Unclimbed Tibet Expedition 2005 Live Updates

24 September 2005
Well here we go again. Tommorrow we jump on the plane (with enough luggage to bring down a Hercules) and fly to Chengdu. In a de ja vu moment, we received an email earlier this week merrily informing us that we didn't in fact, have the permits that we'd been told we had, and not to leave NZ. We seem to have that sorted out now (fingers crossed) and hopefully arranging flights to Lhasa once we're in Chengdu should be pain free. Due to cost we've had to choose a single expedition objective rather than last years plan, which was to see what looked best once in the valley. We've settled on Birutaso (6691m), on the south side of the Lawa valley. The peak remains largely enigmatic- we have a photo that may or may not be Birutaso taken by Tomatsu Nakamura, and a picture that we took out the window on the flight to Lhasa last year. Again this may or may not be Birutaso. Other than these shots it's all a bit of a mystery, which is a large part of the attraction.

More from Lhasa.
1 Oct - Lhasa
Tommorrow we leave Lhasa to begin the drive into Eastern Tibet. It's been two long years of organising and one near miss, but finally it looks like the expedition is going to happen. We have parted with large amounts of cash and now have the permits, a couple of insignificant pieces of paper that seem to mean the world, in our hot little hands. We're ready for blast off.
We arrived here two days ago and have suffered the normal headaches and vague nausea that goes with altitude. Lhasa is a wonderful place filled with colour and noise, and retains its Tibetan heart despite being nearly swamped. We have both dreamed of arriving here at the beginning of an expedition since we were kids- its feels great to finally be amongst it all. The last two days have been filled with the usual frenetic activity that proceeds heading off towards basecamp, locating and then buying all the little things that make life on an expedition just that little bit more comfortable like a picnic blanket (I kid you not) and "Happy Days" Chinese red wine (uh oh). Our fine grasp of both the Chinese language and cuisine makes buying 40 days worth of food an exercise in comedy. The suspense lasts until basecamp, when we break open the packets of strange looking things which we think are dried fish but may indeed be Yaks Pancreas. 

Still lots of packing to do.
10th October - Lawa Valley
A big hello from the Lawa valley. We finally reached here after 2 years! 
Four days ago we rode into base camp on a lovely set of Tibetan horses. Base camp is at 4,000 metres and in the grounds of a local Lawa valley monastery.  We are surrounded by gob-smacking views; beach forest covered hills, huge rock walls and enormous mountains.
It has rained every day that we have been here so we have become a little despondent about the weather, but we have had enough breaks to poke our noses up the valley onto one of the glaciers that leads to Birutaso. There are two possible routes to the mtn that we are going to continue to try and explore. We will know in a week or so hopefully if the weather behaves. Then we will start shuttling loads up towards Birutaso; so all going well we will have an attempt there in the next 2 – 4 weeks. Until then we are fit and well and loving being here. 
We have been entertaining the locals and teaching them how to use a Frisbee and some New Zealand English.  ‘Gid-day mate’ is now becoming a common greeting in the monastery

17th October - Lawa Valley
Well we have been in the Lawa Valley now for 15 days and have managed to see the top of Birutaso for the first time yesterday, unfortunately from the wrong side! We returned unconvinced from our first access route to the mountain. This included a high pass and ice fall, deep snow and avalanache prone, so was not the desired one. Our main concerns are snow conditions and the time it took to access the pass. We will attempt route No 2 in the next few days.
We have had two close encounters from the four legged valley inhabitants. The first was to awaken and find a lot of snow leopard footprints around our camp site. However this experience was soon overshadowed; as we were returning to our base camp via a lakes inescapable, narrow beach lake, it slowly dawned on us, that the wet tracks we were following belonged to a bear! (Somewhat daunting). We nervously made our way back to the sanctuary of our monastery base camp. We have acclimatised well to 4,500 metres and still in good spirits with a healthy amount of supplies left.  We are looking at making an attempt in 2 weeks. Our summit view of the mountain did not reveal too many secretes but did wet our appetites and we are very excited and determined about the next phase.

October 18th - Base Camp

We're a little more despondent now- Route No 2 has proven to be impassable due to the impenetrable Rhododendrons- We kid you not! After much torment, pain and suffering, a 600m stretch of Rhododendrons has sent us packing.  It looks like it's back to the bottomless snow and avalanches of Route No1- The Choirboy Col route.

