To Camp 1 and beyond

We are moving ahead of schedule and everyone is feeling great, but a little tired tonight. Since the last installment from Matt we were able to do our Puja Cermony on Sunday Morning. Chhiring contacted the Lhama and he said Sunday was the most auspicious day. During our puja we had two strong signs that we will have a good climb. First we had two ravens land on our altar during the ceremony, and then we had changing weather. Sun, rain, snow, and wind all blessed during the ceremony. Our Kitchen help Carsung is a trained Lhama and he and Chhirning conducted the ceremony. ABC is all set up except for the shower tent, but that will be rectified tomorrow.

Today, instead of just going up to Depot Camp at 5850m we went all the way up to Camp 1 at 6250m. We left this morning at about 7:41 am and got back about 3:30 pm. Everyone did really well moving over the glacier moraine and up the scree slopes to get to Camp 1. I will try and send a few pictures to give you a better idea, but let me try and describe the climb. We leave from ABC and head up a rocky moraine (debris field left by a glacier receding) It has ice and rock stacked up in all sorts of strange configurations, like a two year old trying to build something. So we head out of camp and immediately start descending to the bottom of valley, climbing to the top of a valley, going down the next valley, etc... All the while stepping on rock and ice and slippery mud. It makes for a fun journey. Then we get to the valley that leads up to Camp 1 and start heading up about 800m of scree to top out on the ridge that is Camp 1.

We were foruntate that today was just a trial run without much weight in our packs. But Chhiring did hire two Tibetans who carried about 40 kg of gear up to C1. You do not hit the snow line until about 75m below camp 1 so we are able to wear our approach shoes to that point and that makes a huge difference.

Chris Klinke
ABC Cho Oyu