Saturday April 12. Ice Fall.
Today was our first day in the famous ice fall. We had breakfast at 8am and headed out at 9am. We had to think carefully about what to wear and what to take. We had to bring all our technical climbing gear and be prepared for various weather. It started out cloudy which was great as the UV exposure can be great in the ice fall. I wore light pants climbing pants with no long underwear underneath, a light coloured base layer top, a windstopper vest, a buff around my neck, a sun hat, and my sunglasses. I also applied lots of sun protection.
The walk to the start of the trail is about five minutes from our camp site. By the time we got there I was already over heated and took off my vest, applied more sunscreen, pulled my buff up to protect my face and drank a bunch of water. I already had my harness on so I put on my crampons and took my ice axe off my pack.
The start of the ice fall trail winds up and down, back and forth until you reach the rope up section after about 15 minutes.
At this point we clip onto the fixed line for protection from potential crevasse fall. In steep sections and when crossing the longer ladders we also attach a jumar (a camming device that will slide one way on the rope but will lock in place in the event of a fall).
For the most part the ice fall is a series of short steep sections followed by flatter sections and slight inclines, up and down.
We had done some ladder practice yesterday so when we got to the first ladder it was not too bad. The first couple ladders were only one section of 12 foot ladder over relatively shallow crevasses. After about 90 minutes we came to our first double ladder over a crevasse so deep I could not see the bottom.
When you cross a ladder you clip your carabiner to a rope on one side and your jumar to a rope on the other side. You pull back on the ropes to give you support and take the first tentative step. I found a big mental difference between the single and double ladders.
There are two ways to walk across the ladders. The first is to have your front points on one ladder rung and your back points on the rung behind. Sometimes I will walk one rung at at time and sometimes I will walk on alternate rungs. Depending upon my level of intensity. The other way to walk across the ladder is to is to step with your crampon straddling the rung. This way is less stable, but much faster.
We continued up the ice fall for about 2 1/2 hours with 7-8 ladder crossings. We toped out around 5600m which is a 300m altitude gain from base camp. This is just below a section called `popcorn` because of the jumble of seracs that resemble popcorn.
I alternated between having a nice walk and gasping for breath. I found that at the top of a steep section I was breathing really hard from the exertion and at the end of a ladder I was also breathing quite hard. I did not find the ladders too scary, but I did find that I was holding my breath as I crossed.
For the most part I was sweltering hot and this sapped a lot of energy from me. The next time we go up it will be to go to camp 1 and we will start earlier to beat the heat.
I have never been in the ice fall before, but I am told there are less ladders this year and the route is safer. That sounds good to me.
The ice fall doctors have the route established almost all the way to camp 1. They took yesterday and today off as they were told they could not press the route further until the army gets to base camp. Apparently tomorrow there will be a team of climbing soldiers here to monitor base camp and the mountain above. I am nor really sure what will change once they get here, but this is the first concrete evidence that this year is different.
Tomorrow is a rest day for us. We will use this day to recover from today and review high altitude medicine. We will play with the oxygen set, learn how to use the Gamov bag (a portable pressure chamber used to lower the relative altitude for a person experiencing altitude sickness), and go over the high altitude drug kit. It will be interesting to play with the oxygen and mask as I have never used one before.
A am happy with my performance so far, but did find today a little harder than I would have hoped. I had a great sleep last night (taking 125mg of Diamox just before bed really helps), and am not feeling sick at all. I have a slight cough (the famous Khumbu cough) but it is not too bad and calms down fast once I am at rest.
That’s all for today.
Big hugs to Susan, Amy and Colin.
Scott (SS)

Thanks everyone for your messages. It was great to hesr from Barbara, Val, Wendy, Jeff, Ed, and the gang at QEVC.

To answer the questions from QE:
regarding the flour fight and if the Sherpa were offended. They started it. We went to another Puja today and it was the same. The ritual is to rub flour on someone's face and wish them luck on the climb. It then gets a little crazy.
The answers to your ice fall questions are above.