Jabet Peak is one of the more technical ascents we make on the Basecamp trip and requires a small team of experienced climbers – well versed in the use of crampons and pitched climbing. It is normally a 6 – 7 hour climb getting the small team + guides to a height of 550m above the surrounding sea.
Unfortunately, the weather again did not play ball with the mountaineers, an un-forecasted storm with driving snow arriving just as we disembarked from the ship.
The guides got us ashore at the base of a small ice cliff – the journey today would have seen us start in one location and then re-join the ship in the afternoon from a different location. Once we’d reached the top of the ice face our guides decided that the weather was deteriorating too rapidly and with a snowpack that made it difficult to get safe anchors, we retreated back to the ship to see what the weather would bring later in the day.
In the afternoon we again ventured out – although with only a short window of opportunity we ended up relocating to steep ice cliff where we again enjoyed a series of climbs – Trevor ( Guide) suggested that we made things harder for ourselves by only using 1 ice tool and then a few hardy souls even tried to climb using footwork alone – Trevor went 1 better by trying to climb without crampons – this had limited success!
At the end of the day mountaineering success or failure is often dictated by the weather and the ability for a mountain team to get out and enjoy themselves with a flexible attitude is key. Overall a highly Adventurous day was had at Jabet Peak
