Lydia Bradey by Laurence Fearnley

Author:Laurence Fearnley [Bradey, Lydia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781743486979
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

From that point on I understood that it was possible to be both committed to a climb and happy, and I tried never to lose sight of the fact that mountaineering should be enjoyable. My motto became: Try your hardest, harder than you’ve ever tried, but don’t try too hard!

Shortly after this episode we were hit by a big storm. Again, this expedition took place in a period before regular and sophisticated weather forecasting, which meant there was little way of telling how long the storm would last. When it cleared we climbed back up the fixed ropes we had put in, but the conditions were terrible. There was a lot of new snow and because of the wind there was an increased risk of slab avalanches, which made us all very, very nervous about continuing on and so we retreated to base camp. At that point the Basques were also in camp but four climbers from the Pakistani team were high up on the mountain. Our anxiety increased when we learned that one of them was very sick. However, though the mountaineers wanted to retreat and come back to base camp, they were ordered to remain on the mountain. Their commander wanted to see a Pakistani team get to the summit of Gasherbrum I and, ignoring the immense danger the climbers were facing, would not permit them to come down. We felt sick when we heard what was going on: it was clear that the mountain would avalanche, and we all had a terrible premonition that the climbers would come to harm. The team was in radio contact and we could follow their reports but then the line went dead, and we heard no more.

Our companions Khalid Khan, Mohsin Ali, Fakhar-ul-Islam and Fayyaz Hussain all died. We found their bodies near the La. They had been swept away by an avalanche coming off the northwest slope and had fallen about 500 metres down the couloir. Their heads were pulverised and their bodies smashed. Together with members from the Basque and French teams, we carried them back to camp, where a French surgeon managed to slowly, painstakingly, reshape their features so that they looked less horrific, more human.

Although deeply shocked by the accident, Geoff, Brigitte and I were still keen to have another go at the mountain. We didn’t get very far before conditions made it too dangerous to continue and we ended up spending three days stuck in a tent. It was a strange period for me because, by that stage, I had spent more than 50 days above base camp, which was a long time, and I began to feel extremely bored with being confined to a tent, a first for me.

On the other hand, I was still highly motivated when it came to climbing itself. I had learnt from the Kedarnath trip that I had huge mental resources but I began to feel that I was the primary motivator of the group and that I wasn’t receiving as much energy as I needed from the others.

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