Problems
Choosing a vacation of this kind, you have to take into account, that not always everything goes smoothly and according to plan. Sometimes there are just small obstacles to overcome, sometimes you have to give up, and sometimes it gets really dangerous and things can go very wrong. Such is the charm of long trips and high mountains expeditions, there is nothing you can do about it. Also this time we had to face some unplanned events. Problems with the car, problems with luggage, problems with diarrhea, sleeping problems, language problems, love life problems, problems with altitude, problems with equipment, with knees, with donkeys, with weather, with visibility, problems with moraines and evil gods, problems with taxi drivers taking us somewhere out of town, instead of the bus station, when our bus leaves in 10 minutes… Problems.
One of the most serious was probably Szymon’s broken ribs. An accident, caused by a heavy backpack, occurred during one of our bike trips. Now, on the ascent to Ishinka (5530 m), Szymon looks like a corpse and with the backpack and skis on his back he is barely able to breathe. I admire him, because in such a state I probably would not have decided to go up. It’s good that he overcome that, because the ski descent turns out to be great, and the views are out of this world.
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But now we are thinking about climbing and skiing one more mountain – Tocllaraju, higher and more serious. And what now? To go or not to go – a classic mountain dilemma. I can’t stop thinking about it, the mountain is beautiful, a challenge is greater than the previous peaks, it would also be a bit of climbing, the descent looks great for skiing… the cherry on the cake of this expedition. But on the other hand, everyone is already tired, Szymon cannot even sneeze because of his ribbs, we have little gas, the mountain is more serious, people died on it, the glacier is large and severely crevassed… What are we supposed to do?
In the vast meadow that serves as Base Camp, I meet Juliana from Ecuador, whom I met at Gasherbrum II two years earlier. We drink coffee and talk about mountain plans. She tells me that for two days there has been no news from Nanga Parbat about Mariano and Alberto, two great climbers we’ve met in Pakistan. I feel uneasy about it. We are still considering going on Tocllaraju. It’s really hard to let go sometimes, harder than you might think. You never know “what if” and this question stays in your mind forever, especially if your goal is more ambitious. But the next day we make the decision to go down, we pack our bags and head back to Huaraz. A few days later, I read that the search for missing climbers has ended, and Mariano Galvan and Alberto Zerain are presumed dead.