Last day of minus 5

The final day at black peak started very early. This was courtesy of one of the boys in the group who seemed to decide once he was up we all were. This is after he kept everyone else awake with his snoring.
It was like trying to sleep next to a chainsaw. I gave up trying to sleep and put my iPod on. If i'm forced to be awake, I may as well listen to something I like rather than a middle aged man vibrating his tonsils!
Most nights were difficult to sleep. You were either too cold, too hot, someone was snoring or you needed to go to the toilet, which in itself was a major undertaking late at night. I managed to have to take that journey every night. It required getting completely layered up with boots on and a 50 meter walk on snow and ice. Then reverse the process on return. Makes you appreciate modern conveniences.

Today we headed back to the upper pitch from yesterday and did some more technical stuff like learning how to do V threads.
This requires drilling two holes,using ice screws at such an angle that you can thread a chord through them to make an anchor.
As I screwed the first one the entire sheet of ice let out an almighty crack, I had managed to split the entire face. Everyone stopped as the noise was huge. I looked at Tim and asked if that's normal to which he replied ' I'm not sure'. Reassuring then!
The ice was only about two inches thick and the screw had exposed the waterfall behind. You could hear the flow through the hole. Tim was most amused by poking his finger in and out of the hole and stopping the sound.


Hole exposed!



Hole plugged.

Look what I managed to find one day in the snow! Amazing! All the way out there.



It was a little difficult to play though!
The rest of the day was spent learning other techniques as well as training in the use of the avalanche transceiver. We had all been wearing these through out the trip. Just another part to the layers. Tim buried one and then we learnt to use ours to search. It's frightening to know in most circumstances you get 18 minutes to successfully rescue someone from an avalanche. After then it's generally a body recovery.
After some lunch we mucked around awaiting the chopper. Smurf made an appearance.


Got himself in some trouble in the snow, lucky for him Sandy had been smuggled in.


Our chopper finally arrived and we were all amused by the extra passenger on board.


The ride back was eventful, as our pilot decided to do some chopper aerobatics. I recorded the flight in movie form and will edit it into a YouTube film soon. You will be entertained by my scream and he plummeted us over the ridge.
Hope you have all enjoyed the updates. I've enjoyed doing them. There are heaps more photos that I'll put together into a movie and share at a later date.
Back home now for five weeks then it's off to USA.

Uke complete me!

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