The peak day

At 2 am I stand with my carrier in front of the tent and we go up. The German tents are a bit higher and as we pass them we see them ready. Their leader follows as the first. As we thought the snowshoes prints were of little help for us and more to that, the wind that blew during the night covered those anyway. For the first 200 vertical meters me and my carrier were bulldozing the path, which thought was more than enough. Then we waited for the others and the German leader replaced us. In some 20 meters much more difficult slope elevation came. We were collapsing through the snow up to our crotches. After a while the German leader waived on my carrier to get in front of him and do the bulldozing. At that point I got quite angry. I pushed both of them aside and started the labor on my own. I continued up to an icy point and by that time the German leader got the message. A guy from their expedition asked me if I wanted to be replaced. I went back becoming now seventh in the row. Then a perfect exchange started as it was supposed to be from the very morning.

At 5:30 the sun lit the peak and I had to take out my Olympus E400 and keep taking more and more pictures. Perhaps that was the reason, or it wasn’t, but when I was finished I started to feel my feet as being pretty cold. I don’t know what happened. Already in the dark and cold morning I was appeased feeling the warmth in my boots. Well, know I had to take them off and massage my feet. It took my about 30 min but the group continued in a slow pace so it wasn’t a big problem to catch up with them then. I felt having lot of energy and being fine. But after an hour the whole situation was back and I had to massage my feet again. At that point I considered it to getting serious. So when I stood next to the Russian tent at 7500 m after another hour of walking I asked one of them to help me with warming up my feet. By coincidence it was the expedition leader. He lit up a cooker right in the tent and meanwhile he explained to me that they didn’t want that badly to be the first ones as it might looked. But there were lot of them and the weather was to change soon hence the rush. He also wasn’t surprised regarding my feet. They also set off at 2 am but they were back after some 10 minutes only due to the extreme cold. They had to warm up and set off again at 6 am but without him, as he still felt cold. Not even above the cooker could I warm up my feet. At one point I smelled a burning sock but no decisive warmth was to be felt. My toes seemed to be from stone. I continued with the procedure for a while and hoped that when I reach the sun at about 9 am everything will change and I will start feeling warmth.

I thanked him and rushed up. I caught up with the group in half an hour when they rested under an ice cliff. I saw two other people massaging their feet at 7550 m. Above the ice edge I saw the sun and couldn’t wait to let it warm us up. The group got split up. There was no need for changing the leader position since the path was already walked through by the three Russians. My feet started to feel like stones again or better, I didn’t feel my toes again. So for the fourth time I took off my shoes and started another massage at the altitude of 7550 m. As everybody advanced quite slowly I continued the warming procedure for about 30 min. I noticed no signs of total chilblains but on the other hand I didn’t feel my feet at all.

Never mind, when I reach the saddle at 7845m I will warm them up on the sun and feel them again. That was my goal. In front of me a German lawyer was climbing up who was besides a bad articulation also slowing me down. But you really cannot make it pass somebody at this altitude. Thus I reached the saddle right behind him. Another four people from the group reached the saddle afterwards and all of us shared the same view. We saw the three sad Russians who had been already for some hours watching the last 200m ridge of Broad Peak, too exhausted to start climbing it. Well, this final crest was a tough nut to crack - very dangerous final part full of rock berms and covered with 50 - 100cm of fresh snow. The Russians also explained that lot of ropes were necessary, more than anybody expected to. Each group had few meters of fixing ropes but still the Russians didn't want to go for it. I added that it was 1 pm and regardless the number of mountaineers cooperating it would take 4 - 5 hours to reach the peak under such conditions. The Russians turned away, said good-bye and went away.

The Germans also decided to go back down and I started taking photos from the saddle. It took about half an hour already when I realized that I wasn't sure if I stopped feeling the toes completely or they still chill. I was walking with my camera at 7845m here and there like I was on my porch. Little bit of breathe exercise now and then, everything else was just fine. Suddenly, I saw the Germans with backpacks again coming back. They said they will go for the peak. Obviously, they didn't realize that they will have to reach the C3 at night already, not mentioning a possible change of weather and definitely the chill of dark Himalayan night. And yes, climbing up with almost no backup.

I kept watching their leader who was a bit reluctant but one of the other mountaineers, a relatively young guy, started explaining him that they were a commercial expedition. He asked him to go up being aware of the risks. The leader gave up and thus all of them started the battle with their fate. Me and my altitude carrier began climbing down. The way down wasn't easy at all. The Broad Peak's slope made the snow slipping away under our feet. Most of the time there was the danger of us slipping and falling down with it.

It took me 4 hours of real labor to reach the C3 and one more hour for the carrier. When I started to take off the boots I knew it was bad. Both of the toes were partially chilblained and I was quite afraid that they would get swollen until morning. Then I couldn't put my boots back on and climb down. As the fingers kept slowly defrosting in the sleeping back my carrier kept watching me. The pain was so big that few tears slipped out of my eyes, probably something he hadn't seen before. The pain diminished in about two hours. I don't know how but I fell asleep.