It is snowing on Kangchenjunga. It’s done that for two days now and I am glad I got my rotations done perfectly on time!
I arrived at basecamp on 18th. After a couple days rest I did my first rotation starting on 22nd. I then went to set up my camp 1 at approx. 6250m and spent the night there. Following morning I climbed through so called ”icefall” to 7000 meters to set up my camp 2. Returned to basecamp after that as I thought I might not be acclimatized well enough to take a night at that altitude.
My last rotation was to finalize my acclimatizing and getting all my ”fixed high-camps” as I like to call them, ready for summit-push.
On 28th I climbed to my already set-up camp 1 and the following day to my camp 2. On 30th I went on higher up to seek for a place to set up my camp 3, which later would serve as my ”summit assault-camp”. I also wanted to spend a night there to acclimatize as I will be climbing without oxygen.
May 30th was an exceptionally beautiful day! I set up my tent at 7450 meters. Spending a night here would definitely finalize my acclimatizing and also let me get a feel of the upper part of the mountain. From here it is possible to easily scope almost entire route to the top. Only the complex rocky upper part to the very top remains kind of hidden.
Night was extremely cold and in the morning I was just lying and waiting for the sun to hit the tent and start warming it up before I would head down. Well it didn’t and as I unzipped the door to see how far the sun would be I got a whole different view than in the evening. Sky was all black as far as eye could see. Bad weather was definitely closing in just as the spanish had told me a couple days earlier. I had no choice but to pack down everything and retreat to basecamp as quickly as possible.
So now it’s been very heavy snow also down here and it might take a while. However, I am now perfectly acclimatized and ready to go for the top just as soon weather grants it. It might take a week, might take two or three. However, I’ve got everything ready and planned.
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The pictures show camp 2 at 7000 meters and my camp 3 (7450m.) and Kangchenjunga summit on the background.