We all watched with bemused
looks upon our faces as, in a session of ‘arts and crafts’ in the mess tent, they
installed complex boot-heating systems with an even more complex layer of duct
tape to super-power their Black Diamond Quadrants boots. We looked on as they
tried to assemble the all-important ski and apres-ski wardrobe suitable for an
8000m peak while balancing minimal weight with warmth and, of course, style. Sadly the black-bear fur balaclava was sacrificed in an attempt to minimize weight and maximise efficiency… We scratched our heads in curiosity as, they seemed to carry their La Sporta GT 177s anywhere and everywhere there was a chance of an increase in altitude directly proportional to an increase in snow-depth...
Finally, this morning, as we lay in our sleeping bags, we listened to them grunting to get up at the crack of the sub-arctic dawn, chip
open their frozen solid water bottles, drag their harnesses over their down suits and cram
their thick wool socks into their boots. All in an attempt to ‘lay down fresh
tracks’ after making the 400m ascent from Camp 2 up to 7200m in the -15 degree
temperatures. Either they are
seriously, seriously bad-ass or no-one told them that Makalu hadn’t been skied
above 7000m before.... and from the merry-band of travelers currently on the
mountain, there wasn’t going to be any stiff competition to clinch the title..!
Regardless, from the comforts of our cozy Marmot sleeping bags we all admired their dedication
and spirit and looked forward to watching them carve big, deep turns into the
snowy slopes of Makalu against a spectacular Himalayan backdrop of Everest,
Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Cholatse…
When we arose from our sleeping bags a few hours later I
poked my head out of the tent and watched their silhouettes against the rocks
making their way up the face. They’d made excellent progress and I was looking
forward to witnessing a seriously amazing descent. I knew the line that Adrian
had in mind – it was to the climbers left of our route in a wide, steep bowl of
what looked like quite well consolidated but ‘light’ snow.
At 12-noon I found myself perched on one of the rocks in the
rock-band heading up to our 7000m
touch-point – jumar in hand, gasping for breath, boiling under the blazing sun…
and heard Adrian’s call… “Coming down, climbers left”. And waited. And waited.
And waited. And then suddenly I saw them – Adrian first in his ‘Ronald McDonald’ red and yellow Marmot down suit and Sergey looking appropriately Russian in his red Mountain-Hardwear
one-piece.
For me, there are few things as mesmerising as watching an
accomplished skier on steep terrain, making huge, effortless, big S-turns in
fresh, untracked snow. From our vantage point in the rock band as we climbed to
7000m, looking down at the skiers it was like high-altitude ballet in deep
powder. In spite of the fact that they made it look effortless it was clear
from the breathless, “AWESOME” echoed over the radios that the descent had been
seriously hard work.
It’s pretty clear why, as documented in a recent BBC news
article, “What Adventures Are Actually Left” why mountains such as Makalu
remain unskiied.
With the summits of
the world's 14 mountains over 8,000m long since reached, climbers have now
taken to skiing down them.
Most of the 14 major
mountains, including Everest (Davo Karnicar) in 2000, have been completed,
extreme skiing site wildsnow.com suggests. But K2, Makalu and Kangchenjunga, in
the Himalayas, remain un-skied or un-skiable from the summit.
That night, when we all safely descended back to our Camp 2 tents
we all agreed that it had been an absolutely incredible and tremendously unique Himalayan
day. Between the climbing and the skiing I couldn’t imagine anywhere I would
rather have been.
Nice to see the boys already plotting their 7200+m line ;-)
Watch this space... more to follow..!
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