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| View from Barafu Camp |
In this post, I will describe the say from Barranco Camp, up Barranco Wall and further to Barafu - to meet our sudden change of plans. To read about the days before, go to: preparations and arrival, first days, the hike to this camp here, or skip to Summit day or to lessons learned.
In the morning of this day, at 07:15, we started hiking to go
from Barranco camp, to Barafu Camp, covering 10 km and almost 700 net height
meters (much more if you count the ups and downs of the trail). We headed off a bit earlier than what's usual, to beat the hordes of tourists that were to start 07:30 and avoid the "traffic jams" at the very narrow passages there. Also, it's good not to be behind anyone afraid of heights - then the going gets very slowly. The early start meant that we once again woke up before dawn, and made breakfast while we took down the camps and repacked.
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| Barranco camp with the vertical-looking wall in the background. |
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| Glaciers overlooking Barranco Camp |
First, we started with the Barranco Wall, which is known for looking
impossibly steep from below – but turning out to be just a fun non-technical
scrambling challenge. The legendary Kissing Rock (or Hugging Rock, whatever you
call it – the important part is that you find a tight personal contact with it
once you are on the way to pass it, otherwise you risk losing balance and
falling off the path) was got by with flying colors.
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| Easy going despite the size of the backpacks. |
It took us 2 hours of
scrambling the cliff (roughly 200 height meters?) to reach Breakfast Point.
That’s the point you reach as you manage to climb Barranco Wall – earning its
name because no matter how much breakfast you’d had at the camp below, it seems
to disappear while climbing Barranco and you are going to need a new breakfast
right there.
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| View from Breakfast Point. Barranco Camp no longer visible. |
We were well above the clouds, and the view was amazing. We
went on in the semi-desert, along valleys and ridges, some members feeling
better than others, and stopped at the stream just below Karanga camp, 2,5
hours and 6 km later, to have lunch and rest before the last 4 km with the
steep ascent to Barafu (meaning Ice Camp), our last camp before the summit.
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| Tired group member is resting during lunch break. |
As we reached Barafu Camp, it was blowing quite hard. I knew that
there would be a very strong breeze during the coming days, and that Barafu was
uncomfortable and exposed to gales, but I frankly did not see this much of wind
coming. It grew in strength. We set up tents, I made sure to use all the
paracord and straps that were available to secure my tent to the large rocks
all round.
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| Exposed and open to the wind. |
The plan was to stay here for an extra day, go to a short
acclimatization walk to just past 5k or so, and then go to sleep early to get a
lot of rest before the summit day. However, our local guide announced other
conditions. According to him, it was forbidden to spend more than one night in
Barafu. Once again, I was sincerely surprised – how could it be, that I sent
the itinerary to the organiser and did not get to know this extremely important
detail? Besides, it was not a place nor a time for negotiation. The group was
tired after a challenging 9-hour day carrying full backpacks, scrambling, and
walking up and down ridges and valleys. Everyone was looking forward to that
extra day of rest, and towards the acclimatization. Also, it turned out that
whatever was agreed about water with the organiser was no longer valid, and we
had to arrange it on the spot. I’m not used to a situation where others dictate
the rules, and where earlier agreements do not matter. Any uncertainty at this
point leads to a large risk. At another time, I would protest more, but in that
situation I seemed to have no leverage at all. My focus was on fixing what
needed to be fixed, and informing the group as new information arrived. The
guide told us to wait, making some phone calls to arrange stuff.
Some two hours of waiting later it turned out that we were
not staying another night. I got to have a phone call with the organiser, not
clearing out anything really, because of bad connection – the only thing I
could understand was that there was a kind of “new rule”. The guide apologized
but let us know decisively that we were going to attempt summit this very
night. A bit later than the usual 23:30-24:00
if we so wanted, even as late as 02. But there was to be a summit attempt that
very night, or we would have to head down without even trying.
Not much to do. We wolfed down the dinner, and hurriedly
packed the daypacks for the summit attempt. As this was done late in the
afternoon/evening, half in the dark, a few things were forgotten, to the big
sorrow of those who brought the gear all the way (many days, and over 2500
height meters in total) just to leave it in their tents for the most important
day. Nevertheless, most important part was to grab some sleep – no gear will
help if you have a clouded mind. So we tucked ourselves in, at some time around
20:00, to try and get some rest. We decided to compromise and not go as late as
02 am, but give ourselves an extra hour of sleep and go for 01 am.
We did not. The wind strengthened and was ripping at the
tents. Myself, I was confident in my Black Diamond First Light, which is aerodynamically
shaped, and tried to sleep imagining that all the shaking and the violent
flapping was just the sails of a sailing boat making a gybe, just by the
pillars at the cape South of Tasmania, during Sydney to Hobart, on the way to
make a winning finish…
I managed to get some sleep but was awakened by others.
There was great commotion all around the camp. Tents were blown apart, the
staff was helping to save them while tourists were shouting and screaming in
the dark. Two of our group members had the same kind of tent as I, but were
worried that the tent would lift while they were inside it. I tried to comfort
them. The wind was not as bad as it felt from the inside of the tent. If they
were seriously worried about being blown away, then they could fill the tent
with their luggage, even some heavy stones. But the issue was more
psychological than a real threat. Altitude can make you more worried,
especially when you are tired and it’s dark. They went back inside the tent.
But in the end, none of us got much sleep at all.
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| Two toilet tents that have been thrashed. Another tent is deformed in the background. |
At 01, all were ready to go, except for one of the members
who was frantically securing his tent, and was not confident in that it would
hold for the wind. In the end, we headed off at 01:20, into the vast dark and
the howling wind.