Bivying at the BASE of 1000m of granite
We walked past many bivi spots, gaining 
altitude as we went, hoping for the spots to get better and better, counting on last part of the slope to be the best. After all it was worth mentioning on the topo, and was at the base of our climb, looking straight at our route.
When we climbed over the ridge line there was no mistaking the bivi, like a walled off private garden, the only flat area in miles, enough to comfortably sleep both of us. With enough exposure to give the area an amazing sense of scale.
To the left the cliff dropped away hundreds of meters to the glacier, while to the right the NE ridge continued to the summit and in front of us a short abseil lead to the start of our route.
Roll mats laid out, food prepared, and boots off, we sat staring at our wall. We had 12 hours until our alpine start. I start doubting myself, do we know the route? Do we have enough of a weather window? And are we capable of doing it. My mind-set changes again and again, reversing and flipping. I just hope it’s in the right place when we start in the morning, or at least when we are a few pitches in when the flow and momentum of the climbing has started.
As the sun sets our eyes adapt with it, the crescent moon sits perfectly in between two needles of rock in the mountains as it shines on our wall. With the route still visible we are follow the cracks, arettes and dihedrals.
As the night sets the air cools and our ears become more attune to the mountain, we can heard the glacier creaking and rock-falls down distant couloirs. Every so often a huge rock-fall echoes around, sounding uncomfortably close. It makes us sit upright in our sleeping bags, we are safe from any falling rock but scary non the less.
As I drift off to sleep it feels like we are both looking for excuses to not get on the wall. I think of the commitment. I need the feeling of commitment on the wall, it drives me to complete a climb, but at the same time the further we go the more committed we are and the less chance of backing of the route.
24 Hours on cragswag ledge
The main reason I wanted to do this bigwall in one push was because my (otherwise perfect climbing partner) is a horrendous snorer. Instead we spent nearly 24 hours on a ledge together mostly listening to him snore.
We climbed the first 500m though the night, planning to reach the headwall before sunrise. We were 4 hours late and decided to make the most of the days sunlight by attacking the headwall the following day. So with 22 hours to kill we attempted to make our ledge more homely.
We had not accounted for this when we packed our supplys. 1 litre of water each, half a pizza each and no sleeping equipment. Fortunately this ledge had been used many times before, and on the terraces of ledges we begun to find helpful kit. Half a roll mat each and 2 extra litres of water, not so fresh but beggars can’t be choosers. Dave noticed some paracord on the ledge and as we begun to tug on it we soon realized we were sitting on a full canopy. The rubble and fallen dirt over the years completely covering it. We soon had a 265 square foot canopy to keep us warm for the night. The used fentanyl syringe I saw earlier must have been from the BASE jumpers rescue as they cut him away from the parachute and left it behind.
The time passed surprisingly quickly, we dozed off, occasionally being woken to the sounds of BASE jumpers flying above us. Some opening up so close to the ledge I talked to them. We sat on our little perch sharing cold pizza and plans for the next day.
