Baruntse, 7220m, sits in the remote Hinku valley of Nepal, which is accessed through either the Honku or the Kumbu valleys via big passes – in other words, once you’re there, you’re trapped! In recent years the mountain has attracted some commercial interest. It’s big, beautiful and most importantly, objectively safe. However, it has also gained a reputation for being tough. Baruntse is high, at over 7000m the oxygen in the atmosphere is only 40% of what it is at sea level making any physical effort excruciatingly difficult. Teams have also been defeated by bad snow conditions making upward progress impossible. In the autumn of 2008, whilst I was leading a group for Adventure Peaks, the gods seemed happy and gave us perfect conditions from bottom to top.
Base camp on Baruntse is a desolate place; it lies on un-even rocky moraine by a small lake at 5400m. Our route lay in front of us, its south ridge dominating the sky-line and our objective, the summit, nearly a further 2 vertical kilometres higher. We placed two camps on the mountain which served as our acclimatization and then after a rest day, with the weather still looking good, we started our summit bid.
The route to camp 1 was now very familiar and felt a lot easier than the first time we had all struggled towards it. The routine of collecting snow to melt began and we were all soon cocooned inside our warm sleeping bags. The next day soon dawned and after an hour or two of melting snow and drinking brews we were off towards camp 2. The route to camp 2 climbs a steep snow slope before levelling out and delivering you in to a large open area at 6400m. With a very early start planned for the next morning, we were all soon inside our tents preparing for the next day…the summit!
At 1am we rose from our half sleep. Sluggish bodies and minds disturbed by the altitude started the auto-pilot and things began to get ready. The night outside was cold and dark, with no moon in the sky, no moody shapes of mountains could be made out. By about 2.30am we were ready and set off. Only the small pool of a headlamp showed the way. My world was this, a small 2 metre circle of light reflecting nothing but the cold glare of snow and ice. The squeak of crampons and axes filled my head with rhythm and the freezing cold biting into my body gave a warm distraction from the physical effort needed. Dawn came slowly, but with its light also came a recharge. We were nearly at the mountains south summit. Once there the route ahead was beautiful. A narrow exposed ridge line with stunning snow formations rose and fell finally leading to our goal, the mountains top. At 9.30am, I climbed the final 50 metres of exposed ridge and stopped. Prayer flags from a previous team blew in the wind and a panorama of peaks surrounded me, the view was almost as good as the journey it took to get here.
Chris Walker on the Summit of Baruntse!
Chris Walker is a professional Mountaineering Instructor based in the Lake District. He has climbed all over the world with successful ascents of alpine routes and Himalayan peaks to his name. He runs courses all year round in all aspects of mountaineering including, rock climbing and scrambling, navigation and Scottish winter.
