Annapurna IV

Himalayan climbing is challenging, pioneering in this great range is an even more daunting proposition. The mountain has spoken to us, it is all around us, it is inside of us as we melt and drink it to sustain ourselves. This is the awareness and connection I come here for. It is not what everyone wants and feels.

It has been a few days since the last e-mail dispatch and we are alive and better than ever, without the summit. The three of us made a deliberate and exhausting foray onto the upper flanks of the mountain reaching deep within ourselves and high onto the peak. Sometimes the rewards of climbing mountains are reached well below the summit and for our enthusiastic teammate Tim Clarke, this is the case.

Upon reaching camp one at 17,700′ we were exhausted. The climb had been a difficult series of long steep skintracks–tracks laid moving uphill on our skis–on a 30-35 degree slope of shoulder deep and wet corn snow. It felt like entering hell uninvited. This track then led to a 45 degree slope of avalanche debris that we quickly climbed to the broad shelf where we made our home for two nights. Tim began coughing.

Laying awake for much of the night with what must have felt like a wool covered throat, Tim was having a rougher time than Josh or myself. We elected to wait a day there to see if conditions improved–they did! Upon the morning of the 10th we Began moving upward at a steady clip with a frazzled Tim I’ve been through this before as a guide, a climber and a friend…you know when it is over. I dropped off 26,788′ Dahualigiri under similarly inexplicable circumstances in my early twenties. Tim is so great a friend and supportive teammate that he confidently told both of us what we already knew..it was time for him to go down.

Josh and I both know Tim is stronger than any other teammate we could have come here with and most importantly-he is wise and a hell of a good guy. Folks, if you discover cancer before it spreads you can often save a life. The same is true here, if you discover that it isn’t for you, better to send off healthy. I have had many friends melt off the alpine roster over the years for many reasons, I’m truly psyched for the adventures Tim and I have already had and the future ones we will have on smaller peaks.

We descended in style, armed with even better knowledge than before. Oh baby did we enjoy the turns down that terrible deep face. It was like waterskiing-three feet ofcorn and sugary textured snow-staying up meant going fast.

Just received this audio message from Ben.

The guys are going to be heading further up the mountain to get better acclimated.

Jon Miller

Click the play button to listen!

Just received this audio message from Ben.

The guys are at Camp 1 at around 17,700 feet! 

Jon Miller

Click the play button to listen!

Twisting wisps of wind dance along the solemn northwest ridgeline of Annapurna IV. Playfully the dance has drawn us in forcing us to question, will the jet stream push away these little snow devils and surge the ridgeline with the power of a hurricane or will we enter a window of opportunity? We will be there to see, we begin the ascent tomorrow.

Basecamp is slowly drying day be day as summer’s short season approaches. Today, as the mountain emerged from it’s cloudy blanket, the wind and snow dissipated while we racked our gear, dried our boots and prepared our packs for the altitude above. We are going light, by necessity, and are prepared for a single push effort to the summit that will ideally take 4 days. The route will go, if not directly then with some excursions around 300′ long gaping crevasses-holes in the glacier.

Three reconnaissance trips to 17,000′ and above have given us a valuable look into what the complexity of the route will entail. If we go for the summit in the next 4 days we will have a little ice climbing some, hard breathing and the cherry on top—we can ski the usually technical pyramid of rock via two chutes choked with snow Sweet huh? It sounds great as a working theory of course, go up go down, ski and go home. Perhaps the mountain will be tamer now, but we are ready for anything.

The style which the three of us utilize should entertain us and give us a net of safety. We climb most routes from bottom to top, onsight-meaning we’ve not been on it-and free. Free climbing this way has been a real pleasure for Josh and myself and going from low altitude to rediculously high and fast has worked well for Tim and me. The three of us are really lucky to be here together and of course…to have such supportive wives, children, families and friends. We will do our best, the mountain is as alive as we are so if it moves us closer to it’s top the next e-mail dispatch you’ll get will be quite lengthy but full of joy. Should we get knocked around by the potentially approaching jet-we’ll drop back down to here and give it another go when the weather is good.

