:13:01
was about 100m of the
most nightmarish climbing.
:13:06
Completely unstable powder snow.
:13:10
No anchors at any point.
:13:13
It was physically very, very
tiring, full-body climbing really.
:13:26
It took us the best part of 5 or
6 hours to climb about 65 meters.
:13:39
Carried on way after it got dark.
:13:43
I was getting extremely cold,
'cause I was sitting still
:13:46
while Simon was trying to climb.
:13:48
I was getting near hypothermic.
:13:51
You just knew that if you'd
just carried on, regardless,
:13:54
it was gonna go tits up.
:13:57
So we dug a snow cave.
:14:16
In the morning, in good weather,
:14:18
we actually saw what
we'd been trying to climb.
:14:29
It was this undeering nightmare of
:14:32
flutings of the finest powder
gouged out by snow falling down
:14:37
meringues, and mushrooms, and
cornices all over the place.
:14:43
We'd heard about these strange powder
snow conditions you get in the Andes,
:14:47
and we've never seen it before.
:14:50
I don't know the physics that explains why
powder snow can stay on such steep slopes.
:14:55
In the Alps it would just slide off
if the slope was about 40 degrees.