ABC - Puja and Building the Throne

I compare the feeling of waiting for news from the North Col team while sat at ABC to waiting for a boy to call… One sits by the phone for hours, waiting for the phone to ring, buzz, beep…. Any sign of life.

So we sat - Pete, Matt and I - at ABC in the “Communications Tent” (now make-shift breakfast tent) waiting to hear news from the team at the North Col. They’d spent their first night at 7000m last night and today were due to make their way up to the next milestone - 7500m. I wondered however, whether the plan was still on schedule given that it was clear from the heavy wind and snow that we were experiencing at ABC that the North Col was experiencing some vicious winds, snow and extremely low temperatures.

It was 8:30am and we had not heard any sign of life from the North Col. Suddenly, there was a crackle and some static on the radio and Matt’s voice broke through the radio silence:

“Come in Stu. This is Matt. Over”

“Morning Matt. Hope you’re ok? Over”

“Stu…. What are we going to do………..? The weather is horrendous?!”

Pete, Matt, and I sat alert, our porridge spoons poised in our hands, as we listened transfixed at the developments. The cook boy came into the tent armed with giant slabs of bacon and eggs preparing to serve us our second course of breakfast….

“Uhhhh…” (crackle crackle…. Sound of wind howling in the background) “Just sit tight for now. Andrew’s been out and he said that it’s not that bad out there” (strange sound ensues that sounds like zipper coming down and tent being blown away).

A short, curt conversation took place between our two valiant leaders stuck on the North Col where it was decided that those wishing to brave the 80mph gusts, heaps of snow, and extreme cold would be welcome to go out.

Back down at ABC we huddled deeper into our down jackets and turned up the heat of our gas fired heater…. The smell of burning plastic began to emanate from Pete’s down-booties… It certainly sounded like the conditions were hell up there and the radio silence from the rest of the team indicated that they were not full of their usual ’vim and vigour’.

It sounded like the conditions were so bad that had the team wanted to get down, it would certainly have been a struggle and only attempted in the event of an emergency. I imagined them all huddled deep in their sleeping bags, frantically trying to boil water and breathe life into their boil in a bag meals…. Poor lads..!

We continued to eat our breakfast in quiet comfort. It was a strange feeling knowing that our friends were up there in difficult conditions while we enjoyed the luxuries of ABC. Knowing, at the same time, that our time to head up the Col and brave the elements was inevitable and just around the corner. Our only consolation was a weather forecast we’d received hinting that calmer weather was on its way.

The ABC Puja

One of today’s highlights was the puja or ‘blessing’ for Matt before he joined us in his ascent of the mountain. Matt had missed the team puja back at Basecamp several weeks ago due to his battle with HAPE in the early stages of the trip when he was forced to head back to Kathmandu for treatment. Back and ready to brave the mountain all that was left was the ceremony before our own ascent of the North Col.

It was bowing a gale outside and the snow had not let up so we weren’t expecting anything elaborate…. We were summoned outside by several sherpas to find the lama sitting behind a small carin covered with offerings of food and drink (primarily juice boxes and cooking whiskey). Chairs and mattresses were set up in front of the carin for Matt and the rest of us to join in the festivities. It was a chilly ceremony but thoroughly enjoyable -almost more intimate than the group puja we’d had a few weeks before. While the snow fell upon us and the wind howled, the traditional rice was thrown, flour was smeared on our faces and the prayer scarves were tied around our necks.

You know you’re bored at ABC when...

We spent the rest of the day looking for various ways that we could comfortably pass the time in the warmth of the comms tent (staying strategically close to the radio and heater) and still keep active and entertained in our rather limited surroundings. Given that somehow, even with 3 people, conversation always seems to degenerate down to ‘toilets’ it was no surprise that an EUREKA moment took place at circ 15:00h that will forever change the face of toilets at ABC…

I’ve already provided far to generous detail on the topic of ‘toilets’ in this blog so won’t go into any great detail about the severe problems with the ‘squatter’ style toilets at ABC. In a nutshell, cold, dangerously tipsy, incredibly smelly, and uncomfortable resulting in messy and unfortunate accidents and numerous morning ‘Spanish Inquisitions’. Thinking back to how the events unfolded today I’m not sure who exactly initially came up with idea but we soon found ourselves straddling a plastic garden chair, cutting a large round hole in the seat with a multi-tool and ice-axe. My task was to cut a’seat’ from the foam-carpet on the floor of the mess-tent and then duct tape this to the seat of the chair and around the inside perimeter of the hole to ensure hat the user would not sustain ay injuries on a few jagged edges. The chair would then be strategically be placed over the bottomless pit that is the ABC toilet tent.

“Necessity is the mother of invention” and this was indeed a creation worthy of Dragons Den. Comfortable. Reliable. Functional. A coin toss was held to see who would be the first to test rive the masterpiece….

Needless to say, just as the afternoon update of the extreme hardship from the front line came through over the radio, we were all sat round the dinner table, feasting on chicken, rice and chips with smiles of content on our faces. Our day of acclimatisation had not gone to waste and we felt quietly confident that our contribution to the evolution of the ABC toilet would go down in history.