31 August - 2 September 2001:
No Myth
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The view.
We could see little to nothing most to all of the time. We jumped a few 4'-6' crevasses, shot a bearing and checked the altimeter numerous times (reading 7400') before starting to wonder how far we were going to have to go to find a bivy. We could not see the East Ridge through a near whiteout. Near its base were supposed to be a number of flat spots on "rock islands." We could see a rock tower off right (south), which was guarded by nasty looking crevasses, bridges and a massive bergshrund. I mentioned pressing on north until we hit something; Brett suggested checking the rock tower, since we could see it. I bought Brett's logic. Brett led over, into and through the 'shrund to the tower. I offered to scramble up and take a look at sites. The gully heading up was very loose and led to a number of small, downsloping mud flats peppered with rock fragments on the right, and mostly small, rocky ledges and slabs on the left. We eventually chose and cleared a 6'x4' rock ledge about 50' up the tower. It was cozy. |
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