Monday, August 19, 2019

Mentok 2019






A fun climb with a couple of fine gentlemen. The father-son duo were always on the ball and unflinching in their approach. They were acclimatising pretty well from the town to the road head and on the acclimatisation hikes to the base camp and to the high camp. 

When we decided to move for the summit climb, I took the boys to the high camp around half past noon. It was a 90 minute climb through scree and mid sized boulders. The Plan was to hang around the high camp long enough to acclimate and then leave for the summit climb by 2 or 3 in the AM. We took a three man alpine tent and a one man bivy. After a light supper we hit the sack. We woke up around 1 to gear up for the summit bid. The route to the summit involved climbing and traversing hard crust and often times negotiating some steep slopes especially closer to the summit. We were at the summit of mentok 2 by 6 and continued climbing from there to the main summit for another 45 minutes. Terrific climb.

I enjoyed climbing "with someone" (anyone) after a LONG time. Hope this was the first of many climbs with these guys. Definitely among my favorite clients thus far.