We woke up to good weather but really, none of us thought we'd have the energy to make it to the top, but didn't want to admit it to each other, so we got ready, ate some breakfast and took off like we were on auto pilot.
We discussed what route we should take up the first section, and decided to take the same route Roger and I had taken in 2003 although we thought the alternative route was easier with less exposure. We figured we made it in 2003, we can do it again. Well, we remembered correctly, there are some nasty sections and Mark wasn't too happy following us up. I think he was seriously wondering how he would get down it at the end of the day.
We rested at the first view area and tried to make sure we were going to take the right route - the failure of 2003 was still fresh in Roger and my mind and we didn't want to fail. Going up was very similar to the route we took in 2003, mostly Class 3+ and some sections of Class 4. The route seemed familiar, and then it got way TOO familiar. We came to EXACTLY the same place we had stopped in 2003. Great views, but way too dangerous to continue on what we thought was the main route. We started to rationalize why were could still be happy to NOT reach the top...but I was not going to accept it.
In reading very carefully all the accounts of others who had come before us I suggested that there was another way to the top that we should examine before we went down just to be sure. From our vantage point, it didn't look like it was going to pay off, but I've learned, sometime you just have to go and look close up to know for sure. It was a bit tricky to go down into this other gully, and then climb up so we could see IF it was a way up.
It was a good thing we were all motivated to try for the top, because it looked like the detour we took was actually the main route, and what we thought was the main route was really a class 4 or 5 route. Still, climbing up this gully was hard, dangerous work. It was very steep and rocks would fall all around, and many steps dropped rocks on the guys below. After about 100m up this gully, it ends and you find yourself on the top of the Hinde. Wow. We did it.
Thus, 69 years after our uncle Roger climbed the Hinde in 1937, another Schjelderup reached the top. I think we were very tired because we didn't take the pictures we should have and spend more time resting than we should have.
Knowing we had made it to the top made the grind of the decent much easier. We were all very tired, and there are some dangerous class 4 sections where paying attention is important. The last nasty section that Mark was worried about didn't look as bad after doing the upper sections and we dropped into the now empty Hinde base camp after a little over 9 hours after we started.
Although very tired, we knew we had to move our camp, so we dragged ourselves to the old camp, and tried to move everything in one trip without packing up everything. It wasn't much fun, but once we got the new camp set up, and a fire built, we started to feel a LOT better about everything.
And hey, we made it to the top of the Hinde. That sure felt GOOD.
