Trip Reports

Mera Peak - 15 Apr to 8 May '11

Written by Leader, May 2011

“This is supposed to be a trekking peak!!”

A statement uttered by more than one of the summiteers on Mera when faced with the final short ice pitch on the central summit.

At approximately 07.30 am on Saturday 30 April, six out of the eleven topped out on Mera Peak’s central summit having decided that this short pitch was worth the effort. When you consider that all but one had never ice climbed before this is a great achievement, especially at six and a half thousand metres in the Himalaya, not a bad place to cut your teeth.

This was the culmination of 14 days of difficult trekking. Not content to bring the team on a direct approach to the summit this acclimatisation-prioritised itinerary meant the team had already covered thousands of metres of up and down just to get to base camp, but it did mean that most were strong and ready for it!

Unfortunately we lost 3 team members from Base camp due to illness and fatigue, the transition to above 5,000m proving a little too much.

From Khare the team began to get what they came for. The previous training sessions down in the valley now started to make sense as they put on crampons and yielded ice axes for the first time in anger and climbed onto the glacier, a stark, white contrast to the vegetation below. The weather was far from perfect on the approach to the Mera La and the cloud and snow hid the large crevasses until the last seconds, the almost whiteout conditions obscuring just where the edge of theses pits began and the track ended.

Views of Mera did not materialise until the next morning where the team emerged from tents, half buried in snow, but for the first time our objective, the central summit, seemed a real possibility; the tracks to high camp, trodden by yesterday's teams somehow remained after the snowfall of the day before, visible in the clear morning air, 4 hours away..really?

Roping up for the first time, the team made slow but steady progress up the glacier. It was slightly misty but very hot and soon it became obvious why it takes 4 hours. The track wound its way through the barely visible crevasses as we now pushed for 5,800m. It was slow, relentless going, always just steep enough to hurt. After an age the rocky outcrop of high camp emerged fully, standing high above the glacier. The team were rewarded with arrival at the most exposed camp yet, perched high above the glacier the door of your tent opening onto a drop of 100’s of feet, one clumsy step threatening to pitch you down onto the seracs and crevasses below.

Bed tea came around all too fast and we were greeted by a still clear morning but away to the south raged a lightning storm, which added to the tense atmosphere. The team were away in 3 groups by 2am, no talking, just the sounds of axes and crampons squeaking on the frozen snow. Within an hour most had found a rhythm and were making good headway up towards the summit, the dark obscuring the unending slopes. As dawn arrived the central summit was large on the horizon and the anticipation was palpable. By 7am most of the team had topped the final approach slope and had dropped their packs in readiness for the final summit climb.

By 8am, six had their photos taken by the summit prayer flags.

Thanks to Jagged Globe and the excellent Sherpa team led by Dawa Tsering for helping to make this a successful trip.

Olan Parksinson, Expedition Leader « Previous report | Next report »

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