More Snow And Less Altitude

Another 40 cm of snow by the morning, but the morning itself was nice and sunny. We said farewell to our French colleagues and set for the climb down planning to make it right to the ABC. On the way from C2 to C1 I think we hadn't experienced less snow than up to our knees. And on our backs each of us carried the full load of equipment from both C3 and C2 which already meant quite some weight, which was to be added to by equipment from C1. After 4 hrs of struggling through, I feel ashamed to keep repeating the same weather conditions on and on, a snow storm we closed onto the C1. After crossing three new crevasses we were packing up our last altitude camp for another hour in a strong wind. With an ironical smile we teased each other: "Show me boy, can you at least pick up your backpack?" Jan managed as the first one. At 5 pm both of us made it through the ice labyrinth and reached the tent in the deposit camp. Jan dropped some weight from his load and continued to the ABC while I stayed overnight.