Day 5 - The hut that fought back

Today started with one of the most challenging aspects of the whole trip - descending the giant iron staircase back down from the Concordia Hut. Going up had been ok, as you'd just been looking up. But coming down was utterly terrifying! As the stairs are a metal grid rather than being solid, you can see straight down the cliff all the way to the bottom. What's more, there's a handrail, but no sides to the staircase and no end pieces as the stair turns a corner, meaning if you slipped and fell, you could quite easily roll off the stairs and plummet to your death. Just to add to that further, the early morning dew meant the metal handrail was wet and slippery. So it's fair to say descending this was quite terrifying, my heart was in my mouth for most of the way!

Ross's picture descending the very high and very scary iron stair case

Once that hair-raising part of the journey was over, we started on our way back up the next glacier towards the high ridge. The sun hadn't yet risen over the mountains, but as we headed East towards it, we witnessed the most incredible skies and vistas. Suddenly the sun burst over the top of the mountain, painting everything in sight golden yellow. 

The sun peaks out from behind the mountain, painting everything golden. 

Ross on the slope looking back on where we had climbed.

The glacier looks stunning as it slopes up the cliffs 

Working our way towards the high ridge

We made it to the top of the ridge in good time with surprising ease. I had thought that as the days went on I would grow more and more wary and tired, but in fact the opposite was true. My body had adapted to the walking surprisingly quickly; I was finding I could walk much longer and faster with a lot less effort, and my bag was now weightless on my back. After making a quick photo stop at the high ridge, we descended back down over the other side onto the glacier. 

The first team almost at the top

Ian arriving at the top of the ridge

At the top! From left to right: Ian, our guide Paul, Me, Chrissy, Nicola, Jason, Ross. 

Me at the top with my charity t-shirt on! 

As we walked, we could see heavy storm clouds rolling in towards us. The rain is never something that has bothered me; I realised as a young child that living in the UK meant I had been soaked many times in my life by the rain, and it was going to happen many times more, so decided there and then that there was no point in worrying about it. However, the sight of these deep black clouds heading our way as we trekked exposed on the open glacier was a little unsettling. 

Descending back down the other side of the ridge, towards the impending storm clouds

The clouds getting darker and closer

The black sky in contrast with the white snow - an eerie experience

After a while we found ourselves engulfed in the cloud in a total whiteout, with zero visibility. Somehow Paul was still able to navigate across the glacier despite having no visual reference points. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd literally been counting his steps and knew exactly where he was. 

Walking in the whiteout 

Raincoats on! 

Ross stops for a sandwich in the midst of the whiteout 

After a couple of hours of walking like this, the huge mountains at the end of the glacier suddenly appeared right in front of us - much like when they spot the giant ice burgh in the film Titanic. 

And out of nowhere... the mountains appear from the mist

After stopping for a short lunch break, we got the ice axes back out and started on our long steep climb towards our final hut. This trek was tedious, walking in the rain and fog for what seemed like hours, with almost no view. As we walked, we heard numerous small avalanches thundering down from somewhere to the side of us, loosened by the rain. This was quite scary, as we couldn't see them, just hear them somewhere and hope it wasn't on course to hit us! 

Ice axe back out! 

Climbing towards our final hut

The view was limited

Finally after several exhausting hours, we spotted our hut, perched high up on the mountain and surrounded by mist, almost like a spooky castle. By the time we reached the base, we were all completely exhausted and on the verge of collapse. 

The hut eerily looms ahead, perched high up on the cliff like a spooky castle

But our journey was not over. Between us and the hut lay a very high, steep scree slope, almost vertical. As we climbed with our hands and feet, the loose scree gave way, sending us slipping back down. For every two feet we climbed up, we'd slip back down one foot. It was much like walking the wrong way up an escalator. To add to this, the people above would send loose rocks tumbling down your way, another obstacle to slow us down.

Climbing the near vertical scree slope was hard going! 

After this exhausting climb, we reached a high vertical ladder which lead to the hut. This was quite hard to climb, as being bolted to the cliff, there wasn't much clearance for your feet to slip onto the rungs, you had to basically climb it on tip-toe. This was ok though - so long as you didn't look down! A final walk along a narrow ledge took us to the door of the hut, where we all tumbled in and collapsed down inside. Ross comically noted "well that one fought back!" It certainly did. 

Me on the ladder to the hut

This was the most exhausted I had ever been in my life, and it look me a long while before I felt human again. Sitting by the log fire eating a hearty bowl of home cooked soup helped. We joked that perhaps the lady who worked in the hut had arrived as a child, but was too scared to descend back down from the hut, so had just stayed their ever since. 

That evening, we sat and enjoyed a well deserved pint of "lager hell", shared stories, looked at our photos, and laughed until we couldn't breathe anymore at a photo that had caught Ian comically popping into view. The alcohol and high altitude amplified the hilarity, leading me to retreat outside to get some air and admire the evening view.

A refreshing pint of Lager Hell

Well deserved 

The photo of Ian that had us all in hysterics.