Chris and Marty left early Sunday morning for their second trip beyond ABC. The following day they traveled by glacier to their mid-camp located at 6200m. Today, the team left camp in freezing temperatures to face a great white wall of snow and ice known as the col on their way to the southeast ridge, a path very few have journeyed up. They arrived at the ridge just before noon and established Camp 1.
It's been a puzzle: intellectual in nature but eventually solved
by brute force. Finding a route up the South Side of Makalu is proving
to be a
great alpine adventure. There is little information and even the
"experts" are
uncertain as to how to get to the bottom of the face.
Stopping by their base camp, we met with the British team.
This is their third expedition on the SE Ridge of Makalu. They said it
has been
attempted 19 times by teams from the US,
UK, Korea, Japan and various international
groups. Of all those attempts, the SE Ridge has never been climbed from
top to
bottom (and only rarely via all sorts of variations). The Brits keep
returning,
hoping to complete this challenge in its purest form.
We have a system set up now at BC to get some dispatches out. We all know that it is important to be in touch and let all know what we are up to on this beautiful mountain of Makalu, The Black One.
With my broken dispatch I wanted to get across the beauty of this Makalu/Barun National Park. Shipton made it through to the Barun River valley in 1952, then came the Americans in 1954 with the French making the first ascent in 1955 of the North Face. Trekkers and climbers have been enjoying this area ever since. Our trek in brought us through the dry, dusty, red earth land of Num, then turning into the moist, lush tropical land of Seduwa and on into the flowering Rhododendrons before and after the roughed Shipton La.
Nine days after leaving Kathmandu,
we established base camp. We found a perfect little sandy bench on which to
spread our 5 sleeping tents and the larger kitchen, dining and storage tents.
This little bit of paradise, facing south and capturing the sun's warmth from 8
a.m. to 5:30 p.m., is just 50 feet above the Barun
River, and 11,000 feet below Makalu's summit.
All team mates showed up
a few days ago, been busy organizing the final things and preparing for
our departure in the morning for our 8 day trek into BC. We are
looking forward for this journey to begin, getting into the Himalayas
to sooth our souls and brighten our imaginations.
Here again and this time heading for Makalu, 5th highest mountain in the world bordering Nepal and China, Tibet with Chris Warner from the USA. This will be a climb that brings us together in a non-professional way, both being guides and yet not guiding. It is a private climb, going after a new line on the SW face, just us two with no Sherpas or O2, a real mountaineering experience. We are wanting to capture on film what it means for 2 people to come together and climb an 8,000 meter mountain, not having individual goals ahead of our team goal, which is to be ultimately safe, great communication, positive partnership, summit would be nice and to have fun. Something that the Himalayas are lacking.
In a few hours I am departing
for Nepal. My partner, Marty Schmidt, is already there. He's handling the cargo
and last minute details. Once we are together, we will be traveling to Makalu,
the world's fifth tallest mountain. Our objective is to pioneer a route up the
un-climbed South Face. If successful, this will be only the 10th
time an American team has climbed a new route on an 8000 meter peak.
