Day 4, 7/8: BC (14500 ft)
- byronzhang15
- Aug 2, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 9, 2019
After three days on highways and trails, we finally settled down. Today is a rest day at basecamp, where we try on equipment and just chat with each other.
Today is also the day when I learned how monstrous all my teammates are. Almost everyone can run a sub-3-hour marathon. We’ve got a few more who regularly run 100km cross country races, a champion who ran 400km across the Gobi Desert in 93 hours, and someone who could plank for 38 minutes straight, etc. Then there’s me. Who have never even done a sub-7 mile. I suddenly felt very privileged to have been in this extremely stacked group.
Here’s a simple photo tour of Basecamp.
On the hills of basecamp resides many marmots. Although local plants are scarce, these marmots can somehow find food and become very fat. I’ve had the fortune to get up close to one of the younger ones, who are still exploring the world. Every time I approach the young marmot, it would retreat back to its underground tunnel. Five seconds later, it would try to come out again. In the end, we became friends (I think) and although it’s still a bit of afraid of me, it’s willingly photographed.
This one below isn't shot by me, but still cute.
In the morning, our guides showed us how to maneuver all kinds of gear and equipment. It was a lot of information to take in, given that my headache had not completely dissolved. Since a lot of us had plans to climb 8000m peaks, our guide also introduced us to oxygen masks. There’re only 14 mountains on the world higher than 8000m (26000 feet), and it is standard that climbers use supplemental when climbing those peaks. Mount Everest is 8848m (29029 feet).
One of the challenging aspects of climbing Muztagh Ata is that almost no one climbs with supplemental oxygen. At 24757 feet, it is very close to the height of a 26000 feet peak, so oxygen level is extremely low. In addition, on 8000m peaks, climbers generally start inhaling supplemental oxygen at 6000m (20000 feet) on, while climbers on Muztagh Ata need to climb to stay at two high camps above 6000m.
In the afternoon, we finally got our equipment and gears. I’ve always wanted to have my own 8000m expedition suit, and these things are heavy. As one of our team members put it, we’re going to become “walking sleeping bags.” The suits are heavier than my 1500g, -40 degrees sleeping bag.
Then there’s the climbing shoes. I’ve always rented them before, but this time, I also finally get to have my own pair. The good things about these 8000m rated shoes is that you don’t need gaiters to keep out snow; the shoe has a gaiter attached to itself.
Another equipment we need is snowshoes. Muztagh Ata is a heavily snowed mountain. According to previous climbers, ever with snowshoes, paths may still be hard to step out as your feet sink into the ground as you walk. These snowshoes are the most professional ones I’ve. At first, I was worried that without crampons, there might be chances of slip & fall, but there’re so many spikes on the snowshoes.
At 6 p.m., we welcomed another group of 24 climbers, who departed one day later than we did. Our whole schedule is one day off from them, so I was pretty sad that I won’t get much opportunity to talk to them.
Another challenging thing about climbing these big peaks is that the acclimation period is usually very long. Honestly, I was very bored on our first rest day. You wake up at 8 a.m. and sleep at 1 a.m. Although there are activities like training sessions, equipment lessons, and sightseeing, it gets pretty boring to be stuck at the same area for an entire day. Most of our time is spent on sitting on a chair and spacing out toward the mountain.
Tomorrow we start our first acclimation climb, which I was excited, but at the same time, scared. I’ve heard stories of climbers getting exhausted (literally) and had to be dragged down because the great amount of elevation gain from BC and C1. Good luck to me.
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