Sasser Kangri II Day 2

We knew that achieving our goals on our second day on the route would be the key to success.  In 2009 this day was where things fell apart for us - the system we used was too slow and we waited too long to try and make a place to bivy and exhausted ourselves too early on the climb.  This time we needed to reach or exceed our high point of 2009 and make a good tent platform to rest and cook early enough in the day so we would have enough strength to continue.

We woke up at 1:30 AM and were underway by 3:30 by rappelling off the Launch Pad onto the ice slope below.  I was my block to lead and I traversed left around a large rock island and headed up.  I found great conditions with 2-8 inches of firm snow over the ice that was much quicker and easier to climb than the bare hard water ice we had in 2009.  The climbing was easy enough for all three of us to "simulclimb" which means we all climbed together at the same time clipping our ropes to ice screws as we moved along rather than leading and belaying every rope length.  We gained altitude a lot faster this way and were high on the wall before the sun came up.

Simulclimbing up the lower ice face

Mark took over leading as we got into some of the mixed climbing near our high point of 2009.  We were very happy with our progress so far - we arrived at the base of a pitch we called the "ice chimney" at around 10AM that took until late afternoon in 2009. 

Approaching the Ice Chimney pitch

In the Ice Chimney pitch

Here, based on a strong opinion from Freddie, we didn't start wandering all over the wall in search of a bivouac place for the night.  We made a good decision to keep climbing and search for a potential bivy spot along the way. 

Climbing through the rock band above the 2009 high point



This allowed us to keep moving up and not waste time traversing away from our line of ascent.  Before we knew it we had moved through a mixed rock and ice section that we thought would be the crux of the route.

More climbing though the rock band

We eventually found a flatish area on a rib that was going to be our best opportunity for a bivy site.  But this time we had a new piece of gear that enabled us to build a flat bivy site that would have been impossible without it.  It was Mark's invention that he calls the "Ice Hammock".  The Ice Hammock is a 2 ounce piece of fabric with webbing loops on each end that you fill with snow to make a ledge.  The pictures below show how it is used.

Filling the Ice Hammock with snow to build up a bivy ledge

I was still feeling weak from all my previous health problems so I let Freddie and Mark build the tent platform while I hung our MSR Reactor stove from the wall and melted snow for tea and to fill all our water bottles.

Bivy ledge created with two Ice Hammocks on top of each other

Although the tent hung a bit off the ledge on one corner, all three of us were able to fit inside fairly comfortably.  We achieved our main goals for the day which were to get above our 2009 high point and establish a good bivy early in the day so we could cook, and drink, and get some sleep.  With this work behind us and continuing good weather we were excited about our summit chances, which at this point were starting to look good.

Our second bivy which positioned us to climb the upper wall



Sasser Kangri II Day 1

I was uncertain still about my health, but on August 18th I called Jim @ Mountain Weather for a forecast and I had to make a decision whether to go or not because we were going to get the weather we needed in a couple of days.  By the 20th I felt good enough to move up to ABC that day with Mark and Freddie.  It was a nice ski with some new snow on the glacier.  But there was a seriousness to this trip though that hasn't been there before - we know this is going to be our one big try on Sasser Kangri II and it makes everyone just a bit more anxious. 

Saying goodbye at base camp

Skiing up to the pass towards ABC

Crossing the pass into the Sakang Lungpa Glacier

After we crossed the pass we skied down into the South Shukpa Kunchang Glacier to ABC to spend the afternoon packing food and hardware for the climb the next day.

Skiing up to the base of the route on August 21st

Re-climbing the pitches to the Launch Pad

We re-climbed the pitches to the launch pad where we had been on July 24th, almost a month previous.  The temperatures had cooled considerably since then and we didn't feel so vulnerable now to falling rock and ice.  We relaxed all afternoon in the tent - eating and drinking.  Tomorrow we would start at 2AM to get the big ice slope out of the way before the sun came up.  We wanted to make sure and get high enough the next day to be above the heat and have enough time to build a good bivouac ledge for the tent.  We knew from our 2009 trip that finding a good place for the night would be a challenge.

