We’ve won a battle, but not the war! 19th-22nd February 2012

We had three difficult days, although the combat operation took place only in the base camp. We do not want to write that the wind speed exceeded 200 km/h in the base camp, because we would certainly receive a Golden Egg Award (pl. “Złote Jaja” – a kind of Golden Raspberry Awards in climbing society). However, the fact is that a wreck of MI17 helicopter moved with 20 meters. Another highlight was a somersault performed by Janusz Gołąb and his tent – full turn in the air at a distance of 4 meters. It happened at 8:00 AM, right after waking up, Janusz was still in his sleeping bag. He performed the somersault with his entire tent. While landing with the tent, Janusz instinctively grabbed a big stone and saved himself from falling down from a moraine into glacier’s pocket. The moment, when Janusz was hanging over a fault, was accidently filmed by Darek Załuski (see a film titled “Pigeon has landed”; Gołąb stands for “pigeon” in English). However, due to a hole in the tent, Janusz lost most of his belongings. Unfortunately, we also suffered from other loses, i.e.: our storage tent was blown away, Shaheen’s tent was damaged, and mess tent’s material and zips were torn in a couple of spots. Had it not been for a couple of people, our mess tent would fly away down the Baltoro Glacier. Frankly speaking, it was not easy to keep the mess tent in place. Holes in the tent were temporary fixed with bivy bags and the tent was considered lost; however, Agnieszka – our expert in sailing seams – brought the mess tent back to life, despite the ongoing hurricane (see a film titled “Super stitch”).

Regards from the saved base camp at the foot of Gasherbrum I,
our team

P.S.

The guys are setting off tomorrow and depending on the weather, perhaps they will try to reach the summit – I will keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed!
Agna.