Up to C1: Hidden Danger All Around

We departed at 3:30 am. The labyrinth is completely different in the night. Thanks to Jan who is extremely good at orientation and who had been always pointing the path before we snaked through the labyrinth of huge icicles already at 6 am. Finally! And right in front of us a beautifully snow capped ridge leading to the C1 arose.

The labyrinth of ice which we had to snake through in the night (here in the daylight)

The climb up went quite alright. It was a hard work indeed but we also appeased our senses and looked back down to the icicle labyrinth now tapped by the sunlight. The higher we were the less power stayed with us, the number of breathe-ins and -outs between a series of steps was growing as well as was the respiratory rate. We were lined with ice walls on our sides and still a good way up was in front of us. If you check various sources they will tell you that the route up goes through a snow and ice corridor on the right side of the ridge. Well, the reality is somewhat less simple.

Suddenly, Jiri found himself stuck waist high in an ice rift. 20 cm of new snow formed a beautiful virgin-like carpet of white but also hid all indications of cracks! "More to the right" I said in order to highlight the assumed better path. Jiri was so taken by the climb that he hadn't even noticed that me and Jan were not fully catching up with him. It was apparent that Jiri is a grinder. By the noon all three of us were resting at the altitude of 6 400 meters. But clouds started to drift across the sky once again and the freezing wind started to blow. We reconned an icy plate during which Jan twice dipped in cracks up to his knees. Then I tough to myself that our goal was becoming less and less feasible and assessed the situation as quite dangerous. Due to that and my acclimatization status I told the guys that we should perhaps go down to the ABC.

Jiri and Jan hesitated for a long time. The danger coming from hidden cracks was growing and the goal marked as C1 was drifting aloft. The powers were diminishing. In our plans we decided to build the C1 altitude camp at 6 750 meters right above the last vault which would mean another 3 hours of climbing. Summing it up the normal goal was fulfilled since the C1 is normally being built at 6 400 m. Finally, I made a deposit from my stuff at 6 400 m and Jan and Jiri continued up fixing each other on a rope. After two hours I was sitting by a tent in the deposit camp and decided to sleep over there, just in case anything would happen up there and my assistance would be needed.