원정 개요

From Stephan Keck website (www.stephan-keck.at):

19 Oct (summit day)

The Sherpas start at 4:00 am to fix the last ropes. There's a lot of activation going on. 15 persons, including 4 Sherpas start towards the summit.

Everything is very hectic and it is dark and cold outside, and so we decided to wait until the sun reaches Camp II. At 6:30 we stand in front of our tent, ready to try a summit push. The people who started before us are near already, and so we can take a short break in the morning sun until the steeper parts start. We are making good progress. The way leads us over steep terrain, ice and rock, and we head towards Camp III.

Finally we reach the Mushroom Ridge and the sun. It was really freezing on the first two hours of this hike.

At about 10:00 we reach Camp III, which is hidden under a serac. We don't lose time and continue to about 45°–55° steep terrain towards summit. Also in the summit flank we are making good progress.

We can see Tsering and there are only 100 Hm to the summit. Tsering has taken the lead in fixing the ropes from Camp II to the summit. I hear on the radio that he has now reached the peak, it is 12:00 o'clock. I can reach the summit 45 minutes later, Christian follows another 15 minutes later. Our goal is achieved, bright sunshine, but quite low temperatures about -20°C and 25 Km/H wind. We spend about half an hour at the top, make photos and enjoy the breathtaking view.

Then we make our way back towards Camp II. Across steep rock and ice passages it goes down.

After we left Camp III the most dangerous parts are managed. Within the last sunrays and very tired we reach Camp II at 17:00. We decide to stay here again. From todays perspective that was a mistake because we didn't close an eye for 2/3 of the night. Dehydrated and no longer willing to eat we slipped in our sleeping bags.