Included with all our gear, I have been hauling a drone through our trek in the Rolwaling and to our current base camp and this morning finally found an opportunity to fly it. I was a little nervous flying it at nearly 16,000 feet but it performed flawlessly and I'm pretty sure I captured some stunning shots of the surrounding peaks.
Realistically, it would be much easier to climb without having aerial footage of this area or updating my website or Facebook for that matter, but my mission has been, and will always continue to be, connecting people to the last great frozen places left on the planet. While you may never come to the Rolwaling (I hope you do) that doesn't mean it isn't important to understand this place as it exists right now. I can't wait to share all the pictures and video with you.
We are breakfast quickly then packed all our climbing gear, camping equipment and food for three days. Once again, our packs were overflowing with gear: Two fifty meter climbing ropes, four MSR pickets, cams, carabiners and quickdraws, crampons, two ice axes, climbing helmet... And the list goes on and on.
Luckily, we were able to walk without crampons on the glacier as the surface was sun cupped and tacky. This also saved us the ankle breaking proposition of hiking up the lateral moraine and dealing once again with the millions of Himilayan rocks. From our base camp, we can see Thakar Go East but Jabo Ri is tucked behind another peak. Therefore, we needed to establish an advanced base camp to better assess our potential routes (as neither of these peaks have previously been climbed).
We chose to ignore the high serius clouds for the time being as we were hoping to set up camp and then do some preliminary scouting. We made good time on the glacier and we marveled at the undulating surface and serpentine drainages. There was no need to carry water as we crossed many glacial 'streams' and small melt water pools.
Like so many other places that I have been to in the past few years, we see the tell tale signs of disappearing ice. The Drolambao glacier is clearly retreating. At one spot, we see a huge hole, easily one hundred feet across and walk closer to investigate. A beautiful blue lake spans the entire gap just 30 feet below the surface of the glacier.
We are sweating and tired but still need to level a tent platform on the moraine. This entails moving large rocks and shoveling gravel to fill the gaps. It takes nearly 30 minutes. For a while, we are hopeful that we can scout the route up Jabo Ri but the clouds roll in quickly and the mountain disappears as a few snowflakes start falling. There will be no climbing today.
We debate briefly what to do next. Wait out the weather at our current position or retreat to base camp and have the luxury of our Therm-A-Rest chairs. Had we not seen the tell tale signs of a front moving in, we might have stayed. Still it is a gamble of time and energy. Walking back down to our base camp uses more of both. As the weather deteriorates, we stash our climbing gear in our small MSR tent and head back down the glacier. Up and down, just like a Yo Yo.
By the time we reach our base camp, it is sleeting and we realize we have made the right choice.
I was able to get a quick call out through my Iridium Go to my mom today as it is her birthday. Happy Birthday mom! Thanks for all your support over the years!
For those of you interested in helping the people of Nepal, we are partnering with the DZI foundation in their efforts to help rebuild schools in Nepal. To learn more about the DZI foundation and how you can donate, please visit www.dzi.org.
For those of you interested in following our route through the Rolwaling, I am tracking through my DeLorme inReach and you can check out my website or my DeLorme map share page for a more detailed look.
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