Cheat Codes

Photos from Mount Kenya's Southern side during the first decade of following the ascent of The Diamond Couloir (in the 70's), show this amazing snow-chocked gully , spilling down onto the glacier in - what looks like - a giant cone of snow. In fact, the first ascensionists were able to cut steps. In June 2018, our first attempt was the first time in a decade that The Diamond Couloir appeared to "fully" form, so Julian Wright and I went to have a look. The friendly angled snow cone leading from the glacier to the couloir proper, was no longer - in its place was steep, hard, ice definitely more of the front-pointing type and less of the step-cutting variety as far as techniques go.

We were shut down pretty quickly for a number of reasons - we'd actually never climbed together, and when suddenly confronted with (what is now) the crux pitch of steep ice with a mixed overlap, our collective psyche, gear, and will were not up to the task.

In late September we returned. As a climbing partnership we had spent a little more time tied-in together which certainly changed our willingness to try harder, risk more, there was a bond of subconscious trust needed to leave the ground on big mountains.
Also, I had brought a bag full of tricks with the mindset to use it if needed. There were, of course, no bolts but the bag had hooks, cam-hooks, snargs, and even a turf-piton as well as blades, angles and baby angles.

The image above is typical of alpine climbing photography - terrible angle and poor lighting. But it tells an unseen story. Our strategy was to climb up to the 2nd pitch and then spend as long as needed on that pitch, setting ropes. We had no idea what lay above the pitch, so packed a single sleeping bag, a single bivi bag, a stove, and food for a day.

The image shows the tools used to get through that pitch:

If pictures tell a thousand words, this one would tell you that I'm approaching the business end of the pitch, and on my harness were screws, etriers, blades, angles, and an extra ice tool. It would tell you that my plan for the overlap was to pound an angle into the rock if possible, throw the extra tool in over the "roof" and aid directly off of that while also using the two tools in my hands. It would wax lyrical about how fun, engaging, and absorbing it was combining real aid with some mixed and some ice genres. It would tell you, too, that the bulge is longer than can be seen (typical) and that the air is thin up there!

If pictures could talk, this one would, then, chuckle at what happened next! Having despatched the pitch with our renewed attitude and altered warfare technique (I haded directly off the extra tool, three times), we chose to continue with our single sleeping bag, 1 bivi bag and1 day's food - but failed to adjust gear with the adjusted strategy. We hauled the extra hardware up 700m of steep ice, at 5000m and spent 3 days in total for the return trip.

If pictures could talk, they'd almost always tell you that good choices are made from experience, that experience is gained from (often) poor choices, and that Alpinism, like life, would be far less fun, if it were easy and comfortable!

If pictures could talk this one would tell you that if one is simply stronger, one would have no need to cheat and one could climb this all free - and life would be so much easier!

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