December 11, 2003
9:14 AM
Nathalie Cabrol
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A Night on the Summit--By Nathalie Cabrol
November 15, 2003
What a night! The wind started to pick up at night fall again but this time instead of calming down with daybreak it just increased in strength. It has been blowing all night long without stopping, most of the time in gusts that we assessed to be around 100 km/h. Greg's tent is pretty high and has taken the full hit. It was flapping and going side to side most of the
time. Now, the wind is an issue. If it stays this strong, it will be impossible to get to the summit. We are having a "war" meeting in Greg's tent. The war is against the wind. We have three options: breaking camp and go back to the refuge if we feel that the weather is going to degenerate to a point that it could become dangerous for our safety; wait a little bit to assess the evolution for the next couple of hours: if it goes better, we proceed with our plan to finish the science and go back to the refuge in the afternoon; if it stays the same, take part of the team back to the refuge and leave a small squad here to wrap up the science later, maybe tomorrow. Macario has joined the conversation. With all his knowledge and experience of this mountain, I ask him again and again what he thinks about the weather. He tells me that the wind will be strong all day probably but he is positive that there is no risk of snow or thunderstorm. My worry is that we are getting closer to the "Altiplanic winter" time. Although this is summer, this is a time when clouds reach the Altiplano and snow and electric storms become an issue. Snow would not be fun but we could deal with it. Electrical storms are a totally different matter. I give ourselves a couple of hours to see what happens. I do not like at all the idea of leaving part of the team behind at the summit to finish the job and I discuss this some more. As time passes, the wind does not stop but calm down somewhat. We are proceeding as planned except that I am not taking the whole team to the summit. Part of the team will stay here to break up the camp. I will go with Rob, Andy, Aaron, Victor and Macario to finish the job back in the crater. We will return at 11:00 AM and everybody will go back together at the refuge, as planned. I ask Greg to take charge of breaking the camp and make things happen while we are in the crater. We have radios. Around 9:00 AM, our little squad is in route to the summit. We are not too many and it is going to take some time before we get things done. Rob needs a hand for the UV plates. We are looking on the shoreline to find the right place to position them. The morphology of the shore is not helping at all. The level has dropped about 50 cm since last year and an embankment was formed that goes almost directly in the water. We have just a little
platform to position the plates. After some hesitation about the site, we find one suitable for the experiment. We position the plates. The last thing to do is to anchor them with big blocks and ropes. Rob has now the waders on and is attaching the two plates that make the station. This job is done. I borrow Andy's camera and photograph the experiment now in place. Time is flying. We should already be back at camp. I try to contact Greg by radio but the crater creates a wall and we cannot go through. Macario tries
with his own radio which is a bit more powerful than mine but without success. I then ask Victor to go to the summit rim to try sending the message again from up there: we need one more hour to finish the job. Victor comes back after successfully contacting Greg. Andy still needs to do a profile with his temperature probe which will take a total of half an hour and then, we have the dosimeter to install. While Andy is working with his probe, Aaron is packing his equipment. I have been thinking for a moment to take the boat and try again to do some bathymetric profiling but half the lake is frozen this morning and the other one is wavy because of the wind. There is no way I can do that. Andy is done with his probe and we move to position the UV dosimeter. The place seems right, well-protected from the gusts of wind by smaller rocks that do not cast shadows on the solar panel. Macario is giving a hand to place the screws and bolts. It should be close to noon now. After 20 minutes of effort, the moment of truth. Andy is holding the cable that goes from the solar panel to the dosimeter. He plugs it in and we all hold our breath. Few seconds pass and suddenly, we see the little screen light up and the latitude and longitude, the altitude of the site show up. The dosimeter is talking!!! Few more seconds after, the first UV data start to be recorded. We can see them on the screen. This is a very special moment too. It gives us a sense of achievement after such rough morning fighting the cold and the wind in the slope and in the crater. Our last science task is completed. Mission accomplished. We take a few photos there too for the record. This is a very special moment, definitely, but he also signals that time has come. We must go. Andy wants to show me a last thing before we leave the crater and the lake for this year. He has positioned another temperature logger in the lake. The two of us are now standing there. As a tradition, Incas use to
leave pieces of metal in the lake for protection, some say gold or silver. Before leaving, I will not fail the tradition. I have my "lucky" hat with me, the one that makes all the ascents. On it, I have my two pins. They are neither gold nor silver but they mean a lot to me for what they represent: one is from the ascent team, the other one from the 2003 expedition. I detach this latter and hold it in my hand. I throw the pin as far as I can in the lake. It plunges in the water close to the center, close to this deep point. It is now time to go. We walk a last time around the shore to reach the north side from where we will ascend again to get out of the crater. Unlike last year, as we ascend I will turn several times and take the time to admire this lake and this crater before we leave.
Continued...
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