On the fourteenth day, we finally descended two camps down. We were fortunate with sunny weather, allowing us to fully appreciate the beauty of the West Buttress ridge. I was in awe of the surroundings; words cannot describe it. The vertical descent with a fixed rope was more challenging due to my faulty crampons, which kept falling off my boots. I absolutely hated those crampons! Chris had to help me put them on each time, making it both physically and emotionally stressful.
However, all bad things come to an end. We managed to descend the ice wall to the camp below, where we rested, had lunch, packed up, and threw our bags filled with kilos of poop into the infamous ice crevasse, the only designated spot for disposal of CMC toilet can’s contents.
Late in the afternoon, we began our descent to the next camp. The weather worsened, and visibility dropped to zero. It was dangerous to carry heavy sleds behind us, but we reached our destination, found our cache, dug it up, pitched the tent, had dinner, and even played cards a bit.
There was only one more cold night left in this tent. While I was looking forward to sleeping in a normal bed, using a proper toilet, and taking a shower, I felt a little sad that our expedition and adventures were ending. Oddly enough, I fell asleep that night, enjoying the tent atmosphere in the vast kingdom of snow and ice. Two weeks had been enough for me not only to get used to this challenging life in a tent but also to somehow enjoy it. I will definitely miss these expedition days.
On the fifteenth day, we woke up early and quickly got ready to head to the last camps below. The weather was nasty, with snow falling all the time, but we were happy that those are our final hours on this mountain. We descended rapidly despite the gigantic distance we had to cover on foot, using crampons and snowshoes across the glaciers.
We were the only ones descending this immense glacier toward a small open blue window between two white sheets of clouds and glaciers. Almost no one was climbing up: despite it being the height of the season, most probably the bad weather had deterred most climbers.
By midday, we were already at the glacier airfield, waiting for our turn to fly back on the plane. I was happy we got down healthy and safe, especially considering that one Japanese climber unfortunately died after the last camp, another at the summit, and two people from the Netherlands got frostbite on their fingers.
On the other hand, I was sad that this amazing adventure was coming to an end. Our plane was already in sight landing. We turned and walked toward it with our pulka-sleds and luggage. We loaded everything, took a farewell photo in front of the plane, and soon we were airborne.
This expedition taught me a lot. I improved many of my technical skills on the glacier and rocks, became more tolerant towards my expedition partners, learned to remain positive and optimistic no matter the circumstances, to be grateful for simple things, to be patient, and to take care of the well-being of the entire team. I will forever remember this expedition!