Arrival at Camp 3 (Hardwear Sessions)

By Ben Clark

May 15, 2008--Camp 3, Annapurna IV

We arrived in camp 3 today at 3 PM. We are now in the high Himalaya at 20,000' and as wide eyed and ready as ever. For what? Everything a mountain can throw at you.

We awoke at 6:30 this morning, ready to meet the daily slush of Annapurna IV, but today was different-we no longer wanted to fight the snow. Josh took the first three hours of moderate and steep wet slogging up 45-50 degree slopes before handing me the crux. It was a hot day again but when we arrived at the technical difficulties, both our heads cooled down.

Step after step of knee deep snow had Josh psyched to turn over the lead, peering above it seemed straightforward---but no one had ever carried skis up such terrain. I grabbed the ice screws and took some deep breaths. I swam through deep snow and levitated across 2 very steep snow bridges-roofs over crevasses. Turning a corner I belayed Josh around and showed him what was next. Being a "junk" or "heady" climber, amongst my friends I tend to get the truly committing lines-not always the hardest.

As I set forth to surmount the steep rotten bulging step, an old rope--a fixed line--tightly ran down to my left. I began swinging my ice tools and cleaning the rotten snow away until suddenly I found myself vertical, legs high stepped-left hip chimneying rotten cold snow and picks biting on the last bit of frozen blob before the mother of all gifts...the top out into solid glacial ice! I burrowed my way over breathing heavily from the 45 pounds on my back and the 19,700' altitude. Slowly I walked and collected my thoughts. Then....

I whooped for joy like I was on the summit. I've never been so excited on a mountain. Usually I just collect myself and move on but we have really been working on this thing and it felt good to be through the worst of it.

We will climb about another 1000' tomorrow and set up our last camp. If the slopes leading to that camp and above prove safe, we will likely summit. We'll post some pics for you today and again tomorrow, have a great day!