Day 3 From Base Camp to Camp 1
Now the expedition would actually start. Completely on our own, we left the Base camp and made our way up to the first camp heavily loaded. Of course, we were aware that we were far from carrying the entire load, because we had already carried up our complete food and equipment yesterday. The way was already known to us and we managed the whole route within three hours. This left us plenty of time to rest in the camp.
Comfortably I rested in the tent reading a book. Dinner was already 7 pm. Tomorrow’s day would start early.
Day 4 Over The Tentu Pass to Camp 2
What a day!
On the one hand, the luggage had to be redistributed. Since I only had a small backpack, actually completely unsuitable for these purpose, I decided to simply attach the tent to my bag.
On that day I was carrying almost 20 kg and I felt that extra load. Slowly, I struggled step by step upwards.
Today was a great day! We started with the “real” climbing and laced up our crampons and put on the helmets. On 70 to 80° steep snow slopes we pulled up on the ropes attached by our mountain guides. “We” means our customer and I.
The other three simply walked safely up the steep snow and later scree slopes. I didn’t have so much confidence in my crampons and pulled myself literally up. I’m sure mountaineers with better climbing technique would not do so. But I was happy about the rope support and although my arms were hurt by by the weight, I was happy about it!
Further up, just below the 5000 meter high pass, there was only loose debris, here it was particularly difficult to find a fixed stand. All the happier I was to have it made up to the pass- after 8 hours. On the other side, a gentle, snow-covered glacier landscape spread before my eyes! To my right, the summit of Hanuman Tibba stood out in all its glory, still a thousand meters further up! Here I felt the power of this mountain in all its form. I could not imagine how to climb this steep rock and ice walls!
Now it was just important to reach the next camp and free myself from the heavy load. The camp was beautifully located on a lake overlooking the summit and just below the Tentu Pass.
We were like children at Christmas, when we found rice, potatoes, onions, kerosene and even pickled vegetables left behind at the camp by other trekking teams. It was processed into a real feast.