We are not ruling bad weather out, but we feel we can risk going higher during this weather to capitalize on position if it is good. Stay tuned via audio dispatches from the mountain. We will be carrying the sat-phone with us and reporting our progress.Cheers!

Just received this audio message from Ben.

 Jon Miller 

Click the play button to listen!

Here a a few more photos just downloaded from Ben and the Team. 

Enjoy!

Jon Miller 

A long storm pattern is blanketing Annapurna IV with snow. Each hour we hear thundering avalanches ripping down the North face. Eerily we wake in the middle of the night as if a dumptruck just pulled into camp. Annapurna IV is a dynamic mass, the same gravity that pulls at it’s slopes is the same force that is our ticket to fun!

We have now spent 5 nights and four days beneath the massive North ridge of Annapurna IV. When the sun is out it is an awe inspiring vision, fractured where it’s convexity breaks toward earth and elegant as marble where the jet stream touches it. Elements are at play constantly sculpting it to it’s present form. When one enters the Himalayan high country, it is evident in some rare form that earth is so puzzling sometimes it is better to just look and breathe before you taste.

Sprinkles of snow dot our tent fabric every few hours throughout the day. It sounds like sand blasting against a tarp when the mighty winds plunge to our altitude. Sometimes we are numb to the sound, the laughter of each other and the ruckus of long bouts of gambling in the cook tent distract us. If nothing else, we have “discovered” a 40 minute loop of what we liken to be the Talking Heads of Nepal. I don’t know what their call and response is saying but…it’s growing on us. Pasang and Dorje our cooks are really into it.

The scene in basecamp is enough to merit the title of vacation time and if we patterened ourselves after our sherpa friends it would be just that. Rather than kick back and gamble away rupees while wearing hats with marijauna leaves and soccer pants and sandles…we’ve rolled the dice against the weather and come out with few first ski descents.

Today, for the second day in a row we headed up and south of camp to ski some really nice couloirs or gullys and then went back to the peak we skied yesterday just for fun. I was really grunting it for the top as BB sized pellets of gropple snow stuck to me like a dog walking through cuckaburo bushes. It was intense. Josh and Tim followed suit with fire in their eyes and before I knew it there we were, on top of the little 17,000′ peak in a whiteout—skis and poles buzzing with electricity.

We dropped off the little summit fast with large arcing turns slicing through an inch of ball bearing like gropple snow laying sweetly over warmer deeper creamier corn snow beneath. It was heavenly and sinful at the same time, our goal just to get off the peak as fast as possible…but the snow was so good we couldn’t help smile through our fear. I often tell people that skiing is like pizza, even when it’s bad…it’s still good.

We will wait another day and through several more hours of snowfall before we set foot on Annapurna IV’s slopes. We hope to see some sun on the route before we get on it. Judging from our recon’s of conditions around camp, it wants to slide and inevitably will, there are more than two feet of fesh snow on the 30 degree slope we climb to camp one. All it takes is a little heat, some patience and we will climb this mountain smooth and safely.

Cheers!

Ben Clark
clark@explorersweb.com
www.annapurnaiv.com
www.therestofeverest.com

It won’t stop snowing, the Austrians have retreated and each day the mountain is slowly cleaning itself of the newfallen precipitation.

We are avalanche pros and know to stay off the peak…but smaller lower angled aspects around basecamp? Oh, you should check out the pics on the website!

We ventured out in a lull today and climbed up a 17,000′ unnamed peak a few miles from basecamp and fell in love with snow all over again. Amazing how just three weeks off from skiing makes it feel so new and exciting again. Today, even in the snow and epic weather we realized that we are some of the luckiest people in the world.

Hope everyone reading this has a day like that coming to them soon as well.We will let everyone know when we will start the climb, could be tomorrow. We’ll just see what the weather does, if it doesn’t agree, we’ll just ski some more!

Just received this nice message from the team.

Enjoy!

Jon Miller 

Click the play button to listen!

Hello all,

Ben sent these images to me this morning  and I was saving them to put in a new dispatch. Since he hasnt written one yet, I’m just going to release them here!

Enjoy, and don’t forget to click on each image on the site to get it’s description.

Cheers, Jon Miller