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DISPATCHE
7 : January 2nd & 3rd
Extract of an e-mail
sent by Alain Hubert to HQ on Wednesday morning Firstly, I was very moved by my companions' sentiments. For this last day I had (for it was causing a degree of irritation among the young people - I mean Ralph and Daniel - who had had a ball, it's true, at the foot of the stoop, but who had never been on the upper section) let Ralph go on to finish the process of exiting from the 6 metres remaining between him and the final inside corner and then the huge summital plateau inclining towards the south-south-east. And I was busy, at first on my own and then with Daniel, bringing up the last loads for the bivouac - in principle, we were to have bivouacked before the summit but, in view of the bad weather and the half-day's rest, we decided to skip the bivouac so that we could reach the summit on New Year's Day. A symbol… A hard task accepted yet again by the boss (me) and so it was in the last position, pushing Fabrizzio who was having a little trouble with the fixed ropes in the overhangs, that I arrived like tail-end Charlie beneath the summit where everybody was waiting from me… Whereas it would have been perhaps more normal for me to have accomplished the end of the difficulties with André. But there you are; one has to smooth out the problems and keep an eye on things generally - that's my role in this expedition. There
were therefore some uptight moments, in view of each person's different
character, different desires, the stress of the ones that were leaving
early, the fact also that I had decided to propose and redefine the
schedule as the days went by and the unexpected occurred, without
necessarily always imposing everything: a decision that I made to
allow each be able to express himself more. This in fact is how I
envisage communal living between people with strong personalities.
To
cut a long story short, they were all waiting for me beneath the summit:
that was really nice. When André was the first to shake my hand and
to embrace me in his arms with a few simple words, I almost cried…
it is a rare sight after a very involved climb. The others took their
hats off to us for having taken such mountain dweller risks (calculated
risks, of course) to force this new route on a stoop that is - as
you will see for yourselves from the film - nothing other than a real
razorblade, a surreal obelisk, an extremely elegant route. But above
all, a truly beautiful first. One of the most beautiful, if not the
most beautiful, with the Ulvetanna, of the entire Continent, an original
climb because of the configuration of the rock as previously mentioned.
The first ascent to a summit with no easy access, the final bastion
to the gates of eternity, towards this South that to such an extent
sets off my own little story… So many emotions and so much conviction… A magnificent, surrealist view, a wonder of the world, a mirage perhaps, but in any event an indelible memory. It was the first time that it had been given to me to see this infinite expanse of ice towards the south from an altitude of 2,650 metres. That opens the horizon and makes it even more timeless. I placed up there, being the last to leave, a small cairn with a kata that Man Ram had given me last year when I left Nepal. Symbolic, still, but customary. I
don't remember how many hours it took to descend. René and Fabrizzio
went down, Daniel looked after some of the technical gear and Ralph
the ropes as he went along. I closed the descent with André by removing
as much of the equipment as I possibly could. The detail of the difficulties
will follow later, but we had placed six spits as we advanced, we
left the relays in place (webbing, pitons and spits) and we did not
recover 4 protection accessories that were used for the climb. All
the rest has already now been brought down to the bivouac ledge, where
we have set up two portaledges. We are going to recover them once
we have taken the final photographs. André, Ralph, Fab and I stayed up there to sleep. On 01 January, at about 09.40, I had a presentiment and turned on my radio to hear Ronald who was trying to get in touch with me because the aeroplane was going to arrive in an hour and a half for the photo flight and for picking up the three men who were leaving us… A precipitate return to the camp and, at about one o'clock in the morning, they were gone, with some of the excess equipment and some waste (dustbin bags and lavatory bags (in the igloo): some less weight in any event, because we have to take everything back on foot to Blue One at the end of January. Yesterday evening, or rather this morning, (I am disoriented, which means that I grab some sleep as I can when I'm a little tired and then I get up and attend to this or that …) Like the people in summer in the north or in the bases of the south. It's a life that his little or nothing in common with ones normal life. A
good beer (there's not a lot left), the cake given to us by Kaya and
Jan when we left Cape Town, some spaghetti with onions, diced bacon,
tomato sauce, dried mushrooms and dried peas from Thailand: what luxury!
On
the programme for the month of January: excursions on the plateau
to drill some boreholes and refine the method that we used during
our crossing for photographing grains of snow, visiting an area we
spotted from the summit where there might well be some meteorites,
looking for crystals (René has already pinpointed some and brought
back some fabulous examples) and for lichen in the context of the
work entrusted by NASA, some powerkite trips, and so on."
Tuesday January 2nd : Yesterday, the summit for everybody... It was a telephone call from Kathelijne who had stayed behind at the base camp that informed us that yesterday, New Year's Day at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the team of The Wall had reached the summit without trouble. The
final assault had begun the previous day: seven of the ten members
of the expedition set off on this ultimate ascent, with the others,
Van Heukelom, Bidart and Ross remaining in the base camp.
Because the preparatory work had been performed to perfection, the
ascent took place without the slightest technical hitch. André Georges,
Ralf Dujmovits and René Robert were the first to set foot on the summit:
it was 5 o'clock in the morning (GMT) and the weather was splendid
- superb sunshine and virtually no wind. About ten minutes later, they were closely followed by the rest of the group, with the exception of the cameraman, Jorge Lübbert, who had had to stop at the last portaledge camp some 300 metres from the summit. Hubert, Georges, Dujmovits and Zangrilli have decided to spend the night at the summit in a portaledge tent. "They still have a couple of things to do up there", said Kathelijne. Whereas Mercier, Lübbert and Robert came down again and got to the base camp at about noon. Yesterday evening, the base camp established contact with Blue One for them to send their Twin Otter to pick up the cameraman and the photographer so that they could take the panoramic shots required for the film; this is certainly why the men have stayed at the summit. The aeroplane was to arrive yesterday during the night and embark upon its mission straightaway. After which, it was to take the cameraman Lübbert and the climbers Dujmovits and Mercier to Blue One. These men have professional obligations that require them to return to their respective countries.
This is not the case for the rest of the outfit, who, from what I deduce from reading between the lines of the e-mails that I receive, are probably not going leave things there. It could well be that the North Stoop is still tickling the men's fancy and that for them, their desire for danger will prevail. During
the day or the evening, we will of course have further information
- and especially some more detailed information - to relay to our
visitors. Until later then …
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Wednesday
03 January : "A real razorblade, a surrealistic obelisk...
while
some wanted to make the most of their stay is at times somewhat restricting,
but one just has to remember that that was part of the contract and
part of the whole project for this expedition, including the Educational
Project and the scientific work that is associated with it. And this
even though that there are - here in the Orvin Mountains - decades
of "Firsts" to be performed… 
The
group was divided into three: Fabrizzio was busy helping the photographer,
and especially the cameraman, who has virtually no mountaineering
experience. Mercier and Dujmovits climbed in tandem with the Hubert/Georges
pair in front 
