Story 8/21: Snow in the tropic
| Tale group: | 1st 21 stories |
| Class: | Stories by continents |
| Themes: | Adventure, mountaineering, climbing |
| Books: | No picnic on Mount Kenya (1946), Green hills of Africa (1935), Tintin in the Congo (1931), climbing and travel guides laid over East-African fabrics |
| Continent: | Africa |
| Location: | Mount Kenya natural park |
| Time: | March, 2003 |
Three on a rope
Climbing Mount Kenya (5199 m)
March, 2003
This is good life! We are actually living our dreams. It is late afternoon, Sunday March 2nd, 2003 and even though it is +16°Celsius, it feels bit chilly as we are in a cloud. We have been advancing mostly according to the plan, but being on a large face, route-finding is occasionally bit challenging.
Us being a party of three, we also have been taking occasional short-cuts picking bit steeper lines on easier parts – to compensate the fact that on more difficult sections we advance slower, than a traditional setting, one climber at each end of the rope.
As we use half ropes, we have been climbing easier pitches simultaneously – meaning that one of us is leading and putting nuts and cams to the wall, while the other two are at the same time also climbing up and removing the belays as they reach them.
We take turns in leading and finding the route as usually on big walls. Standard procedure for two climbers would be the first climber to continue until the 50-60 meters length of rope is about to end and finding a spot for a safe and reasonably comfortable hanging belay point to securely stop and haul the same 50-60 meters of rope back as the second climber ascends and removes the gear the leader left to secure the climb.
With three climbers on the more difficult pitches – as we call the lengths of a rope – the third member gets in a way a free turn, since he/she does not need to neither advance nor to belay. This has allowed me to write down the memo of our advancing in more detail than usual.
On those idle moments mind wanders back to yesterday, when we were scouting the conditions and deciding which route to attempt. On the long run we as humankind had cut away the most legendary – the Diamond Couloir, which since its 1st ascent in the 1970’s had turned to less ice and more mixed/rock climbing by its lower parts.
Nature on the other hand gently pushed us from the South-West ridge route to the slightly more demanding Normal route by covering the higher parts of the SW ridge to snow the night before our intended ascend. Hence, we hiked from Two Tarn hut to Austrian hut to our relief to observe it was snowless.
Thus, here we are, pitch 13, on a rocky ledge at 5003 meters altitude, chewing peanuts and dried fruits and waiting for the cloud to pass and return us the spectacular sight from Nelion’s face to the African highlands below.
Definitely lot more enjoyable than for the three Italian war prisoners in Felice Benuzzi’s climbing classic “No Picnic on Mount Kenya”, even though they attempted on lower and easier Point Lenana. I devoured this most entertaining read on an earlier climbing expedition.
Some background data:
Mount Kenya:
Mount Kenya: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kenya
Mount Kenya National Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kenya_National_Park
Climate of Mount Kenya: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Mount_Kenya
Mountaineering on Mount Kenya: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaineering_on_Mount_Kenya
Mountaineering:
Mountaineering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaineering
Big wall climbing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_wall_climbing
Expedition climbing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_climbing
Alpine climbing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_climbing#Alpine_style
Questions – see links above, books, Internet or digital media for answers:
1. Climate change. Tropical snow. Sounds contradictory, but is still a reality. Mountains around the world act as weather hubs, creating own microclimates around the high rock masses. Their impact reaches lot further than to their lower slopes. Their glaciers and snowy tops are water reservoirs, that often feed several rivers. The glaciers around the world are retreating. What does this mean? What could be done to slow down this process, that has been going on few decades?
2. Mountain climbing and conservation. People have crossed rivers and mountains since early ages. For example, in the Americas there were tribes settling highlands and mountain regions. Often the highest peaks were considered sacred, but lower tops and slopes were visited.
From 17th century on some wealthy Europeans occasionally challenged themselves in the Alps and within following 100 years the ambitions spread to global peaks. By the end of 21st century mountaineering had grown to be a demanding adventure sport of some specialists and then turned into adventure tourism. Combined with population growth, mass tourism and gentrification in increasing number of nations, also the most remote areas of our planet have seen larger number of visitors.
What should be done to conserve these frontiers? Should we extend waste management and other human infrastructure there? Or should the access to be limited somehow? What else could be done?
3. Ecotourism. The network of local guides, porters, cooks, translators and communication officers has grown around some internationally interesting mountains. These peaks are often on rugged and remote areas. Climbing “Alpine style” is mostly self-supportive and needs fewer local helpers, than the “expedition”-style of mountaineering. In Mount Kenya the last stretch to summits of Nelion (5188m) and Batian (5199m) are technical – large walls of rock / technical / mixed or ice climbing, so usually local guides do not climb to the top. The “services” end to the foot of the main wall. However, purchasing the expedition package through the approach hike leaves earnings to the zone. It is also sustainable money and helps to maintain the natural park. So, with the money of the foreigners, local nature can be conserved.
Earnings through ecotourism can help preserve nature. What other sustainable ways is there? How can we help local people anywhere respect and restore the nature around them – instead of just exploiting and destroying it? How about turning travel from global to local? What would that require?
4. Discuss. Your view: What thoughts did rise in your mind having read the story, browsing through the background material and answering to the three questions above? Discuss with your pair.
Access to all posts with categories covered above:
Tags of this post:
Leave a Reply