As I poked my head out in the morning of 16th January, I could hear Tim and Jim poking fun at the twenty four hour forecast for precipitation, which we had been gratuitously given the …
Continue reading13. Moving up to “Nidos”…
14. Calm Before the Storm
By morning on 17th January the wind had quietened down, and by the time the sun had been shining on the tent for a while it was warm enough to think about loosening the draw …
Continue reading15. To the Edge of the Death Zone
The wind hadn’t calmed by morning, so I just lay there until the sun had warmed the tent a little, before opening the door to peer at the weather. The wind was considerably less than …
Continue reading16. Difficult Decisions
I slept badly on the night of 18th January. Again the wind was howling in an infuriatingly sporadic manner. Sometimes it would calm down and I would drift off, then I’d wake up suddenly as …
Continue reading17. The Last Three…
As I headed over to the north side of the ridge and began the ascent of the zigzags, I noticed how many tents had disappeared from Nidos. The empty spaces everywhere suddenly brought it home …
Continue reading18. The Freezing Wait…
The combination of a late evening meal and an unpleasant night meant that I didn’t feel like getting up to have breakfast, or even heat up water for coffee. The easiest thing was just to …
Continue reading19. The North West Ridge
My toes felt somewhat numb as I started up the first steep section towards Piedras Blancas. I knew that the rule was that if after an hour one’s toes are still uncomfortably cold, then give …
Continue reading20. Up the Canaleta
I carried on to a photogenic little pinnacle, behind which the path passed. I had a long rest just before the pinnacle, to try to get some more chocolate inside me before the long haul …
Continue reading21. The Descent to Berlin Camp
Lying on our backs remained the only acceptable activity for quite some time. Eventually I sat up and drank the rest of the liquid water in my bottle – about a quarter of the bottle …
Continue reading22. Rescue… and Descent to Base Camp
Once outside, I found that luckily there was still very little wind, but that the air temperature had evidently continued its nose-dive while I had been inside the hut. I put on anything that wasn’t …
Continue reading23. A Moment of Fame…
All my various warm layers had been removed, and I was down to just a T-shirt, which felt very strange. I was soon overheating though, and half an hour out of base camp I remembered …
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