Cala Cimenti and its Laila Peak with skis

THE CLIMB

The alarm rings at 3:00 and as if by magic we are all awake to get ready. There is no wind outside and not a cloud, we are excited. We get dressed, eat a chapati roll filled with ham and cheese prepared previously at the base camp and then we leave.

Everyone wants to leave quickly and so I stay alone to do the last things like when you leave the house, like closing all the zips of the tent, checking that it is well secured and... going to the "bathroom"!

I set off at exactly 4:00, I join Matthias and Julian and then we continue together, taking turns to trace. We reach the second hill, the one that allows us to access the north-west face, in an hour and a half. It is already daylight and we can enjoy a splendid view of K2, Broad Peak and the various Gasherbrums. Fantastic. We eat a bar, drink and in the meantime we discuss whether to ski down about 200 meters to then enter directly onto the north face as the French did, or whether to continue crossing on the south side up to another hill that would allow us to access the north face higher up, avoiding treacherous seracs. In the end we prefer to follow the French route, so we change positions and I set off in search of the passage between two crevasses, I find it and in a moment I am on the face, taking off my skis and putting on my crampons. The others also join me and together we begin to climb. The day is still beautiful and there is only a breath of wind, my feet are constantly cold and I try to avoid frostbite by moving my toes continuously and every now and then my hands get blisters.

We climb sinking into the fresh snow alternating, I pass the point where Matthias fell into the crevasse last time but more to the left and without problems, then we continue to climb among the seracs. At 5,600 m there are no more seracs but the wall becomes steeper and we have to find a passage between the rocks, we also face a short mixed section of 5-6 m. The wall here is around 50° and the snow is not great but still skiable. We move to the left and then to the right and then a little higher up to around 5,900 m where we can see the summit to our left. Here we take a last break: we eat, drink and then off again for a long exposed traverse and the last 100 meters really straight, around 55°.

THE SUMMIT

The last 20 meters are really tiring and dangerous: the wall is super straight and there is so much snow that we can't climb. We dig a vertical trench and the fresh snow goes away leaving a layer of ice under our feet. At a certain point Julian makes a traverse to the right to look for a point with harder snow, he finds it and in a moment he is at the top, we follow him and we are at the top too. How beautiful, everyone is happy, big hugs and fists against fists.

Too bad that just at that moment it starts to cloud over and sleet. It's 10:30, we take it easy as we start to take our skis out of our backpacks and get ready for the descent. The descent of a lifetime! At a certain point, while I'm tightening my boots, I hear a scream behind me, I turn and see Julian running towards the southern edge of the peak and looking down cursing, then I notice that there is only one of his skis on the summit. That's it, the atmosphere is ruined and Julian is screaming and cursing because he slipped a ski down the south face of Laila peak which is overhanging for more than 400 meters. Julian has to walk down with ice axes and crampons, he asks me for my ice axe (we went up with one ice axe each) which is longer than Matthias's and he immediately starts to descend while Matthias and I wait 10-15 minutes to give him time to get off the super steep part without being hit by our sluff. Minutes pass and I'm itching to go: my toes are still cold and tight in my boots adjusted for the descent. I talk to Matthias and we decide that I can start going down and that he will follow me after a moment.

THE DESCENT

Entering the wall from the flat and slightly concave top is quite impressive: suddenly you find yourself on a very steep, super exposed slide, but what the hell, what an emotion, I'm skiing the Laila peak, the dream. This fleeting thought immediately gives way to concentration, I feel my breathing labored not only because of the altitude, I evaluate the snow which is not so nice: 3 cm of heavy fresh snow on a layer of crust that sometimes gives way and sometimes not.

The slide is impressive, it is very straight and perhaps the sensation is amplified by the exposure and the scenery at the same time majestic and terrifying. 55° but they are all there, I can't afford to make a mistake. But damn what a thrill, I am hanging from this wonderful mountain through a few millimetres of metal. I regret having given my ice axe to Julian, the snow is treacherous and I slide for about thirty metres but my ski tips are facing right and sooner or later I have to put them on the left to face the traverse, so I take courage in both hands, I concentrate, I jump, a moment of wonderful terror, I land on the other side perfectly with soft legs and wow, I'm still alive! I enjoy it and make a few more turns until the traverse to the left.

A little more suspense on this exposed traverse and then I'm inside the wall that at this altitude is dotted with rocks between which you have to find the passage but the slope drops to about 50° and the snow is a little safer. I'm having fun. The fatigue in my legs is felt and I stop often, but I'm having a lot of fun.

Meanwhile the snowfall is getting heavier and there is fog, but I turn left and right, I move from one gully to another among the rocks… I'm skiing on Laila Peak, I'm having fun and it's incredible!

Now I look down and see Julian who is already more or less at 5,500 m outside the upper and steep part, standing there trying to protect himself as best he can from my sluff. I make a variation to the ascent route to avoid the mixed section we did previously and I find an unexpectedly comfortable passage and I am also in the incredibly vast central wall with a 45° slope, now I can really give it my all with all the energy I still have left, but I am a little worried about Matthias who I don't see coming.

I reach Julian further down and as we talk we see him appear above. Now everything is ok, I can relax and really enjoy this special skiing. Matthias and I decide to break it up to always stay in visual contact with Julian who is walking down more slowly, I take advantage of this to rest my legs.

Now we are among the seracs of the lower part, the snowfall gets worse but we are happy, the snow becomes heavy and rotten, our legs are holding up less and less. The last stretch is beautiful again on transformed snow, we go down to the bottom taking advantage of every last strip of snow and then we wait for Julian who does not take long to arrive since he managed to travel this last less steep stretch with one ski on his foot. Then very slowly we head towards the base camp that we reach after an hour and a half, at 3:00 pm.

Cala is now still in Pakistan ready for a new expedition that will take him to Gasherbrum II... Stay tuned!

05/25/2018 - Cala Cimenti - Mountain Explorer
PICS: Cala Cimenti Cmenexperience Facebook Page
By Sara Croce