Storm on the Lhotse Face

I sat straight up in my sleeping bag as the strongest gust yet pummeled our tent. Kami sat up next to me. He literally kicked the side of the tent trying to dislodge the two foot snow wall that was consolidating against the thin nylon tent walls. However, the snow was now as hard as concrete and was growing higher with each gust.

 

The ambient night time light was becoming dimmer as the snow wall was growing higher; 24, there 000 feet on the Lhotse Face in one of the most severe wind storms I have ever experienced. This was not a simple wind event; it was dangerous, click it was frightening, it was real.

Climbing to this high Camp, aka Camp 3, on the Lhotse Face is considered your ticket to a summit bid by most expeditions. It is designed to drive your body so hard that it must react to the altitude and prepare you for the harsh realities of the death zone. Normally, Sherpas refuse to spend the night at Camp 3 preferring to go from the relative safety and comfort of Camp 2 to the South Col and back in one push. But for mere mortals, us Westerners, we need that night to fully internalize the task ahead; both physically and mentally.

Most of my IMG team had advanced their acclimatization schedule ahead of me due to my upper repository infection. Since resolved, I was feeling great and had been executing a cautious schedule designed to meet the acclimatization needs without pushing too hard or too fast. Everest is a case study for patience and I was not going to let external or, more likely, self-imposed pressures cause me to make poor decisions at this point.

With fellow teammates, Mirjam and Jay, we were a subset of the larger team that were now climbing together. It was actually nice to be away for a moment from the frenzy that comes with larger teams. We spent the night at Camp 1 along with our Personal Sherpas and made our way to Camp 2 enjoying the relative mild temps of early dawn in the Western Cwm. As is my goal this year, I paused to simply let the environment enter my senses, taking it all in, letting the moment create a lifelong memory.

Camp 2 continued to be an oasis in an otherwise harsh environment. The food was served in a dedicated dining tent, endless supply of hot water for hydration and to keep toes warm in our water bottles once the sun set. Other expeditions were nearby with their large dome tents, army style expedition ones and too many tiny yellow and orange sleeping tents to count. Sherpas came and went from Everest Base Camp ferrying fresh vegetables, eggs, oxygen bottles, and other supplies all designed to support us as we put the time in at this altitude.

However, the priority was the climb on the Lhotse Face and spend a night at Camp 3. From Camp 2, the Face is omnipresent. In the pre-dawn hours headlamps from the Sherpas look like a metropolitan causeway snaking ever higher. The tents serving as Camp 3 were at three levels. The IMG tents occupied the highest level at 24,000 feet. This was good news for the summit push because it shortened the climb to the South Col but for this sortie, it added another hour or more and pushed our limits for combing without supplemental oxygen.

The Khumbu Icefall receives a lot of publicity, mostly negative, for danger and difficulty however, the Lhotse Face is well deserving on its own merits. It is 2000′ from Camp 2 to Camp 3 on rock hard ice that is unforgiving. This year, 2011, there are so few climbers, only 125 permits issued compared to well over 300 normally, that the steps that come with traffic were never created. This meant we extended extra energy on every step to maintain a solid connection with the sometimes smooth ice. A grueling physical day that met every design for a high altitude test.

We left Camp 2 at 3:40 AM for our time at Camp 3. The first section is a simple walk to the bergshrund at the base of the Lhotse Face. It took about an hour and half in the dark. As the pre-dawn sunlight barely lit the Face, we clipped onto the fixed line with our safety line plus our jumar. For the first time, I felt like I was actually climbing. Simply put, it starts steep and never stops. There are two fixed lines- up and down – both high quality 10mm lines with interspersed colors; a significant improvement over the cheap nylon ropes of years gone by.

Progress was steady. With Kami leading, I followed careful with my foot placement and extra careful to always be attached to the fixed line. After two more hours we reached the lowest of the Camps. Climbers poked out their heads to see who was climbing past like prairie dogs looking for eagles. I said hello to a friend, Nelson, who was climbing with Peak Freaks. They were just ‘tagging’ the lowest of the high Camp before reing to Camp 2 awaiting a summit window. There are many ways to climb Everest and theirs was yet another technique.

The pace was steady but with each gain in altitude, I could feel my lungs press against my chest; I needed an extra breath between steps and sometimes came to a complete halt to regroup before pushing higher. Grueling, difficult; a test. Another two hours plus a climb of a 300 foot blue ice wall, I finally saw our tents. Nestled in a small ice gully, our tents were part of a tiny enclave along with two other teams. Our tents had extra ropes across the top to ensure they would not blow away. A prescient measure.

Kami and the other Sherpas made us hot black tea as we settled into midday then afternoon. It had taken a respectable six and three quarters hours to reach C3. I dozed in and out throughout the afternoon occasionally becoming one of those prairie dogs taking in the view of the Western Cwm, and Cho Oyu off to the East. Another memory seared into my brain. One I hope to recount as I grow old. I had my simple dinner and fell back asleep at 5:00PM.

