Challenge 8000 -
The Makalu Diaries
Challenge 8000
PROGRESS REPORT
Friday 28 May 1999
A jubilant Alan Hinkes reports from low
base camp after his success on
Makalu:
"I'm back at low base camp after an
exhausting but exhilarating week on Makalu.
I have finally cracked Makalu and I think
it is only just sinking in.
After all the delays caused by the weather
I was still not happy with the conditions
after my return to high base camp (5700m)
on Saturday 15 May. My plans to leave on
Sunday 16 were again frustrated by high
winds and heavy snow falls and in addition
I developed a very weepy left eye and nose.
I took some antihistamine which cleared
it up very quickly. I think I must have
had an allergic reaction to something. I
decided to stay put until it was completely
healed.
A few days ago Makalu looked black, with
rocks visible all the way to the top. The
name Makalu means 'Great Black One'. But
by Sunday the mountain had gone completely
white. My climbs on Makalu had been across
bare ice and rocks with the snow being the
old Neve snow which is firm like polystyrene
to climb on. I could see all of the dangers
of the gaping crevasses on the glacier very
easily and could cross or walk around them
easily. But now there was a new covering
of fresh snow on everything, hiding the
crevasses and slots and making climbing
much harder work by having to plough through
six inches of deep snow. The avalanche danger
had increased significantly as well.
The conditions are typical for pre-monsoon
weather with some very clear blue skies
in the morning. In the middle of each afternoon
the sky clouds over and it starts to snow
again. At night the temperature plummets
to well below zero and I have been wearing
my duvet jacket in my sleeping bag to keep
warm.
I was constantly on the look-out for the
signs of a good weather window. I knew that
ideally I needed about four days to reach
the summit and two to return to base camp.
On Sunday I heard via my walkie-talkie radio
from one of the other expeditions who were
risking the weather and had climbed high
on Makalu. They had stopped at Makalu La
and found my Terra Nova Quasar tent intact.
This was an enormous relief. I had to assume
that if the tent was OK that all my summit
equipment was also alright and had not been
blown away by the horrendous winds on Friday
night. It renewed my determination to give
it a go as soon as I felt the conditions
were right.
Sometimes on the walkie-talkie radio I could
pick up conversations from the expeditions
on nearby Everest and I decided that I would
take my radio up to camp 1 or higher to
see if the clear air at a higher altitude
would let me have a conversation with climbers
on Everest.
My cook prepared fried chapatis, tins of
tuna, chips and tins of pineapple for my
dinner.
Incredibly at this altitude, Makalu has
a very lively crow population. They had
started to become a real nuisance and were
pecking through every sack or packet of
food that was left out. On the mountain
I had left dumps of
food at camp 1 and Makalu La wrapped in
sisal sacks. The other climbers told me
that this had all been completely lost to
the birds. Only tins escaped their beaks
and I realised that I would have to take
up another supply of food to the higher
camps.
On Monday 17 May I stayed around high base
camp doing a few media interviews, reading
and listening to BBC world service on my
tiny short-wave radio. Most of the news
was about Kosovo/Serbia and the world cup
cricket. On Tuesday I heard that the Australian
climber Michael Groom and his American colleague
David Bridges had summited Makalu. They
had been lucky with a small break in the
bad weather despite the conditions being
poor.
I still did not feel ready to leave on Wednesday,
but the weather started to improve and I
decided that this was my weather window
and that it was time to make my attempt.
Dawa was still keen to see how high he could
climb and so we set off on Thursday 20 May
in lightly falling snow and mist and climbed
up to my camp 1 at 6500m where we rested
for the night. It took us slightly longer
to get
there than on the two previous climbs because
of the increase in the volume of snow. The
next day we pushed up to Makalu La, my camp
2 at 7400m. My tent was intact and all my
equipment safe. We spent Friday night there.
On Saturday morning we pushed higher still
to about 7800m where we set up an
assault camp or camp 3 and bivouacked for
the night. Most people set up four camps
when climbing Makalu, but I felt confident
that we only needed two and a bivouac, climbing
light-weight semi-alpine style.
On Sunday 23 May I dragged myself out of
my tent at about 5.30am after melting snow
for water, tea and coffee on a small gas
stove. It was a little later than I had
intended but everything takes a bit longer
at that altitude. The last part of the climb
was technically very difficult and very
hard work. We were about 50m from the summit
when I looked across to Everest. A horrendous
storm was building up with a massive mushroom
and anvil shaped cloud above it. I had to
make the decision as to whether we should
carry on or turn back. If the storm came
anywhere near Makalu it would blow us off
the mountain. Everest and Lhotse disappeared
inside the massive maelstrom of a storm
cloud.
I decided to take the risk and we pushed
on to the summit. Fortunately the storm
missed Makalu.
