Climbs

So here we were, in the storm. And here was I, depressed as hell, even crying at some point. Try this: empty your bank account and leave a big fat ZERO dollars in it, hop on a plane to go to some remote destination to climb a mountain. Before that, train for it in Singapore, where there are no mountains. Get to your remote destination to climb the mountain of your choice, only to find that the weather is so fucked up that you can't even TRY to climb it.

The next day, though, to my utter happiness, the bad weather broke. Our tent was a bit covered in snow and people coming from Italy to the Margarita Hut did take it for a way point*, but life was good.



The Regina (quuen) Margarita hut is the highest building in all Europe. It stands at an altitude of 4554m, on top of the Signalkuppe summit. So we headed towards it with a cup of hot coffee in mind. The winds, they were horrific, as you can see in this picture. Marius was also walking very slowly for some reason.


We finally got to the hut where we enjoyed 4 Euros worth of instant coffee, and some tea and some vegetable soup, Radu's treat since the summit was his first over 4000m peak.

We also got our oxygen saturation level measured and blood pressure taken and lungs listened to by a doctor from Zurich. She was performing a study on AMS. My respiratory rate was 12 per minute, Radu's 20 per minute and Marius's 25 per minute. Marius beat the hell out of us with an oxygen saturation of 85% while we clocked a mere 78-79. The doctor asked me if I smoked. I said that I quit. Then she said that my lungs were extraordinary clear. I don't know if I should be happy or freaked out. I wonder if I have a big hole in my lung if it sounds the same as if they are clear. Should ask Nita.

From the window's hut we saw another summit. I went and asked the caretaker what was the name of the summit and, after giving me a funny look, he said it was Zummsteinspitze (4563m). We went and did that one too. It has a pretty amazing corniced snow ridge.



The next day Marius decided to take a rest to prepare for Lyskamm so Radu and I went to do Parrotspitze (4432m). It was standing right there in our backyard, so, why not? It would be my first time ever leading a ridge too.

Now the ridge wasn't hard at all, just that it was very narrow and the wind was very strong. Radu got a bit freaked and asked me not to take any more pictures, so I don't have that many pictures of the ridge drop.

However, while we were on the summit, one team gave up their intention to cross. Maybe they had forgotten something at the hut.



Next to Parrotspitze there was another summit, Ludwigshoe (4341m). Easy peasy, it was over in 20 minutes. Next to it there was yet another one (you can see it behind me), but I decided not to go, because we were going for Lyskamm the next day.



*This meant that a lot of people were coming towards our tent and thus Radu could not pee because of the crowds.