Climbers Prepare for Summit Bid!

Pho­to: Moun­tain Mad­ness Collection

We arrived at high camp of Mera Peak today! All arrived healthy and we are ready for the mid­dle of the night wake up call to climb to the summit. 

Easy glac­i­er slopes led to the 19,000+-foot camp, where MC, the cook’s assis­tant, met us with a hot drink and his usu­al smile. This guy is amaz­ing: he car­ries loads, helps in the kitchen tent and serves our meals through all sorts of con­di­tions, be it rain, snow or below-freez­ing temperatures.

As we worked our way up the glac­i­er, we were con­tin­u­al­ly passed by porters, maybe a bit more than half our weight, car­ry­ing mon­ster loads in ten­nis shoes. Views of the sur­round­ing peaks peri­od­i­cal­ly appeared through the clouds, includ­ing Makalu, and the sun was even out most of the day. 

Just as we arrived in camp, which is perched on a rock island and hun­dreds of feet above the glac­i­er, the usu­al snow set­tles in on us. Inside the com­fort of our tents, we hear birds look­ing for food scraps, snow pel­lets on the tent wall, the stove roar­ing in the cook tent, and of course, Lap­kha enter­tain­ing the troops. And so we wait.…

~ MM Pres­i­dent Mark Gunlogson