Day 27 - ABC Day 2

We go for a trek up to Crampon Corner (about 150 vertical metres above us) which is where the moraine ends and you start walking along the glacier to the end of the valley at the steep headwall onto the North Col which is where we join the North Ridge that leads to the summit. It feels so much better to be walking without the 25kgs on my back and now being acclimatised to the altitude. The headwall looks very doable and I am raring to go - could be a tricky couple of days waiting until we set off. The walk back down to camp is great and it feels very reassuring to be moving at a good speed over tricky ground.

The North Col and glacier leading up to it

View back down to ABC

Closer view of ABC

The afternoon turns into a cards marathon although concerns arise as the evening wears on and there is no sign of the yaks as this will mean yet another day's delay. We discuss this with the Sherpas who are here but they are very reluctant to even approach discussing a decision when the Surdah (head Sherpa) is not around - he is with the rest of the equipment.

Then out of the blue at shortly before sunset the Surdah turns up but our excitement is short lived as it turns out that the yaks have only made it to intermediate camp and won't get here until midday tomorrow. That means that we will have the pujah tomorrow and head up to the North Col the day after.  

Whilst we have gotten used to the altitude, the cold is a bit of a challenge here as it gets down to about -20 in the late evening and even lower at night. We do have gear to deal with that (down clothing and sleeping bags) but it is actually quite mentally draining to be in a cold atmosphere the whole time, especially on rest days, as opposed to say skiing to the poles when you are active every day. This should be much less of a problem on later rotations as the temperature warms.