Below Annapurna IV (Hardwear Sessions)

May 4, 2008:

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.

May 3, 2008:

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.