Shitidhar Peak

We were moving by 3:15am, our headlamps illuminating the way. We had done this two days before and knew what to expect. This time, we stayed to our left and were right on track a couple hours later when we took our first break. The skinning was straightforward, although it did require careful attention to make sure the ski crampons stuck in the frozen snow. The couple of times I let my mind drift too much, I slipped, but was able to regain footing without incident. Frank decided to once again put his skis on his back once the slope steepened. We reached 16,000ft and took a break. We had an option of heading to the top of Shitidhar as originally planned or going further up the valley to another peak that didn’t look quite so steep. I don’t mind skiing steep slopes, it’s the boot pack that kills me. I felt good so far, going at a slow and steady pace on my skis. But I knew once the skis were on my back, it take its toll.

I was able to skin another couple hundred feet before it became too steep. Putting my skis on my back, we took turns kicking steeps. At one point near the top, I took the lead and was confronted with some unusually soft and “airy” snow. With every step, I would punch through the snow and it took three or four steps just to gain a couple of feet. I was going so slow that Frank “the oxygen tank” took over and from there on Trevor and Frank lead the way up. I slowly followed them up, wondering whether the exhaustion was worth it. Once on the ridge, we took a break and refueled with food and water. We then had to skin up another hundred feet and traverse to our right, which I think took me about 15 minutes. From the top of Shitidhar, we had amazing views and we waited for the snow to soften. Trevor took the first turns off the top and the snow looked reasonably soft. I followed next and was able to get some quality turns in straight from the top. I then traversed over the my left near onto an even steeper slope and could feel my stomach tighten. I was extremely tired, on a very steep slope and looking down over 5,000ft. But once I got a couple of turns in, I felt fine and we made our way down the mountain. Stopping frequently to rest, it must have taken us over a half hour to ski back to our tent. Back at camp, we were all in a great mood. We had just enjoyed three days of great skiing, with a couple of descents off 17,000ft peaks. It was the prefect end to my ski touring trip in the Himalayas!