|
2006
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Turgeon/Ménard—Latok
I,
Choktoi Glacier, Pakistan
 On
August 12th, we were setting camp on the Choktoi glacier,
right beside Willie and Damian Benegas, there for their
third attempt on the oft-tryed north ridge of Latok I.
Since we'd left home, everything had gone perfect, except
for the fact that British Airways had lost one of our bags
in the transfer in London. The bag countained all of LP’s
essentials: climbing boots, gloves and down jacket. With
good fortune, we managed to find some 80’s replacment
gear in the Skardu Bazar and started the trek.
In
order to warm up and acclimatize, on our second day in
the valley we went for a route on HAR pinnacle (5600 m)
just across from Latok I. The peak had been climbed just
once before by the south ridge. After a bivy at the base,
we went for a crack system that split the west face in
half at its
center. We found some really nice climbing with pitches up
to 5.10 on really nice granite, some splitter hand and finger
cracks, with a stellar view of Latok and the Biacherahi towers.
After less than 12 hours, we were back at our ABC at the
base of the face. We called our route “Corn beef chili
pasta à la Wahab," 600 m, 5.10, in memory of
the good meal that our cook made us as we got back to camp.
 Then,
it was three days of bad weather that forced
us to stay put in base camp and start reading our books.
When it got nice again, our new Argentinian friends (the
Benegas brothers) came back from their attempt on the north
ridge and we left for a mixed route on a nameless peak
(P.5500, a part of the east ridge of Latok III). At the
end of the day, we were a few pitches below the summit
ridge but then it got really epic. It started with a huge
disc block that passed a foot by my side on a traverse
pitch. The thing was spinnig verticaly like a saw blade
and could have cut us in two like nothing. Three pitches
later, we were in a steep groove, then the slope below
the col avalanched and litteraly passed over LP’s
head. It flushed twice again by the time we both got to
the belay. That’s the advantage of steep
terrain, even if it pulls a bit in the arms… The next
pitch was by far the worst thing we ever climbed in the mountains.
A one-meter roof of loose blocks with a waterfall at the
lip. When we finaly got over it we were all wet, but we were
at the col and started to downclimb right away on the east
side and got back to camp at 10 p.m. after zigzaging in a
nightmare of ice fall. We had missed the first ascent of
that peak by 150 meters but we got off it alive. We still
gave our route a name for ourselves, just for the “good” memory
of it and LP’s new footwear: “G-Strings and Plastic
Boots,” M7, 900 m.
The
following days, another system forced us to get through
a couple more chapters. As soon as it got a bit better,
we couldn't wait anymore to attempt our main goal (the
north face of Latok I). On August 19th, at 4 a.m., we left
for the face. As we put our first pick above the shrund,
we realized that ice balls were falling down the face across
its entire width. Each time we were looking up, a chunk
of ice was hitting us right in the face. By the time we
did about four desperates pitches (on steep unconsolidated
slush), serac falls swept twice the base of the face. When
we finally got a good belay, we were done. We were all
wet and had bloodied faces. We rapped and ran down the
approach slope, tail between legs, before the menacing
seracs at the base collapsed again.
It
was obvious that it was way too warm to climb on the face.
With not even two weeks left to our trip, it was hard to
believe that it would get cold enough before heading out.
Our only chance to climb Latok I was being the 20th team
to try to complete these last 300 meters of the north ridge
to the summit. At the first break in the clouds we left camp
with the goal to climb the first 700 m rock section of the
ridge to bring food, fuel and bivy gear up to 5300 m, come
back down and climb back again with the remaining gear at
the first weather opportunity. Wanting to climb alpine-style,
without fixed ropes or jumars, we had no choice but to go
with this strategy as we wouldn't have been able to climb
5.10 at 5000 m with both our packs already beeing almost
20kg (without boots, crampons and tools).
On
August 26th, with great weather and shinning sun, the 700
meter initial rock section of the ridge went smoothly.
Rapidly we gained altitude and by the end of the day we
gained the first shoulder (5300 m) and decided to sleep
there to improve our acclimatization.
 Back at base camp we waited out constant snow fall for two and a half days
and it's finally from Argentina (!)—thanks to the Benegas—that good weather
news for northern Pakistan (!!) comes. We left under clear skies, but it was
epic climbing that waited for us as there was still much snow on the rock.
We climbed snow with bare hands and rock shoes for the better part of the day,
but it took its toll when, exiting the steeper but dry crux pitch, we mantled
over more than one meter of snow. Worst, it started snowing again and it was
now dark (missing Alaska's 23 hours of daylight!) We put our boots and crampons
and went on full "mixed-style." We were then very slow and even 100 m short
of the shoulder, we decided to bivy, without any sleeping bag, stove, water
or food (it was all up there...) At dawn we continued and finally gained our
high point and bag (deeply burried) in constantly falling snow. We made a ledge,
put the tent up, brewed, ate and went to sleep.
We
stayed put for 36 hours, constantly plowing out snow from
our small, wetted shelter. All expectations to go higher
were rapidly buried under two meters of fresh snow and
descent was in order as avalanches were already coming
down everywhere. Seven hours later we gained the glacier
and swam the remaining five kilometers to base camp.
After
two more days of storm, it got a bit nicer. The porters
where already on their way and were supposed to arrive in
base camp in a day or two. In order to change a bit our
state of mind and to reactivate sleepy muscles, we went
for an easy ridge just behind base camp. It was not harder
than 5.8 and maybe 250 m long. We walked down the couloir
on it's right and got back to camp about three hours after
we left. It was not a big route but it was just what we
needed to get our good spirit back. We called it Sus
Galinas,
in memory of the Benegas brothers’ chickens that almost
got back to Askole after a month stay in base camp. But the
poor chickens succumbed to our hungry stomachs.
We
would like to give a special thanks to Mountain Equipment
Co-op and the Mugs Stump Award, for their support of our
first Himalayan experience. Won't be the last for sure.
Back
to Award Winners
|
