Houston

Pic 1. Team Down Climbing the Snow Slopes

 

Pic 2. Buddhi and Santosh waiting to greet the team at the snow line.

 

Pic 3. The team coming down to BC.

 

After spending the majority of the morning scoping out the snow hole for signs of life, finally, I spotted the guys alongside their winter home wearing a selection of colours.( Red, Green and Blue) There seemed to be quite a lot of traffic, back and forth, back and forth, 09h00, 09h30, 10h00... The boys should have left by now. "Why are they still milling about the snow cave at such a late hour?"

 

SPECULATION: They didnt want to spend too long at the base of the Pillar and hence where planning a later start.

 

SPECULATION: They know the weather starts to reveal what it has planned for the day in the late morning and are waiting for about 10h00 to make a decision.

 

FACT: 10h15 and they are on the move. Buddhi, Santosh and myself are relieved they are finally on their way. BUT not the way we expected, they where abseiling down the mountain.

 

Realising that the team are on their way back to BC. I thought it appropriate to once again, mission up the mountain and surprise them with a bit of camera interrogation and bring up something nice for the boys to snack on. So packing my bags with all the toys and some tasty Mango Frooti drinks. Headphones on and scrolling through Matt's MP3 player, I came across "Salmonella Dub" which had a fantastic rhythm matching my mountain plod. Saying goodbye to Buddhi and Santosh, I made my way back to the same spot I greeted the team off from, just days before.

 

Hanging around the snow line for about an hour and a half, they finally reached us. When I say us, I include Buddhi and Santosh. On my way up the mountain, I was flapping my arms around like a bird in time to one of the music tracks (generally looking like a bit of a tit) turned round to find Buddhi and Santosh right behind me laughing their heads off at my silly wing flapping action. Seems like they figured they might as well come up the mountain and see what the news was…. Flip Flops, skipping up the mountain side. How unfit do I feel now?

 

Well the boys are back, safe and sound and the Frooti drinks I brought up definitely brought a smile to their faces.

 

I would like to tell you the whole story but I don't want to spoil the other guys fun. They are eagerly waiting for me to get off this netbook to get their story online.

 

David