 

The sound was unique. I felt like someone had put me in a car moving at 60 mile per hour; with the windows down and my head out the window. The tent shook. The open flaps hit the tent wall with the force of passing train. Tiny unique sounds added to the symphony as snow pellets hit the tent. The full on orchestra came together in total unison before stopping with the suddenness of an off switch. The storm had arrived.

Knowing that high winds are a part of altitude mountaineering, I fell back asleep – for 10 minutes. The volume turned back on; now at the highest level, the wind battered us over and over and over. I rolled over in my sleeping back wondering if this was a passing event of the beginning of an un-forecasted storm. As darkness took over our 24,000′ Camp, the wind seemed to increase. The scheduled became, lay down, sit up, kick the tent walls, repeat.

With wind chills at least -50F, surrounded by crevasses on a steep angle at 24,000 feet; the standard practice of shoveling the snow off the tent walls from outside was foolhardy at . So Kami and I routinely pushed the walls from inside and slept with our eyes open. I opened the vestibule door only to get covered in blowing snow. A small dusting immediately covered our sleeping bags inside the tent.

A short dream told me sleep came but with the suddenness of muscle cramp, I tried to sit up only to hit my head against the tent wall. The snow had accumulated on the walls to create a new hard roof that almost bruised my head as I sat up quickly. I stretched my foot out only to discover the tent width had been reduced by another two feet with more accumulating snow on the outside walls. Despite our efforts we were losing the battle with the accumulating snow.

I listed carefully for Jay and Mirjam in the tent only a few feet away. A muffled conversation interspersed with an occasional cough told me they were OK. A similar sound came from the other tent with Minga and Tashi, their Sherpas. Kami and I could only hear one another by talking directly into one anothers ear. The night continued, it was now 11:47PM. 5 hours to the start of daylight, and another few to our scheduled down climb to Camp 2. Sleep was measured in minutes.

A short radio conversation with the IMG Base Camp confirmed the wind event had hit Camp 2. It crossed my mind as to how long we might spend at our high camp. Food, fuel, the condition of the fixed line, windchill; a million things to consider as another gust pummeled the tent. As my climbing friend Jim said, the mountain was tempering me, not testing. The biceps of the ironsmith were the size of his thighs as he used the huge iron mallet to hit the tent repeatedly. When would this practitioner tire?

Dawn shown on the tent revealing the snow has risen over half way to the top, the walls were laden with hardened snow. Kami checked with Base Camp as they checked with our US based weather forecaster. Return as soon as possible was the salient advice. We booted up as the ironsmith continued his work. Each pause in his work only served to raise our expectation then to have them smashed as the next gust felt even stronger. Kami went outside to shovel the snow away for the walls and door as the winds calmed for a moment with the breaking dawn.

8:00AM came as we left the safety of the thin nylon walls. Once glance around this Camp revealed the carnage to the tents. Feet of snow on top of tents, fabric ripped to shreds; thankfully the unoccupied tents were the causalities and not climbers. The gust picked back up as we clipped into one of the fixed line not buried by the blowing snow. Our down climb began. It was swift. We fought the steady wind, warm with layers of benevolent goose down.

We passed he lower camps witnessing equal destruction as they were less protected than our high camp. Only a few heads poked out as we passed. The gusts often knocked us off our line but were manageable as we picked up the pace. We exited the Lhotse Face one hour after leaving Camp 3. Another hour found us in Camp 2.

Over breakfast we reflected on the experience. IMG Base Camp asked us to confirm no frost bite – twice – and there was none. As I looked back up the Face, I could easily trace our steps, see our Camp. I could still hear the wind. Tempered and tested; we had passed.

Back in Base Camp now, the Everest 2011 season has taken on the last and critical phase – summit time. The strange weather continues to provide challenges and opportunities with now a very early summit window. The majority of the IMG climbers are now at Camps 2 and 3 on their way to the summit. This is the same for Himex, Summit Climb, Altitude Junkies, the Indian Air Force team and many others. They May summit around May 13.

The weather forecasters are calling for the winds to return and then let up for a second window around May 21st. That is the window I and my few teammates are counting on. As always with weather, things could change so we stand ready to leave for our summit push on a moments notice. So now we rest in Base Camp enjoying the relatively high oxygen, good food and endless hydration. We are resting, reviewing gear and looking at each new weather forecast. There are 6 of us for this last window.

I feel good. So different from my previous climbs. I will write more about our summit schedule as we get closer but my health is excellent, my attitude is confident and my support system solid. On the Lhotse Face, I often thought that each step higher brought in another penny per foot from supporters who had made that pledge. Every step took me closer to Camp 3, every penny brings researchers closer to a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything