Pat resting above the first steep section of the icefall

At 1530, after reorganising our gear into a single full load (and leaving all non-essential behind… no sleds, pack only), we left for Camp 3. The first section of the climb provided interesting 45deg snow climbing. Our objective was to reach the camp of the two teams above us (BC and Germany). At 4520m, we still can’t see the other teams camp, but our legs are sending us clear signals and so we stop here for the night. No AMS symptoms that night, just plain tiredness.

Our Camp 3 (4,500m)

King's Peak (right) & St-Elias (far left)

As planned, we rested in the morning after yesterday’s 1150m ascent. Our intent was to carry a half load to camp 4 this afternoon, but when we reached the other teams camp at 4700m, the visibility was too poor for any team to attempt to discover the route through the football field. We therefore decided to cache our ½ load here anyway. We finally met Team BC (Peter and Sarah), two very nice people who have been on the mountain since 21 April. Needless to say that they were very excited to see other parties. Peter told us his 1994 horror story on the Logan plateau where he was stuck for 10 days in a storm… enough to for us not to drag our stay on the plateau. They also told us about Sarah’s spectacular crevasse fall between Camp 2 & 3 a few days ago. We ended up taking down a bag of trail mix and an extra pack of waterproof matches – generosity of team BC. We quickly made it back to our camp 200m lower and after an early supper we settled for the night.

Eric meeting the "Football Field's" crevases

Eric on shovel duty at Camp 4 (5,025m)

At 0945, after breaking camp, we were on our way up to recuperate our ½ load at team BC’s camp location. Around 1045, we got to our cache and started consolidating our two ½ loads. Team Germany was almost ready to depart, while team BC was already on the move carrying various loads to their new camp on the football field (4900m). We left behind team Germany at 1130. Around 1200, we crossed Team BC who was going back down to get it’s last load from Camp 3. We were grateful for the 2 extra hours they had spent this morning to find the best path across the crevasses to reach the football field. They settled for a copy of our daily Metrep in exchange. One of the toughest decision Pat & I took at Camp 2 was to leave the snowshoes behind and only take the crampons. We definitely felt the cost of that decision on that day. The other two teams were gliding on their skies while we were plunging our boots 6-12 inches through the snow on every step of the way. Around 1330, we had reached the middle of the Football field. The sun was very hot and our batteries were getting low. Ideally, we had hope to make Camp 4 at 5200m as close as possible to the slopes leading to Prospector Pass. After a good 30min break, we decided we would press on up the next set of slopes for as long as we could and hopefully reach team Germany’s Camp. At 1530 we reached 5025m and we had enough to call that our Camp 4. Now we were worried about our footwear situation… We thought about crafting snowshoes with 2 small pieces of ground mattress, but decided to try without for one more day.

Prospector Pass (far left)

Approaching Cache 4.5. St-Elias in the background

At 0730, I get the Metrep from Chris. The weather looks good for the next 3 days (11-12-13 May). Perfect, today we take a half load to Cache 4.5 and tomorrow we can be on the plateau! At 0900 we were on our way. 4hrs later we established our cache 4.5 (approx. 5500m), just below the crest of Prospector pass. On our way back down we met Team BC who had taken a full load to their new camp, at 5200m, on the plateau above our camp. We gave them the latest weather forecast, which got them to consider a 24-hr push to the summit and back from here to avoid camping on the plateau. Pat & I didn’t think it was even conceivable, but that’s the perspective of two non-skiers… About 100m lower we crossed our friend’s cache. We were very glad to see their steady progress up the mountain.

Considering the weather forecast from this morning, our objective for tomorrow is to push Camp 5 as far as we can on the plateau to be in a position to avoid a Camp 6 and launch a summit attempt directly from Camp 5. To compensate for our footwear deficiency we decided to leave before sunrise and get the benefits from the firm early morning snow.

From Prospector Pass, looking down towards King's Peak and the Trench

Looking East when descending the East slopes of Prospector Peak

We woke up at 0400 to a very chilly morning (-25C). The sky was clear but no sun in sight yet. At 0645 we were on our way to recuperate our cache 4.5. At 0730, we stopped to make our usual Sitrep to the other team and get the weather forecast. No change, still good today and tomorrow. We indicate our intention to push Camp 5 as far as possible and will report back at 1630 with exact details. Further up, we passed Team BC’s tent, who had already left for their 24-hr summit push from here. Wow!

