Expedition Loap Solo 2006

Another day in paradise » 16. 8. 2006 at 6:11

It was raining hard all night and even though I had been sleeping really well before, this time I couldn’t. More rain means only one thing – more water in the river! I crawl out of my tent at 9am when suddenly, the sun comes out. It’s almost like a magic! The sky is nice and blue. I don’t want to waste a minute so I’m loading my pockets with all necessary stuff – GPS unit, PLB, food for half a day, a hat, pair of mitts and on my back, I tie 30m climbing rope. I start running towards the river and stop only at the spot where the wildest stream joins the river flowing from direction of the glacier. From the fork, a few tens of meters down the stream, the river slightly touches the rim of the glacier plateau and the bank ends with rock ledges. I have a plan – I tie the rope onto one of the ledges and with help of the rope will make my way across. I will use rope not only for managing the balance in the wild current but also for safety in case I lose balance and the river tries to whisk me away. Although I consider myself a good swimmer I don’t think there would be a chance to resist without the rope. After a while I find a good spot and tie the rope around ledge closest to the river. I try the rope resistance by proping up for a few times. It all looks good. I take off my boots and glance at the watch to see what the temperature is. It says 12 degrees but if the watch is on the wrist it’s probably at least two degrees lower. I get in the water. I guess I don’t have to mention that it’s cold! First six meters it’s alright and I’m not rushing it. My plan seems to work so far. The rope is tied around my waist and I’m holding both ends in my right hand. My left hand is holding a pole and checks the deepness in front of me. When the water level is amost up to my crutch and part of my jacket is soaked I’m starting to get really frustrated – I will not let one river to stop me indeed! I didn’t hike more than 50 km and carried almost 100 kg of equipment to turn around and take it all back again! Part of my fleece and outer jacket are already in the water and I’m just angry fighting my way to the other bank. When I’m about two thirds there I run out of rope. At that moment which seems to last forever, I recall one shot from movie Cast Away where Tom Hanks is trying to safe Wilson (football) which is being carried away by the sea. Tied to his boat, he has a choice – untie himself, risk drowning and try to save Wilson or sacrifice Wilson and save at least himself.

I turn around and as soon as I’m stnading on dry land I’m starting to jump like crazy not even bothered to put my boots back on. I have to get some blood flow into my almost white frozen feet. Something is clear to me. Even though I had enough rope, to wade across this river for a few times could mean risking hypothermia, not to mention that if anything happened to me during next 40 – 50 km on the glacier, this would be the only way I could backtrack. Vision of overcoming this obstacle.

I’m back in the tent around 3pm and I can feel consequences of my bath. I have a headache sore throat. I’m not doing anything but resting until the evening. I don’t want to make my cold get worse. I will try to traverse the lava bed tomorrow and hopefully, I’ll manage to find a way around the river and finally approach the glacier through other route than the one I had originally planned. I know there are a few encouraging comments after I posted my last message. So at last – I AM NOT GIVING UP YET!!!!