The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering by Daniel Light

Author:Daniel Light [Light, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Expeditions & Discoveries, Biography & Autobiography, Adventurers & Explorers, Sports & Recreation, Mountaineering, Travel, Special Interest, Adventure
ISBN: 9781324066224
Google: DsTuEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B0CTXNY31S
Goodreads: 207970892
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2024-11-18T22:00:00+00:00

The snow fell. It fell during the daytime, a fine snow that soaked them through the moment they stepped outside. It fell at night, swirled around by fierce winds, invading their tents when the flaps came loose. It fell until avalanches thundered, one after another, down the valley sides; until all they could hope for was ‘to keep as warm as possible in one’s sleeping bag and sally forth for food in the lulls of the storm’. And even then, sheltering in their tents, as night fell and the temperature dropped, the moisture in the men’s breath condensed and froze, and gathered on the canvas overhead. Until, inside their tents, the snow fell.

Very occasionally there came a tantalising interlude, as the clouds parted and the sun’s rays poured through. They rushed outside to arrange their sodden clothes in these precious pockets of sunlight, only for the clouds to close back up again and the snow-filled heavens to reopen. Back inside their tents, they lay for hours reading or playing chess, the warmth seeping from their bodies, melting the ground below. Soon they were lying in pools of freezing water, unable to reposition themselves – or their tents, so long as the snowstorm raged.

Technically speaking, this was ‘Camp X’, the tenth camp out of Askole. They knew it as ‘Camp Misery’. Crowley had situated it in the middle of the glacier because it put them a safe distance from the avalanches raking the steep valley sides, but it left them brutally exposed. Now, caught in a snowstorm that began almost the moment they arrived, all they could do was await Eckenstein, at what would be their base camp for the climbing effort to come.

On 27 June, more than a week after Crowley had established Camp X, Eckenstein arrived. He had been bringing up the rear all the way from Askole, coordinating an endless relay of porters and supplies. His progress had been slowed by the same foul weather, but he had taken advantage of a break in the storm to complete the last march up the Godwin-Austen glacier. Now, with his arrival at Camp X and the good weather holding, they could contemplate a first push up K2.

For Crowley, it was not a moment too soon. Hemmed in at Camp X, he had found what he believed was the best route to K2’s summit. He favoured an ascent by the southeast ridge, up a giant spur that loomed large over their tiny camp on the glacier. He was convinced the ridge would ‘go’ and that it offered by far the most direct route to the upper reaches of K2.

A meeting was held and, with Eckenstein feeling unwell, it was proposed that Crowley, Pfannl and Jacot-Guillarmod should go – a fitting vanguard for the most international Himalayan climbing expedition yet. ‘At this point’, wrote Knowles, ‘Wessely made some remarks at his non-inclusion… as unreasonable as they were unsportsmanlike.’ Wessely evidently believed he and Pfannl made up the expedition’s strongest rope, and was not afraid to say so.

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