Base camp life
Now that the bulk of the fatigue of Broad Peak has faded, I must continue to recover as well as do tasks that keep me physically and mentally fresh. Here's a look at base camp life and some of what might happen during a well-designed rest day.
First, a quick tour of our base camp:
What about my personal quarters? I'm proud of myself for keeping organized this season, so here's a look:
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My tent. The black duffel is getting ready to be transported to Gasherbrum base camp for my next climb. -
My front vestibule. Climbing gear duffel, protein powder and recently-reorganized footwear area. -
Again, ridiculously clean by my standards. Clothing duffel, items for hiking by the door, and then toiletries etc. I'm doing well with skincare this trip! -
Sleeping setup is ridiculously posh this year. Big foam mattress, then Big Agnes thick air pad, Western Mountaineering -10 degree bag, and an inflatable pillow! -
Left side of the bed is mostly electronics and commonly used items. Plus I'm sorting socks today. -
Rear vestibule has the food duffel, manchego and flat area for the sat modem.
Wait, how are you even sending this?
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I brought 80 watts of solar PV -
My battery has a variety of connections -
Sat modem. The airtime is outrageously expensive. This post will cost over $50.
But you can't just sit in the dining tent and take naps and showers. Expeditions are a continual state of unpacking, cleaning, sorting and repacking gear. Today I did most of the sorting and packing of my gear from Broad Peak to Gasherbrum II. Here's a good chance to see everything I took on the four-day summit push on Broad Peak:
Counterclockwise from the yellow pack:
Everything had to fit into a 50L Black Diamond climbing pack. I also brought an extremely light Hyperlite Mountain Gear sack for summit day.
1L Nalgene, water bottle parka, thermos, pee bottle, cup and spork
Grivel G12 crampons (best snow anti-balling system by far), Camp Corsa Nanotech axe (superlight but still with steel pick and spike).
Ultralight Petzl harness with a very light and simple rack: leashes with light lockers, knife, double sling, single sling, ascender, descender, all biners as light as reasonable.
8000m triple boots
-45 degree Mountain Equipment sleeping bag
Light Mammut helmet
Missing: ski pole
Upper body clothing system:
Base layer is the pink-ish Craft wool/synthetic hybrid. Performs extremelywell and smells pretty good all things considered.
Mid-layer: Jagged Edge PowerWool hoody. Wow. It's basically a Patagonia R1 that doesn't smell. Shoutout to Jon Miller and Erik Dalton at Jagged Edge in Telluride, CO!
Shell: Arc Teryx Alpha FL goretex jacket. I'm in the process of destroyingthis jacket by "arm-rapelling" down the ropes. I'm estimating thatI'll arm-rap over 50,000 ft of rope this season, so that means goretex jacketsand leather work gloves are likely to get donated in a few weeks. Also, it's beenpretty warm this year in the Karakoram so I've sometimes gone with the shelldirectly over the base layer. Not too much insulation but still with theprotection of a hard shell.
Insulation: Thin Patagonia Primaloft insulated layer. This thing is takingan absolute beating but still holding up! In and out of the pack at every breakbut mostly I try to climb fast enough that I skip it.
Super insulation: That's the big orange puffy. Didn't use it until summitday but boy was I glad I had that ace-in-the-hole piece. Thank god for thegigantic hand pockets.
Head: Buff (If you don't know about a Buff you need one!), Patagonia balaclava, baseball cap under the helmet for lower mountain, photochromic glacier glasses, photochromic ski goggles.
Hands. OK this is where it gets ridiculous. I'm trying to simplify Ipromise! Hestra leather Ergo Grip gloves. These will be toast by next week.Mountain Equipment Randonee Gauntlet gloves. I used to be sponsored by theseguys. I bought these full retail. Hestra something or other heli gloves. Notquite as warm as I would have hoped high on Illimani or here on Broad Peak butstill quite a good glove. I brought these on summit day. The North FaceHimalayan Mitt. Freakishly warm but I was unable to perform the required ropework on summit day because they were too bulky.
Lower body clothing system:
Light blue Simul Alpine Patagonia pants: These are great, especially nowthat I've added an elastic belt (waist size changes dramatically over a trip).They're also slim enough that they don't tend to catch crampon pointsaccidentally. Not only do you look like an idiot but getting caught up on yourpants in the wrong situation can be really bad. No baggy climbing pants!
Ex Officio underwear
Craft long underwear: I love these long underwear. But on Broad Peak Ididn't wear long underwear below 23,000 ft. Long johns are for the weak!
Mountain Hardwear fleece tights: I went straight to these on summit day. I like how they can withstand some weather, so it's ok to open the side zips on down bibs when really working hard.
Mountain Hardwear Nilas (down) bibs: I've been in love with these since2013. They were just right on summit day.
Medium wool socks (Darn Tough), thick wool socks (Icebreaker). Just take off your wet stinky wool socks and dry those bad boys on your chest for the next day.
Take a hike!
Hiking is important for your fitness, sanity and just because you have the privilege of living in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
I recently took a trip to the Gilkey Memorial, named for American Art Gilkey who died here in 1953. It has since become a memorial site for all of those who have died on K2 and nearby peaks. It's bigger than I was prepared for and it's a profoundly sad place to visit.