The snow may have been firmer to walk on, but so did our feet. By the time we got to cache 4.5, our feet were frozen a lot more than I like to have them. They were numb half way through the foot starting from the toes (including the heel). At cache 4.5 we consolidated our loads, put on our over boots and crampons and worked on our feet for a good hour before we could leave again.

As we crossed Prospector Pass (near 5600m), a completely new scenery was opening up to us. Still white, but new features! At that point, instead of going down the valley like most skiers may prefer to do, we decided to make good use of our crampons and cut directly to our right. The intent was to lose as little altitude as possible and travel along a constant contour line along Prospector and Russell peaks. As we came around Prospector Peak, we noticed the German’s tent on the crest between Russell and Prospector’s Peak. No activity, so we figured they were on their summit attempt. We kept going all the way around Russell Peak until we found a decent camp location between Russell and the West Peaks at 1530hrs. From our location we could see two silhouettes disappearing on the side of the West peak, which must have been the Germans. It seemed rather late for a summit attempt…

At 5340m and after this long day, building our snow fortress took almost 2 hrs and was quite painful. The good news was that tomorrow could very well be it… the day we make the summit. That was enough to relieve any tiredness for that evening.

Pat looking at our last obstacle before the summit

Eric on the Summit

Pat on the Summit

Eric coming down the ridge

We got up at 0520 too excited to sleep any longer and we departed at 0730 with our light packs. Our intent was to go around the West peak and then straight to the East peak. As we got closer to the West peak, I noticed ski tracks going along our way, which had to be the German’s. I decided to follow them and they took us around 5450m, which worked out very well. At that altitude, along the West peak, we avoided series of seracs above and below us. When we came around the West peak, we finally saw the East peak for the first time…still a long way from us. We slowly, but surely, pushed on through the valley between the two peaks. A good hour later, we reached the base of the north-west face of the East peak at approx. 5800m. The next 100m was straight forward (30deg slope), but the last 100m offered very interesting face and ridge snow climbing at about 45 degree angles. Around 1400 both Pat & I were standing on top of Canada at 5959m. With little to no clouds, the view was spectacular. We took all the pictures that we wanted and then headed down. The return walk was long and especially painful to Pat who developed some serious blisters when traversing the 2-km long and 30 degree incline north face of the West peak. Finally after 10 hours (at 1730), we were back home to our camp. After a couple of hours of rest, we had a very welcomed supper.

Around 2000, Andrea from team Germany came by our tent on his return from his successful solo climb of the West Peak. He told us that his partner was not feeling well and that he’d been in the tent all day now without coming out. He then told us that is partner got some serious toes frost-bitten when they attempted the East peak on the 12^th. They left too late from their camp, they had to turn around 300m from the summit and only returned to their camp around midnight that day. When the sun goes away it gets very cold and that’s when his partner got his frostbites. We told him we were going back to Camp 4 tomorrow and that we would drop by their tent on our way down.

After 6 consecutive days of ascent, we badly wanted to rest today. But without knowledge of the weather forecasts from today on, without radio contact with the main team for the last 2 days and with a promise to check on the Germans today, our rest ended at 1000 this morning. We departed around 1200, again along a constant contour line on Russell peak. Since I first looked outside this morning I noticed some clouds forming up in all directions around us and my barometer reading has been dropping for the last 4 hours. That alone was a motivation to get us out of the plateau today. We reached the German Camp around 1330. After a quick investigation we realised that Falco (Andrea’s partner) had frost-bitten toes on both feet, he had no energy, was barely coherent when talking and that they had no fuel left. They asked us if we could wait and help them back to Camp 4, which we gladly accepted. At 1530 we all departed up Prospector peak. After 15 feet, Falco complained of blacking out. I then had to alter the plan. I asked them to set their tent back up, gave them a litre of fuel, so they can start eating and drinking again, and told them we would come back either later tonight or tomorrow if the weather permits. So they did. Now my new concern was to make it as high as I could on the other side of Prospector to get a VHF signal to Camp 4 and exchange a long awaited Sitrep with the main team. At 1637, still short of the targeted natural shelter (a small serac) from the now increased wind and blowing snow, I attempted a call to Chris. Fortunately, it worked and I told Chris that we were almost at the pass and that we would provide all the details at Camp 4.

We made it to Camp 4 about one hour later. The weather was much better on this side of the pass. After much discussion with the other members, it is decided that the main team will go up full load tomorrow to set-up their Camp 5 and that Pat & I will come along to help the Germans over Prospector Pass back to Camp 4.