Dave Hahn

That was at 28,000'. If it seems like people who turn around on the North Side often turn at 28,000', it is not coincidence. That is a transition zone. Before that, it is like walking up to a large sleeping grizzly bear. There is danger, but presumably one can still walk away. Pass 28,000' though and you get dangling on some vertical ropes, walking on some awful small ledges and dancing around some crazy cornices. That is a little more like poking the Griz with a stick, and you may not get to stop the game when you choose. In short, the route becomes committing in a big way.

I felt that on that morning it would be over-committing for a guiding situation. Not much room, if any, to deal with problems that might come up and too good a chance of those problems coming up. So down we went. It was a bit tiring to realize how far down we needed to go to reach "comfort" that night. It would obviously be less tiring with a summit to bolster our spirits.

The Yellow Band is a quick descent for people with energy still in abundance, and we made good time back to high camp. There, I got on the radio to let the rest of the team know of our turn-around. We could not stay and try again as to do so would rob the final team of their chance, there would not be enough oxygen in place. I could offer a spot on that last team to Jim, however, who readily agreed to try again the next day. That would allow Slowman to take a shot at guiding him up.

It seemed a good plan as Heather, Pinzo and I prepared for descent. We began the long descent, but Jim began it also. Sadly, his vision had fogged up a bit, probably high altitude retinal hemorrhaging, and so it was well and truly time to get down. We passed the last team as they worked toward Camp VI, not being able to say enough to Panuru, Richard and Bob as we clipped carabiners past each other.

Now began the project of pulling down un-needed equipment from the high camps. Our packs rapidly got back up into the 250 lb range. I worked with Jim to make sure he could see where to climb, but I also knew I'd picked a role that would allow me to go slow and easy with the big pack. And that is how we did it, slow and easy, down through camp after camp for thousands of feet.

I'd haul out the radio every now and then as the afternoon progressed, happy to hear that the final team was in place at high camp. It was at least 6:30pm before Jim and I hobbling along the moraine above ABC saw Pemba's friendly face as he walked up to greet us with hot lemon drink. The guys at Camp VI were probably turned in for the night before we made it happily into ABC a half hour later.

The next day was off to a start that none of us at ABC could match. It was all I could do to haul myself out at about 6am to hear the news. That news came from various telescope watchers and radio traffic, the last team was steaming toward the summit. On a windy day of their own, Panuru, Bob, and Richard hammered their way up at about 9:30am.

I was happy, but by no means off the hook. Three guys now had to get down the corniced summit ridge, down the gully on the final pyramid, across the face of that formation, down the steep, hard snow triangle, down the Third Step, down the vertical and exposed Second Step, back across the hairy traverses of the North Face to the top of the First Step, down that bit of hanging rope.... well, I was still worried. We'd been poking the grizzly and now it was time to drop the stick and run without stumbling.

All went well, by that evening, Bob and Richard were safe in high camp and Panuru was all the way down in ABC, being no great lover of nights at altitude. They would be the last on top for the season, and looking around a nearly deserted ABC, it was clearly the time for scooting down-valley. Not so fast for us though, the next day we went up again for gear, meeting Bob and Richard as they labored downward. That evening, we got to see Pemba with his tea-kettle again at dusk, but when all had dragged into ABC before dark, the realization slowly and surely crept in that we'd made it. A good feeling that I won't even try to convey... gotta be there for that one.

— Dave Hahn, International Mountain Guides' Expedition Leader

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