Arian Lemal, The Sweeper of the Peaks

Good day from base camp
I'm back at base camp after performing a rotation of acclimation camp1 to 5900m.

Here is a list of this output:
Thursday morning at 3 o'clock, my alarm goes off. It's cool (-4 degrees) and all black. I have no desire to go out of my warm sleeping bag. The night departures are always so difficult ... but you have to leave early to cross the glacier and avoid the sun and heat would weaken the snow bridges cracks.

Around 3:20, I headed for the tent "dining room" where I found my companions to drink tea and take a little bf. I'm not very hungry, I still force myself to drink tea for me hydrated and keep warm. In fact, in shipping, we have a cook and two assistants, cooks at base camp (BC), it allows us to stand at 100% when we are there. They are tip top toupee! Finished my cup of tea, I put on my harness, my cleats, my bag and I turn my headlamp. It is 4 o'clock, we left for the camp1 which stands at 5900m.
After an hour we are in the middle of seracs (ice blocks) as big as houses, even some, like 3-storey buildings. I do not dwell in this area despite that I want to show you film this universe. The seracs can collapse at any moment ...

30 minutes later, here I am in the area very crevassed glacier. This is somewhat reassuring, although we are roped. There is a crack that is chilling: I do not see the bottom, the crystal blue walls are smooth as a skating rink and very uninviting, and when I throw a snowball, I do not understand the impact of the fall. I crosses remaining very focused.

It's 3am as we walk in this world of ice. Phil and Wally (my two climbing partners) admire and enjoy the magic of this environment. On our way we plant bamboo sticks, 1 meter long with a small orange flag at its end, to mark the path in case of bad weather.

After 4 hours, I start to have heavy legs, the altitude is felt, I have a slight headache, and I have only one desire: to arrive at camp.

It's pretty cool still, the clouds cover the sky, and crevices around us. But hopefully, the camp is in sight. It took us 4:30 to reach the camp1. We are delighted to be here.

It is 8:30. I began immediately to melt snow for us hydrated. The morning will melt the snow, chatting with Wally (my tent mate), eat some candy and chat ENTERED tents. It's pretty unique situation as: we are all in our respective tents (4 tents), lying on our beds watching the seams of the canvas, and we papotons. Gradually, around 13h, discussions are replaced by silence. Everybody takes a nap!

At 14:20, I woke from my nap. I have a headache (due to altitude) and the tent was an oven. The sun is so strong here with the reverb that the temperature in the tent goes up to 40 degrees. And when the clouds arrive, the temperature drops to 5-10 degrees. It then goes into our sleeping bags, and when the sun returns, they spring!
Around 17h, I turn on the stove to boil water and then eat good food leophylisée. At 18h, I put myself in my sleeping bag, the sun disappears behind the surrounding mountains, the temperature drops a few minutes around 0, and then negative. I take my courage and motivation to 2 hands out of my sleeping bag and go to the bathroom. It is snowing lightly and it is cold. There is nothing worse than having to go to the bathroom during the night when it is -10 degrees! So is better to make a last effort to be quiet ...
The next morning at 5am, I put on my crampons, I get my ax, I attach the rope to my harness, and I descend to base camp. It's cold and the hand in contact with the metal of the ax I strongly pox. It snowed 20cm that night, it crackles under my crampons. 2:30 later, I'm back at base camp, during breakfast awaits us. What a luxury! The first acclimatization rotation (get used to the lack of oxygen) was very well.
I will stay at CB 3 days and then I will go back to continue my high altitude acclimatization. All the teams arrived at base camp now, we are about 40 climbers of different nationalities: Western Europe and East, koréens, South America and North America. I'll take a few days at base camp to inform teams how to behave on waste: it leaves no waste behind, and we do not throw anything into the crevices. I also want to take a shower, do laundry and shave. All this, of course surrounded by mountains and glaciers of 7000 and 8000m. Life is good!

Our planet deserves an effort!

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