Mt. Carnarvon (3040 m)

 31 July 2021

After splitting with the Emerald Peak Group at Hamilton Lake ...

... Gennady and Boris ...

... finally getting some "traction" ... 

... soon reached the south ridge of Carnarvon ... 

... trying to keep up brave faces in spite of realizing how far they still had to go. 

More so, they were attacked by mosquitos and "giant horse flies" that prompted Gena to put on his mosquito net. 

Boris' mind was with Ada, and the rest of her team, gaining altitude on Emerald Peak. 

Not wanting to stay behind, they pressed on. The ridge was initially quite easy ... 

... which allowed them to take a few quality, artistic photos. (A silhouette of a flying Alberta man?)

However, shortly they had to do some scrambling and pay closer attention to their hands and feet. 

As they progressed the terrain became more demanding and confusing. 

Cairns were at times difficult to spot or misleading. Route finding was slowing them down. 

The massif of the False Peak gave the impression of one great maze of rubble. 

From the False Summit they saw the Main Summit with more difficulty ahead of them. 

They had to cross steep fields of scree ... 

... with some airy ...

... and exposed traverses. 

Finally, they spotted a wider gully ...

... leading toward the Main Summit. 

Carnarvon did not show its summit until the very-very end. They had to climb this last summit tower before seeing the actual summit. 

They reached the summit at 16:33 hours, much past their preestablished return time, after gaining 1752 meters of altitude. 

As there was no pencil in the register (and unlike on Emerald Peak ... no whiskey!), Gennady took this photo to corroborate their ascent. 

As Herzog and Lachanel on Annapurna, Boris and Gennady argued a bit about how long they should stay on the summit. The hour was late. 

After bagging another 3000-meter peak, both Boris ....

... and Gennady felt like flying!

However, the reality of the long and tedious descent quickly caught up with them. 

They finally had the scrambling part behind ... 

... but Hamilton Lake still seemed so far away. 

Eventually, they reached their car about 10:00 pm. 

Their  GPS devices recorded the trip somewhat differently ... 

... however not leaving any doubt about how hard this experience must have been on them. Great job, Guys! For the love of the mountains! 

(PR)

Thanks for Boris and Gennady for permission to use their photos, and for Gennady for allowing me to borrow from his narrative.