The upper Tellot glacier is an incredible playground of fine granite spires rising from a broad icefield, with climbs anywhere from less than 100 to over 300 m in length. However, most of these climbs are an inconvenient 2-3 hour slog up from the Plummer hut. Instead of making that trek every day, Jim and I decided to lump all the pain together into one push, and move camp.
Dragonback is a serrate ridge line a couple of kilometers long that cradles the upper Tellot opposite the teeth of the Serras (1-3), Stiletto, and Dentiform. It's southernmost extent merges gradually into the icefield, and offers excellent camping on dry ground, no more than an hour from the base of the furthest Tellot climbs.
We were going to make the move in two carries, but by the time we were on our way back from the first, the snow had softened too much, and Jim and I both punched through into hidden crevasses. Only one leg at a time, fortunately. Once back at the hut we opted to wait for the snow to harden in the evening to make the 2nd trip. In the mean time, a rousing game of Peak Experience! ensued.
We found Peak Experience stashed in a corner of the hut, and it may be the coolest (for climbers) board game ever! It's a game of trivia and chance. On the trivia front there are questions on everything from practical knowledge questions (weather, climbing situations, etc.) to mountaineering history. As for chance, well, it ranges from "easy plastic ice, +2 spaces" to "Killed!" (there's a spinner to decide these things). In all we played twice. The first time around, Jim was killed, so we decided it was time for dinner. The second time I was killed, but we decided to resurrect so we could continue... then Jim was killed too. Our rough calculation on the descent portion of the game alone was that any given player had a 70% chance of dieing! In all, I would be very surprised if any given individual has more than a 5% chance of completing the game (i.e. climbing K2, and descending). Good times!
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