The Last Days of The Adventure
Day 5 Over Glaciers and Morains
We woke up in the bright sunshine and we were still overwhelmed by the mighty peak of Hanuman Tibba!
During breakfast I sat right infront of it and still couldn’t believe that we would be on top the day after tomorrow.
Again the things were packed together and this time the eating ration was measured exactly for two days, the rest we left in the camp.
I was glad that today it would be a trekking day without climbing! Yesterday’s day had put me into a physical and psychological effort and I was looking forward to the normal “hiking”. Today it should go down the gentle Raigard glacier and later around the Hanuman Tibba and a little uphill to the summit camp. Actually quite easy, I thought. But how much I was wrong! Shortly after the start I noticed that it was going over a moraine full of small and larger boulders. On those we had to balance, jump back and forth and that all with our heavy luggage and in the stiff climbing shoes! An immense challenge for me, I had a very poor balance anyway! I got more and more behind and the bigger the rocks got, the bigger my problems were. Soon I had to move on my hands and feet and moved very slowly. The others had to wait for me all the time and I just didn’t know how to be faster!
Completely focused on myself, I didn’t notice what was actually going on in our customer’s head. After two hours of marching, he called after our guide. I was already feeling bad, because I thought I was too slow and it was about me. But no, our customer didn’t want any more! He was homesick, sleeping in the tent was too uncomfortable for him, he wanted to repent! What? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! We had perfect conditions for the summit climb the next day: all were healthy, no altitude sickness, great weather. But no, the customer is king, of course, so we turned around.
The march back to the camp was one of the hardest I ever did. I just couldn’t believe it, we were so close to the summit. Added to this, of course, were my still-ongoing problems with the moraine. Exhausted and stunned, we reached our camp. During the hike back, however, I had to admit that I had a great experience until now, without ever having had a mountaineering experience before. In addition, this moraine caused me more difficulties than it should. Admittedly, it was a sufficient experience for me. And yet, the summit was so close!
Day 6 Return
Since our customer only wanted a bed, a shower and good food, we made a violent march on the sixth day: We made it all the way back to Manali, just in time before the darkness!
For me it was again a very instructive and exhausting day: This time we took off from the Tentu Pass to Camp 1. Again I was impressed of the technical skills of my companions. At the same time I was tensed and I noticed how exhausted I was from all the concentrating when I went down on foot. From Camp 1 we walked all the way down the whole way for about five hours until a vehicle picked us up at the road.
What a day! Today we should have climbed the summit and now we had arrived in Manli instead.
Nevertheless, everyone was in a reasonably good mood and we ended the eventful days, especially for me, with a small dinner party!
