Muztagh Ata part 2

DSCN2347gfsEncouraged by a positive weather forecast once more we ventured onto Muztagh Ata slopes. We moved single camp distance per day. In the evening of the second day we reached C2. We were astonished and outraged – our deposit had been stolen. Two members lost essential for summit push down jackets and mittens while others less important gear and food supplies. Tired and disappointed we put off our summit bid.

The next day we managed to borrow replacement clothing from Iranian and Polish climbers who were in C2 for acclimatization.

On July 12th we went up. Arek and Krzysiek went up first around 1 am. Me and Waclaw waited longer and left the tent around 4:30 am. It was freezing cold so we did not stop, to not to lose warmth. We ccaught up to our 2 friends, who stopped in an empty tent to warm up and wait for sunrise. Around 10 am we reached camp 3 at 6800 m where we stopped for a short rest. On our way up we were passed by a barely standing Chinese climber with oxygen bottle and his shrpa – we do not know if he was successful. Following a clear path up we left our snowshoes at 6900 m. Unfortunately the weather forecast was wrong – it started snowing, descending clouds greatly limited visibility. The path was gone in a few minutes. Relentlessly we continued up changing at the lead to break trail in fresh snow. We had 4 summit locations in GPS receiver depending on the source of information. We headed for the middle point in between those. Hours passed without any weather improvement. DSCN2338gsAround 5 pm at the altitude of 7500 m we decided to turn back – looking for the exact summit point in such conditions would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Disappointed we went down. As if wishing to mock us the weather improved for a moment near C3 but later on snowstorms returned even stronger. At night we reached our tents in C2.
On July 13 we packed our camp and went down chased by snow and hail. It was the end of our adventure on Muztagh Ata. As it turned out later it was a good decision – the weather did not improve for the following week.

Despite not reaching the exact summit point I made my new personal altitude record – 7500 m without supplemental oxygen and in moderately difficult conditions within 2.5 week. Two years of training has not been in vain. It gives me hope for climbing lower 8k peaks without oxygen in the future. I can consider myself a truly Himalayan climber now.

A video from our climb  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZqfKqsSdoo 

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