: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.
:15:04
It is some of the most precarious, unnerving
and dangerous climbing I've ever done.
:15:18
We were actually scared, that
we would get to an impass,
:15:21
where we couldn't climb any further up.
:15:23
Because we knew we wouldn't
be able to get back down,
:15:26
not what we've already climbed.
:15:27
We were climbing ourselves into a trap.
:15:32
And not only that, we could see this
150 meter drop that was waiting for us.
:15:45
And so it was with great
relief that by 14:00,
:15:49
we got onto the north
ridge and on the west face.
:15:52
And we vowed that we didn't want to
go near any of the flutings again.