. As I scanned round the top of the valley I noticed a figure. It waved. I thought it was Jimmy but then I saw another one: it was Sonam and Narinder. This was good news. They were initially confused about how I got two sacks there, but when I explained they were happy enough to carry both of them, which suited me fine. We returned to Base Camp.