Back at the Launch Pad

I Have One Week to Get Well

After rappelling to the glacier in the dark from the top of Tso Kangri,  I was obviously sick from sinus infection that is pretty typical for me to get at high altitude,  but this was worse than anything I had experienced before.  I was unusually tired for the amount of work that we had done and I was short of breath and coughing up phlegm while skiing back to ABC.  It was still too warm to head up on Sasser Kangri II yet,  but things would start to cool off as we were getting into late August and I needed to get healthy quickly if I wanted to have a chance to climb SKII.  The best way to do that was to descend as low as I could for the next week and get myself on a good antibiotic.  I left ABC on August 1st and skied to base camp for a rest.  But base camp is still at 17,000 feet which is pretty high for a speedy recovery so I decided to walk all the way down to the road in the Nubra valley which is at 10,000 feet and spend some time recovering there at the Rimo Hotel.  After a rest day at base camp I walked with Tinless on the 3rd to the Nubra Valley hoping that I could slowly bring myself back to the health and strength I would need to climb to nearly 25,000 feet in relatively short order.  I spent the first few days resting, but on August 9th I awoke feeling dizzy and decided that I would go visit the hospital to see a doctor in Diskit - about a 90 minute drive from the hotel.

Services at the Hospital in Diskit



Doctor listening to my chest



The doctor there together with a phone conversation with my friend in Bozeman, Dr Brownie Schoene diagnosed me with a sinus infection that was also blocking my Eustachian tube from my ear which was causing me the dizziness.  They put me on a different antibiotic and so all I needed to do now was wait.  Sasser Kangri II seemed like a long ways away right now.  After another couple days I started to walk around the neighborhood.  Behind the hotel was a working monastery and school so I would visit with the monks and have some tree ripe apricots from their trees.

Monks at the Samtanling Monastery

The Ladakhi villagers were friendly as well.

Ladakhi mother

By August 12th Kirsten, Emily, and Janet came down with Mark and Freddie to the Nubra Valley.  The group had a great week climbing three new peaks while I was convalescing and now it was time for women to head home. 

Kirsten Kremer, Emily Drinkwater, and Janet Bergman

The weather was stormy so Freddie and Mark decided to rest in Nubra a few more days, but I was anxious to get back to base camp and readjust to the altitude and be ready for our next attempt on Sasser Kangri II.  I was feeling better and hopeful that as I moved back up I would stay healthy.

Heading back to base camp

If I can stay healthy and we get some weather then just maybe...........





Acclimatization

Before climbing a mountain as high as Sasser Kangri II, a period of acclimatization to the altitude must occur first.  In 2009 we spent time on adjacent peaks to acclimatize.  But when we made our attempt on Sasser Kangri II we discovered that finding bivouac sites was our biggest problem.  We felt that it would have been worthwhile to acclimate by make a reconaissance high on SKII to chop a tent platform out of the ice ahead of time.  This year we decided to adopt this strategy - so on July 24th we left ABC for our first bivuoac on the wall at a good ledge not too far up that we called the Launch Pad.  Little did we know that this would be the only good ledge on the entire 6,000 foot high face.  Getting to the Launch Pad is about 8 rope lengths up the wall and is mostly easy lower angle ice climbing.  We found and improved our belay/rappel anchors in the rock alonside the ice from 2009.  We would save time reusing these on the several forays we would be making in the future.

Freddie Wilkinson leading his block to the Launch Pad

Mark Richey following up to the Launch Pad

After reachin the Launch Pad in good weather we improved the gravel ledge from the work we had done two years previous.  To be safe from rockfall and falling ice we had climbed to the ledge early in the morning before the sun hit the slopes.  By late morning we had set up our small two person tent that the three of us planned to squeeze into.  Although this made for cramped living conditions, we knew that it would have to suffice since we would never be able to build or find a platform or ledge for a larger tent.

The Launch Pad

We soon discovered the problem with our acclimatization strategy though - it was too hot!  By late morning we had to take shelter from the sun in the tent while we watched the rockfall and avalanches go by on either side of our ledge as the mountain come apart in the heat.  Our promitory protruded just enough from the wall to afford us a some comfort that these missles would fly by well to either side of us.  There was nothing for us to do but wait till it cooled off and then head down in the morning after the wall froze up again at night.  There was no thought of going higher on the wall to acclimatize on this trip.  We would need to go climb other colder north facing mountains until things cooled off later in August when we could return to the Southwest face of Sasser Kangri II.

