We arrive at high camp late in the afternoon. The climbing has been more challenging than we had expected. And in the shade it was cold.
Now we are on the glacier in the sun below the route. Several groups are camped with us. One climbed the peak earlier in the day and is packing up to descend.
It is late in the day and we are tired. And our nerves are worn out. So we decide to postpone the summit attempt by one day.
The next day we rest. It is hot in the tent and nice outside. Sometimes we push aside the air matraces to cool off on the glacier. Cooking lunch. And always the route is above us. Bored and anxious at the same time. Large ice blocks near the top look like they might come crashing down at any time.
The sun sets a second time. This time for a short night. At two in the morning we wake up and make tea and eat breakfast. Then we stumble out of camp toward the start of the route. Before it gets steep I stop to pee and I think I miss the team’s prayer in the process. I have to work to catch with the others. When I reach them we rope up. Wallowing up the slope in deep snow that has slid off the face. We reach the big bergschrund one full rope’s length up and we reconvene. Two more ropes lengths of simulclimbing in snow. Then the ground turns to ice. It is still nearly completely dark.
The steepness of the ice feels surprising and unsettling at first. I half expect to slip with every step. Way too much hacking at the slopes. I spend a lot of energy. I forget how many screws we had in each rope team but the runout does not feel overwhelming. The distance between screws allows me to settle into a rhythm. Both teams clip to the same screws and we belay off shared anchors. Confidence is building that we can actually perhaps do this. Maybe. I have climbed so little ice that my technique changes and improves throughout the climb. It is not very cold. Just at the end of each belay you are anxious to get going again.
The sun rises. Slowly but it fills us with more confidence still. We are working our way up. Slowly one rope’s length at a time. But now it is a race against the clock. The big ice blocks near the ridge crest are catching sun. They are getting weaker every minute. Big as a bus.
By the time there’s just one more pitch to go the slope is nearly vertical and deeply inset. I am very tired now but leaning into the walls on either side of the runnel I am able to make upward progress using a half stemming technique. Water melts on my pants and then refreezes when I lean into the walls.
Then I reach the top of the ridge. The snow and ice cornice that forms the ridge is so thin that you can see the far side shining through the snow. Two Italians had broken through it the year before and fallen to their death on the other side. I reinforce an anchor a previous party had built with stakes and a screw. Before long three of us are suspended off this anchor in a half hanging belay. We are nervous and uncomfortable. I make the leader on the other rope bypass us to climb to the very top. The logistics get very complicated. But one after the other we make it to the top. On the South side a narrow strip of rock pokes out of the ice. The ropes are very tangled and it takes us a long time to sort them out for the descend. More time for the ceracs to soften.
The descend is fast. Many long rapells. We have done this before. The ropes slide down quickly over the snow and ice. We find existing anchors. When we cross the bergschrund the ground becomes less steep. We sit on our packs and wait for the other team to join us before we stumble back to camp.