RMI Expeditions BlogRSS

Training on the Khumbu Glacier

Posted by: Seth Waterfall | April 15, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest
Elevation: 17,575 ft.

This is Seth Waterfall broadcasting from Everest Basecamp. It’s been another beautiful day here. We’ve had a few inches of snow each of the past few night and it has spruced the mountains up nicely. Everything is coming along in our preparation for our first acclimatization rotation. Today Dave went up to Camp One to check on the conditions in the icefall. He made great time and got some really good info on how we can move through the icefall efficiently. The rest of the group went out on to the Khumbu glacier and practiced our climbing and rappelling skills. It was sunny and warm on the glacier and all of the team members were able to run several laps on the ‘obstacle course’ that the guides set up. This practice is designed to get us familiar with our equipment and allow us to make adjustments in a safe environment. The next step for us will be to head up to Camp One and Two in order to build up our acclilmatization. But before we do that we still have several days of adjusting to the altitude here at Basecamp. It’s a long process but this is necessary in order to give all of us the best shot at the summit.

Basecamp is rapidly filling up with teams from all over the world. The camp is just about full. There are only one or two teams that have not arrived. Yesterday we were delighted to see our friends Melissa Arnot and Dave Morton arrive. They are camped about a quarter mile up the glacier and they stopped by for tea after they unpacked their gear. We’ve had several visitors from most of the big teams. It’s great to break up the day with a few visitors and share stories from the trek in.

We’ll check in again tomorrow.

281 views

Comments

---