Tagne 2001

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Dan's Diary

Day 32 - Sunday 29th July 2001

see also Andy's Diary for today

Setting off in the dark

Both Andy's and my alarm went off at 3am. I had had a bad night's sleep. We had camped on an inclined piece of rocky ground. I would wake up and find myself in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the tent. Once I had slithered my way back up to the other end of the tent I would find a sharp rock, or Andy's heavy breathing would prevent me from returning to my much-needed sleep.

I lay still for a bit and realised why we bivied in the Alps - it was a lot easier to get up in the morning having spent a freezing cold uncomfortable few hours on a glacier rather than a few hours in nice warm down bags in a sturdy tent. My decisive side kicked in and I started doing things. After throwing on some warm clothes I ate some coffee biscuits with minty hot chocolate which had a hint of golden vegetable soup. It tasted revolting but I forced it down, knowing I needed the fluid. I put my boots on and then went to find a patch of rock that would make a suitable toilet.

Back at the tent we packed our rucksacks and put our harnesses on. I took Andy, who was roping up on the glacier, his ice screw. I put my crampons on and tied onto the other end of the rope. We both took some coils and were just about to set off when I went to see what time it was and realised I'd forgotten to put my watch on. I walked back over the rocks in my crampons and was just able to reach the watch inside the tent with Andy remaining tied onto the other end of the rope on the glacier. I put my gloves on and we headed up into the darkness, leaving camp at 4:10am.

Glimmers of dawn during a pause

We trudged up the gently inclined glacier at a slow but steady pace. As we started a broad turn to contour across under the steep ice face at the top of the glacier, we started to walk parallel to the direction of the crevasses. Andy and I changed formation and walked staggered across the slope, still a ropes length apart, with Andy uphill and me down. The stars were numerous but low cloud often passed over, blocking their illumination. Our pace slowed as the gradient increased and an ever-growing number of rests were taken. The skies were beginning to lighten but it was still very dark on the glacier. We could make out the skyline of the ridge towering above us. As it gradually became lighter so we were able to see the snow chute that we had identified the previous day as our primary route up to the col. We were disappointed to that it was not a viable route. The ice was very steep and snow-filled crevasses cut across the slope midway up. The top also had an overhanging serac, which apart from being dangerous to climb under would have been impossible to climb over. We saw a possible alternative route and went to have a look at it. Once again, as soon as we got close, the route looked much harder than it had from a distance. Not liking the look of it we continued along to the other side of the col where a reasonable substitute lay.

We reached the foot of the slope and Andy asked whether we should climb Alpine style or belay each other. I said Alpine knowing that it would be quicker, and we could always stop and belay if necessary. Andy started to climb up the ice, using the points of his crampons and the pick of his axe. I let the rope run tight before following up the snow cone, which had gathered at the foot of the slope and onto the ice. The slope seemed easy at first, but before long the gradient was increasing and we were becoming ever more exposed. It wasn't long before Andy started to place ice screws as running belays for protection. There were some patches of nice ice and there were other patches of granular ice that crumbled away down the slope when hit. The sun rose up behind Tagne producing a warm orange glow in the morning sky. We stopped to take photos.

Dawn breaks over Tagne

Almost as suddenly as we had noticed it, it was gone and we were heading up once again. As the slope continued to steepen, Andy decided he would belay me up. Once the belay was set up I climbed up to him and he reminded me how to tie a clove hitch so I could continue on up and set up another belay point. I climbed up the ice, kicking hard with my feet and banging away at the ice with my axe until I had run out the rope. I set up a belay by placing a couple of ice screws and then set about kicking a ledge out of the ice for me to stand on. Andy undid his coils so we could climb longer pitches before having to stop and belay. I took in the rope as he climbed up and then let it out again once he was passed me. Andy was about ten metres above me when all of a sudden the ice gave out a thunderous crack. I felt the ice jolt below my feet and looked down horrified of what I might find. I stood their numb and in silence. I waited motionlessly for what might follow, not knowing what to think. I looked up at Andy. I knew he hadn't moved because the rope had remained taught. Although there was no visible evidence of any ice movement the noise had reminded us of the dangers. I aired my concerns to Andy and before I had a chance to finish Andy was down climbing towards me. I belayed him down below me until the rope had run out. He seemed to take an age to get down and set up his belay. I had been standing still for a long time and had started to get pins and needles in my feet. I was pleased to get the call from Andy that he was ready. I hurriedly took out the ice screws and started descending slowly and carefully facing the ice. It was hard going as the axe didn't want to hold in the granular ice. I descended down past Andy before turning around and traversing across to easier ground below. Again I ran out the rope length and Andy followed once I'd reached safe ground. We walked away from some overhanging seracs on the ridge line, just a to the side of where we had been ascending. Huge icicles could be seen hanging freely from the top of the seracs. We stopped while Andy tended to a call of nature while I took the opportunity to eat breakfast - a cereal bar.

The col south of Pt.5800

We traversed back under the wall at the back of the glacier looking at various other possible routes we'd seen. After walking through a field of ice mushrooms we came to the midway ridge. Originally it had looked like an easy way to the summit, but when looked at closely the route was fraught with problems. Now it could be seen that the ridge stopped short of the summit ridge and cornices lay in the way. Half way up the slope, snow had filled crevasses. We decided it wasn't even worth an attempt and headed across to where Jon, Alan and I had tired ten days earlier, stopping briefly to put on suntan lotion and glacier goggles as the sun came up. The suntan cream on my nose kept causing my glasses to slide down. I soon got fed up with pushing them back up, only for them to slide back down again. In the end I tried to put up with them on the end of my nose.

