EXPEDITIONS

“4 a.m. Up, breakfast, harness, helmet, equipment: we’re off! Luckily this limestone can be climbed even wet. The weather alternated endlessly between rain, drizzle and snow for the entire three-and-a-half-hour climb. Finally we reached the 4,884-metre summit. A few photos later and we were on our way back down. We thought we might rappel down quickly several times in a row to get back to our warm tents, but another team was having problems. A client in a commercial expedition was exhausted, unable to get through the crux sequence (the most technically difficult part of the climb). He was hanging head down, feet in the air and unable to get back up. I helped the team leader by getting his client out of that tricky position and taking him down with us. That little episode slowed our descent considerably, but it all turned out well in the end.”