|
Dr. Jules Jacot-Guillarmod Diary Entry Thursday, 24 August 1905
From the second to the third camp, the distance is not very considerable and can be covered, once the route is recognized, in three or four hours; but you quickly lose twice as much in search of the least exhausting passage, in the middle of crumbling moraines, crevasses and sometimes impassable torrents that you have to go up very high before finding a ford. Although we have passed the height of Mont-Blanc, our carriers still behave relatively well and hardly seem affected by the drop in atmospheric pressure. If they stop at more than one stop, it is much more to wait until the best and shortest route has been discovered for them and to avoid unnecessary risers, than through fatigue or premature exhaustion.
That day, annoyed by the slowness of the march, and having left in the rearguard one of the Kashmiris who could be counted on, I soon caught up with Crowley, who was marching in front and who then asked me to replace him. I took the lead and, as the day was quite late, I looked around for a suitable place to establish a Third Camp. I soon found him under an overhanging wall where all our men were able to take shelter. The fog kept us from seeing Kangchinjunga all day long and, however, according to the orientation of the peaks around us, we could not be far from its base. This pleasant surprise was in store for us for the next morning. While botanizing around the camp, I suddenly saw, in a tear in the fog, first a ridge, then soon the whole south-west face of the massif; alone, the summit persisted all day long in not showing itself; but what we saw, we decided to break camp and go immediately on reconnaissance. Reymond, who was beginning to fear that we would reach the summit before him, had left de Righi and Pache in the rear and, by doubling the last stage, had caught up with us the previous evening. We wait until the last carriers have left the camp, to abandon it in our turn; but it was not half a kilometer before our men, who until then had found the marks of Crowley's passage with infallible certainty, pretended to have lost track and began to murmur about the difficulty of the march. It is true that never before have we found such a troubled glacier; the moraines become entangled with the crevices in a diabolical maze, and we are no longer counting the often useless stops and risers. Crowley, who was supposed to mark his passage with little "Steinmanns," had done nothing, so I had to take over the vanguard in my turn. In front of us rose a rocky outcrop in the middle of the glacier, partly covered with greenery and strewn with large erratic boulders which promised good shelter for the coolies, while small grassy mounds, very convenient for the tents, formed a perfect camp site. I took it upon myself to put the Camp VI in this place. We had just pitched the last tent when suddenly Crowley emerged from who knows where. Although night is approaching, he wants to force the men to get up and continue walking; I am formally opposed to it, given the condition of wearers who are tired and out of breath.
|