We reached the summit around 2pm. This was
my eleventh 8000er and Dawa's first. I never
allow myself the luxury of a celebration
when I reach a summit but it was hard not
to feel relief and elation for finally topping
out on Makalu. The descent is often more
dangerous than the climb as exhaustion sets
in and extra concentration is required.
So often I have heard of climbers who have
not kept enough in reserve and have perished
on the descent. But my oxygen-starved brain
did remember to take some pictures - some
still shots and some digital video footage.
I even changed the film on my camera which
is risky for frostbite as I have to take
my goves off. I photographed myself with
a picture of my daughter Fiona which I always
take
to the summit and a sweet which I had brought
with me from the UK which I had acquired
at SAP when I parked my car there!
We stayed on the summit for about 45 minutes.
On the return to camp 3, I passed close
to the body of the Danish climber Michael
Jorgensen, who died on Makalu about three
weeks before, after slipping and falling
from near the summit. I didn't need a reminder
of the dangers at that point. We were far
from safe ourselves. There was nothing we
could do but leave him where he lay. The
effort required to put one foot in front
of the other at this altitude is draining
enough. There was no way that we could attempt
to move him. It was very sad.
We got back to camp 3 at about 6pm. I was
too exhausted to do much more than crash
out. I melted some snow on my stove to try
to keep up my fluid intake, but it was too
much effort to do much more.
On Monday morning we went down to Makalu
La and dismantled my camp 2. Carrying a
much heavier load we continued on down to
camp 1 where we spent Monday night. The
next morning we packed up everything that
I had left at camp 1 and staggered back
to high base camp by about midday.
Despite being exhausted, I was also exhilarated.
At last I could allow myself the luxury
of celebrating my success. My first phone
call was to my daughter Fiona to tell her
I was safe and to put her mind at rest.
I spent
most of the rest of the day speaking with
the media. I think adrenaline kept me going
and I was still doing interviews at about
9pm, well after dark and in the bitter cold
of the advanced base camp night. Exhaustion
finally caught up with me at about that
time and I turned the sat phone off and
fell asleep. I don't know whether I was
more exhausted from the climb or the interviews!
Apart from being exhausted, I was in reasonable
shape after the climb. I had no frostbite
to my fingers or any other sticking out
bits even though I had changed the film
on my camera on the summit, which meant
I had taken my gloves off. I saw my fingers
starting to go black, but they were OK and
I didn't get frostbitten. I had developed
a bit of a cough (upper respiratory tract
infection); quite a common complaint amongst
climbers in the thin air at this altitude.
My face is fairly sunburnt, especially my
nose which is peeled raw and scabbed. My
lips are slightly swollen and cracked in
the sun. My tongue is also fairly burnt
from UV rays as well as my gums. When I
am high up I have to pant to get enough
oxygen into my lungs and my tongue sees
more of the sun than it usually does! Apart
from that I felt fine!
When I got back to high base camp, I took
off the clothes I had been wearing for a
week. I took off my long johns and a shower
of dry skin scattered around my tent like
talc. I haven't had a shower for about three
weeks and even washing is a bit of a luxury
when all your water has to be melted from
the snow or ice. I have a bit of a beard,
although I had scraped my face a couple
of weeks ago. I shall look forward to my
first decent shower and shave!
I spent the next day at high base camp recovering
and packing up the camp ready for moving
out. I was very hungry by now. At altitude
it is difficult to eat enough because it
is not possible to carry the amount of food
needed to get the right number of calories
each day. I also needed a lot of fluids
to make sure I was fully rehydrated. I drank
lots of tea and tang flavoured water.
On Thursday five porters arrived to help
transport all my equipment down to low base
camp. We made good time and arrived at low
base camp in the middle of the afternoon.
It felt really great to be lower, below
5000m. I had a bigger tent where I could
stretch out and I saw the first bit of colour
in the landscape. Some tiny purple flowers
were pushing their way up through the grey
rocky ground. I had seen only white and
grey for about three weeks.
My Nepalese cooks treated me to a feast
when I arrived at low base camp. They had
steam cooked some brown bread twist rolls
which were delicious and they were accompanied
by grated cabbage salad and chips. I followed
thatwith a tin of pineapple and some real
caffitiere coffee.
The monsoon seems to be closing in and the
temperature has risen. There is swirling
cloud down here and it is raining. I think
I probably summited at almost the last opportunity.
It has been raining alot at low base camp.
I know that the walk out from here will
be grim in the rain, particularly through
the leech-infested rain-forest jungle at
the bottom of the valley.
I shall be leaving tomorrow to start the
trek back down to the road-head at Tumlingtar.
It will be much quicker than the trek up
but it will probably still take four or
five days of hard uncomfortable walking."
Date: Friday 28 May 1999