The next day we quickly rappelled off the wall and skied back to ABC.  We rested for a few hours in the heat of the day and later went looking for objectives that could keep us busy till things colled off.  Based on Freddie's hunch we skied up a pocket glacier off the South Shukpa that we called the "Baby Ruth Glacier" because it reminded us of one of our favorite places in Alaska.  As we came around a steep granite buttress in the wall on the peak on our right we found one of the most compelling ice lines I've ever seen in the Karakoram.

Can you spot the line?

The weather was changing so with the knowledge that we had an exciting objective to come back to we skied back to ABC and then to base camp on the 26th.  After some snowy days we returned to ABC and started up this climb on July 30th.  Never that hard, but always enjoyable we climbed 14 rope lengths up this beautiful ice route.  Later on we would name this peak Tso Kangri (6580 meters).

Freddie led the first block

Mark took the second block of leading

  

Emerging onto the summit ice slopes

Wrapping around the backside to get to the top

Traversing the backside high above the glaciers

Rappelling off the summit as the sun goes down

 During the day we watched Sasser Kangri II come in and out of the clouds.  The view from our climb gave us a new perspective on the summit area of SKII.  This has always been a mystery to us when staring at it directly from below.  But from here we could see that the top of the Southwest Face had a flat area that led to a nice snow ridge angling up to the summit. 

Upper Southwest face of Sasser Kangri II taken from Tso Kangri



As we rappelled off Tso Kangri a sinus infection that I had been  fight for over a week started to kick in and I started feeling unusually weak.  By the time we reached the glacier I was short of breath and coughing incessantly.  I pledged that I would head back to base camp and possibly the Nubra Valley to try and cure myself of this before it was time to head back to Sasser Kangri II.  There was no way for me to know at the time that, in spite of all my efforts to recover, this ailment would rear its head again in ways that would be quite terrifying.



 

Establishing Advance Base Camp

The South Face of Sasser Kangri II sits above the South Shukpa Kunzang Glacier that eventually drains into the Shyok River.  During the summer months, the major rivers in the Karakoram, including the Shyok, become swollen with snowmelt - increasing flows to their yearly maximum.  To approach Sasser Kangri II  via the Shyok, we’d have to walk up the river gorge for days, trying to wade the swollen river channels each time they zigzagged between the cliffs on either side of a half-mile-wide floodplain.  We were told that this would be an impossible trek in the summer when the water would be too deep to wade.  In 2009 when we made our first attempt on SKII, we looked for a way to approach the mountain up a valley off the Nubra River and then cross over a high pass onto the South Shukpa Kunzang Glacier thaat would avoid having to come up the Shyok River.  In 2009 we explored side valleys above the Skang Lungpa Glacier where no one had ever been and discovered a 20,000 foot pass that took us over onto the South Shukpa Kunzang Glacier below Sasser Kangri II.  This year we followed that same route except that this time we brought skis to make the travel on the glaciers quicker and easier.

  





Col (pass) we crossed to get to Advance Base Camp



Once we crossed over the pass we placed a camp up the South Shukpa Kunzang Glacier below Sasser Kangri II that we called our Advance Base Camp (ABC).  We would operate out of ABC for our climb of SKII and any other acclimatization peaks we might attempt in the area.





Advance Base Camp



Sasser Kangri II from ABC - Route goes up rt side of giant couloir to half height - up ramp system on rt wall to summit .

One of our permit requirements for the Eastern Karakoram is we need to be a joint Indian=Foreign expedition.  To do a climb like Sasser Kangri II alpine style without fixed ropes and camps we cannot take Indian climbers with us who we don't know and do not have the prper experience.  We have challenged this rule with the permitting authority, the Indian Mountaineering Foundation along with a number of other issues that discourage climbers from coming to this region - so far to no avail.  So we engage a number of Indian citizens to be on our team as members who end up being there to help us carry loads places but don't actually climb on the mountain with us.  We try to give them opportunuituies to climb with us on smaller acclimatization peaks.  But they were an integral part of our team and included: Tinless, Dansing, Chirring, Pemba (aka King Kong), Tashi, and Palden.  Most of them were Sherpas from Darjeeeling, but also they are from Ladakh and Kaumon - all mountain areas in India where the locals are well suited to this environment.  These guys helped carry all the supplies and equipment from our base camp over the pass to ABC and when we were climbing over there they kept us supplied and watched over us in case we had an emergency or needed anything.