The snow and ice had almost all but gone from the slope where Jon, Alan and I had last tried to reach the top. We continued round to the scree. It was steep with no obvious route and a rocky summit, which would require you to climb the ice on the right hand side. We decided we didn't fancy carrying all our ice equipment up a scree plod just for the last ten metres so we gave up on reaching the top. We looked at Tagne and discussed the various routes up it. We soon got cold standing still and decided to head back to our tent. Before long we had come to a few crevasses, which were easily jumped. One of my crampons tried to come off, so we stopped while I put it back on. Not long afterwards it came partly off again, but by this time we were nearing the tent so I didn't bother stopping to sort it out.

Andy in front of the Spiti valley

We arrived back at the tent at 9:15am. A chilly breeze had picked up and we soon retreated to the warmth of our tent. I ate a kendal mint cake and jelly and then put on my down jacket to keep warm while Andy crawled under his sleeping bag to do the same. We shared various thoughts. I had images of all the oxygen masks falling from the ceiling of the aeroplane as I removed my plastic mountain boots from my feet on the plane home.

At 9:50am I heard the crunch, crunch of crampons penetrating the ice. I said to Andy "That sounds like a tall person with a Berghaus rucksack and a ponytail. I can tell all that just from the way he walks!" True enough Jon arrived just as it started to snow. There was not much room inside the tent as Jon unpacked and Andy packed up. They kept asking each other whether they wanted various items of equipment. Andy tried to leave as much as possible so he wouldn't have to carry it down but didn't succeed, while Jon was trying to get rid of the things we didn't need.

"Do you want a snow stake?" Andy asked.

"Medium rare," Jon replied.

Andy left us to descend down to ABC at 10:50am. Jon unpacked and crawled into his sleeping bag as the snow continued to fall outside. Jon informed me that Alan and Steve had got up at 4am to go down to Base Camp that morning. Alan was oozing yellow puss from his cheek and was refusing to expose himself to the sun. I lay there waiting for the weather to clear and soon drifted off into a sleep.

Crossing the glacier to Tagne Camp 1

I woke and ate lunch at 1:25pm. I made do with a jelly, a Mars bar and some peanuts. I examined the packaging of the salted peanuts. It read "Ingredients: Peanuts, Edible Salt and Groundnut Oil". Thank goodness the salt is edible. For a moment I thought I might have to scrape all the salt off! Then I came to the pepperami: "Made with 150g of pork per 100g finished salami sausage" it claimed on the wrapper. I did feel sorry for the poor person who decided to write this on the label for he can't have been very good at Maths. How can the finished product weigh 100g when you've put 150g of one ingredient in? What on earth happens to the other 50g of Pork? I concluded their must be a guy who sits at the end of the conveyor belt and eats a third of every pepperami to ensure that it is of a satisfactory standard.

It was 2:11pm by the time the snow had stopped sufficiently long enough for the sun to come out. We started to pack up inside the tent and then moved outside to finish off. The clouds were hurtling across the sky and one threatened to dump snow on us. We prepared ourselves to jump back in the tent but nothing came of it. Jon and I took down the tent and packed it away. I attached it to the outside of my rucksack.

We put our rucksacks on and wandered across the rock to the glacier where our crampons were put on. We traversed straight across the glacier, trying not to lose or gain any height. Huge ice bowls with rivers running through deep ice gorges characterised the side of the glacier. We descended down into one such bowl and jumped across the ice gorge before heading for the foot of the scree slope. On reaching the rock our heavy rucksacks were put on the ground and we took our crampons off. After a brief rest, we decided not to fill up with water from the glacier as we could see water running over a small rock face above. We made our way up the scree slope. It was painfully slow going with such heavy rucksacks at such a high altitude. The scree was steep, loose and unstable. Jon was able to ascend faster than me so I was always chasing him. Eventually the slope flattened out slightly and the scree became more stable. I walked on up behind a rocky bluff behind which was a flat area of ground. I reached the flat area of ground, which I hoped was where Andy and Narinder had camped. I shouted up to Jon who had continued on up the scree slope that I thought I had found the camping spot. Jon agreed but continued on up after dumping his rucksack to see if their was anywhere higher up.

Collecting water at Camp 1

I took my rucksack off and explored the flat area of ground. A large patch of compacted snow lay in the back of the flat hollow. It soon became apparent that Andy and Narinder had camped there. Large rocks formed a rectangle on the small scree and had obviously been used to tie down guy ropes. On one of the large rocks were remnants of instant mash. I looked for water and found a small trickle on the far side of the snow patch. I dug a hole in the bottom of the stream channel so we would be able to fill our bottles up. Jon returned to say the next best place was the glacier, which we decided, was too far. It started to snow so we quickly put up the tent and got our Thermarest out to check for sharp rocks. We threw our rucksacks inside the tent to keep them dry and put the rocks round the guy ropes.

We started to cook tea at 4:45pm. I got a pan full of water from the stream and put it on to boil. Before long we were drinking tomato soup while waiting for a second lot of water to boil. This was used to cook the couscous, which we flavoured with beef oxo and ate with pepperami and cheese - yummy! I made a flask of tea for the morning before packing away the cooking things under the flysheet of the tent. We retreated into our tent at 6:40pm. I tried to sort out as much as possible for our summit bid for Tagne early the next morning while Jon tried to catch up with his diary writing. I ate jelly for pudding and then cleaned my teeth so I wouldn't want more food to eat. As darkness fell so did my eyelids and before I knew it I was fast asleep.