“Winter Is Coming”
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Today we got up at 6, had a quick breakfast, and packed up camp for our move to Camp 2. It was a windy & snowy day with temps around 20 degrees, though the snow cleared off as we neared the site for Camp 2. The journey up was decently steep, but thankfully we were now above treeline, so the sleds were significantly easier to drag.
Once at a suitable location for Camp 2, Chris had us choose the exact placement of the camp, considering things like ease of grading and protection from the elements. Unfortunately the entire area was exposed to wind, with only a couple of large rocks affording any kind of cover. After some discussion & scouting among the team members, a location was chosen & certified by the guides. Like Camp One, the area was not flat(we’re on a mountain after all), so the grading began once again. We opted for a single column of tents oriented upwind to downwind so that the upwind tents would offer some wind shielding.
Grading this site turned out to be more challenging, and required filling in minor bumps created by our imperfect grading process.
It’s actually beneficial to have the camp as flat as possible, because even a small angle can cause your sleeping bag to slide off to one end of the tent & the last thing you want is your bag touching the freezing & damp tent wall.
After setting up camp & snacking for lunch, we learned how to build a 700 foot tall wall to keep out the Wildlings & White Walkers, but ended up compromising & building a 4 foot tall wall of snow blocks to deflect the wind.
We had a quarry team that dug down past the soft pow to harder snow & sawed out snow blocks(with a saw). A transport team put the blocks onto sleds & dragged them to the Wall site, where I helped to assemble the Wall. It was really fun & educational – we learned that though some people like to mine 60 lbs blocks of ice, no one really likes to haul or use them(Rushi, Ann, Richard, I’m looking at you). The hard work paid off and an hour later we had an awesome wall, reinforced with mortar(refrozen snow).
Turns out we didn’t actually need it as the winds died down & the cloud cover burned off, giving us some spectacular views. We suspect that our wall scared it away. The views from this camp were truly phenomenal, and we even got to see a cloud inversion/storm cloud eye pass below us, since we were above that cloud layer(see the first photo on this page). There was something surreal about the total silence of the place, watching that storm cloud pass without a sound. It’s experiences like these that make climbing mountains so unique, and so worth the effort!
Afterwards we learned about Prussik knots – a two-way friction hitched used in crevasse rescue & self-ascension out of a crevasse. We’ll be using these in a couple of days when we learn those skills. After another long day, we had another amazing dinner while sharing stories & having a great time. This group was really fun to be around & our breakfast & dinners were always lively. We “Created The Moment” many times, and it was kind of like talking over a campfire…without a campfire. Call it Alpine Campfire Stories.
Planetary Muffin Expeditions 