Pemba (aka King Kong for his legendary load carrying capacity)



Drive to Nubra Valley and Hike to Base Camp

As many of you may know, Mark Richey, Freddie Wilkinson and I successfully made the first ascent of Sasser Kangri II (7518 meters) in the Eastern Karakoram on August 24th.  I will resume the blog posts that I suspended while we were in the mountains with no internet connectivity.  So stay tuned as I post about our experiences with some photos over the next week or so.  I will start with our trek to base camp.

On Thursday July 7^th we drove the six hours from Leh to the Nubra Valley and our road head. The road climbs up and over the Kardung La, an approximately  17,600 foot pass (the Indians claim it is higher than that) that they also claim is the highest motorable road in the world. The road over this high pass is the main access for India to the very northern tip of their country because they can't access it via the Shyok River, the main river basin north of the Kardung La, because it flows west into Pakistan - India's arch enemy.  The Line of Control that separates the two countries in disputed Kashmir is heavily militarized, so the Indians cannot access this area up the valley from Pakistan and going over this high pass is their only access. For several members of our group driving to the pass was their personal altitude record. 

 

Kardung La

Down the other side of the pass and up in the Nubra Valley we stayed at the Rimo Hotel and prepared all our loads for the porters to carry to base camp. On July 9^th we left the main road at 10,000 feet and immediately climbed about 2000 feet up a steep arid hillside that placed us high on the south side of the river gorge that we would follow for the next three days to our base camp.

The distance is not all that great, maybe only 10-15 miles, but we would climb to 17,000 feet and we needed to take the time to acclimate to this elevation. At the top of the initial hill we traversed along a couple of miles of very treacherous hiking – steep rocky cliffs that didn't seem all that solid plunging several thousand feet into the river below.



Our camp that evening was on a flat dry plan past all the worst part of the trek and the next day we enjoyed a leisurely walk to a nice grassy meadow for our second camp. We would need to spend an extra night here so that our porter loads could catch up to us.

On July 12^th we arrived at our base camp, the same one that Mark and I used in 2009 on our first attempt on Sasser Kangri II. It is a beautiful small meadow, unusual for this elevation where we will be spending a lot of time until we leave at the end of August.

Arrived in Leh

The flight to Leh from Delhi was a bit protracted because when the plane arrived over the airport there it couldn't land due to weather or some problem with the airport. So we circled overhead for about 30-45 minutes waiting for conditions to improve. The nice thing about this was we kept getting a 360 degree panorama of the Karakoram all the way from K2 to Sasser Kangri II. It was exciting to keep seeing our soon to be climbing objective poking its head above the clouds. We were not able to land so we had to go back to Delhi where they refueled and we went back and landed this time without a hitch.

Karakoram from the air - K2 is in the upper left corner - Sasser Kangri II is just out of the picture on the right

In Leh we rested on July 6th and walked around town.  Leh is an interesting mix of Muslim but mostly Tibetal Buddhism culture.  In the photo you can see the town mosque with the monastery in the background.

 

On the 7^th we visited some monasteries. I believe the two we visited were built in around the 16^th century and have been well preserved. Much of their longevity is due to the very dry high desert climate that keeps things from rotting. I don't think these buildings would have lasted 100 years in my home climate in the Pacific Northwest.

At one of the monasteries some Indian workers were doing a photo shoot that seemed like an odd juxtaposition of cultures. But then given that Buddhism seems to be a religion that is open to all sorts of activities, everyone there was curious and no one seemed to mind.

Inside a couple of the monasteries there were beautiful golden statues of the Buddha.

Today we will drive over the Kardung La to the Nubra Valley where we will stay for two days. I've included a couple of pictures from 2009 along the drive.

We will likely stay at this guest house again in the Nubra valley that is run by a very nice Tibetan family.

On July 9^th we will begin our three day trek to base camp. The first day climbs 3000 feet up a hillside to where we will traverse along a steep hillside above the gorge below. This first day is a difficult and treacherous walk and we need to take good care of ourselves and our porters who are very heavily laden. Again I've attached some photos from our 2009 attempt that shows some of the terrain along the steep traverse above the gorge on the first day.

I will not have internet access after today when I leave Leh, so my next blog posts on our expedition will be in late August or early September. Watch for some new posts then!