October 24th- Advanced Base Camp 4700m

We're committed to the Choirboy Col route now and have spent two days carrying loads to an ABC and four days waiting for weather to clear. 4 days precip-hmm- how far up my leg does that much snow go?? Now we're at ABC ready to go at an all out push to try and at least get the base of our peak. We have 16 days food and gas.

October 29th - Camp 1  5400m
We finally got to this camp at Choirboy Col yesterday after fours days of heartache. Two days of breaking trail through bottomless snow in the icefall was rendered a waste of effort by heavy snow and widespread avalanching. At least it got some equipment up the route a little way. Due to the snow we are being reduced to double and triple carrying loads. Finally arrived and have a nice new (somewhat drippy) snowcave to call hm.

November 1- Camp 2 5150m

The battle of the snow continues. It continues to snow every night and most days and even with snow shoes is knee to thigh deep. We got avalanched in the Camp 1 snowcave. and then discovered we had to drop 500m around an icefall to begin the traverse towards Birutaso- doesn't sound like much, but when forward progress is measured in not many hundered/meters/day- it's a little depressing. We're starting to feel that getting to somewhere where we can see the mountain will be an acheivement. The climb seems like a remote possibility at this stage. Still -an incredible feeling to be the first eyes to gaze over acres of neves, tumbling icefalls and incredible soaring peaks. This really is an unseen wonderland.

November 8th- Basecamp

Well a little bloody-mindedness goes a long way. We summitted Birutaso on the 5th Nov and arrived back here today, somewhat  jaded and a little lighter for our efforts. We finally reached the upper Birutaso neve, on the south side of the mountain on the 3rd and moved into a high camp(C4-5650m) there on the 4th. What a gobsmacking place. We were surrounded by razor sharp, fluted peaks that seemed to touch the sky whie down valley we looked out over endless mountains, glaciers and icefalls- all never visited or even seen before. Birutaso reared above camp in a series of huge, steep rock butresses- so different from the icy north side we had seen so briefly from the valley. It was almost unbelievable to be so close to it after so long. Birutaso- the protector diety of the surrounding area, looked fantastic.

With little food of gas left we didn't have time for an ached for rest day and left in the middle of the night for our only possible attempt- it was a trifle chilly! A long and steepening access gully led us onto the east ridge which we followed through a series of steep gullies and avalanche prone steps to the final summit pyramid. Sunset saw a sense of loosing the plot somewhat as exhustion, very steep deep snow, cold and dark played with our minds. We summitted at 10pm- feeling small  and scared and made the decision (not lightly!!) to bivy just below the top, at around 6550m. Unplanned bivies are always long nights- at that altitude they are interminable. Next morning we crawled to the summit again, in, luckily, clear but cold and windy weather before beginning the long descent back to C4.

We've arrived back here somewhat numb- (certainly with numb frost-nipped toes)- after 16 days above basecamp, with 0.5 a bottle of gas left and almost no food. We've not yet hit elation mode but it will come. For so long we thought there was no chance and then suddenly we found a chink in Birutaso's armour. Neither of us have gone through anywhere near this much sheer hard work on a peak before- time for some sleep.

November 12 - Lhasa

Ah- the fleshpots of civilisation again. We're lounging around in unapologetic laziness. So many wonderful things to see in Lhasa and we much more focussed on when the next Yak steak is ready. Having said that both our stomachs have shrunk and our systems are definitely not so happy. We can't eat much!!!! It's absolute torment. We're both a little slimmer than last time we were here. Jo lost 17kg's!! I'm hoping it doesn't blow too much in case he snaps off at the stomach.

What an incredible trip- the Lawa Valley has to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. A bit of privation and suffering makes the success all the sweeter- although I suspect that, had we known, we may have gone to Tahiti. The local people were wonderful and seemed genuinely happy that Birutaso had let us stand on its top- we placed Kharta from the monastary and Prayer flags there, as requested. Tashi Wangdra, the local Monk invited us to spend the last night at his house in the Punkar village and we spent a very special evening with him and his family- who had been so good to us over the previous 5 weeks. We certainly had large lumps in our throats when we turned our backs on the valley for the last time.