Entries from Expedition Dispatches
We woke up to yet another beautiful and sunny day at Everest Base Camp. The team is still settling into the increased altitude and we are slowly ramping up our activity level in preparation for moving through the Khumbu Ice Fall. Today, we focused on ladder training as we will have numerous ladders bridging gaping crevasses and seracs between Basecamp and Camp One. Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker decided to go for a short hike into the icefall to do their ladder practice while the rest of the team stayed in camp and created a simulated course. We rigged several ladders over the glacial rocks to simulate the icefall in which we practiced walking up and down the shaky ladders. For starters, we began in our trekking shoes stepping from rung to rung getting used to the shake and wobble of the aluminum ladders. Once everyone felt comfortable with this, we put on our stiff 8,000 meter boots and ran the course again. After this, we continued our progression and added roped hand lines while wearing crampons which best replicates the actual movement during icefall travel. With the addition of hand lines, we were able to steepen the ladder grade for both uphill and downhill travel and even practiced several "emergency" scenarios. One scenario involved stopping mid crossing and kneeling down on the ladder rungs to re-attach a crampon that had "accidentally" popped off. Although this was not a very likely scenario, it had the advantage of addressing a "possibility" while increasing confidence and agility.
Everyone did a great job showing skill and balance and we are all looking forward to moving higher onto the mountain.
Namaste from Namche Bazaar,
After a much deserved night's rest we left Chukung early this morning, leaving the high glacial moraines of the Imja Khola and making our way down the valley. Our good fortune with the weather continued, despite menacing clouds that rolled in yesterday evening. The morning was clear and warm, giving us amazing views of the mountains as we walked.
We soon left the cold reaches of over 15,000' and descended into a world of color again, first passing juniper and other short green shrubs, then into forest of pines, and finally into a riot of blooming rhododendron trees that accompanied us all the way to Namche - it is a far cry from the ice and rock of the Khumbu Glacier and Island Peak.
After over a week and a half in the high thin air of 14,000'+ the sudden immersion into blooming vegetation, thick air (and we're still at over 11,000'!), and the seemingly bustling streets of Namche has been notable. In Namche we treated ourselves to hot showers and an excellent meal. Despite a long day today the group is in fine spirits, happy to be making our way downhill and looking forward to making our way back to Kathmandu. Tomorrow we hike out to Lukla where we plan to catch an early morning flight back to Kathmandu the following day.
All is well here at Everest Base Camp and life is easy for now. We usually have breakfast around 8am (this morning we had pancakes) and relax in the warmth of the morning sun. The next few hours are spent on personal chores and taking it easy while our bodies adjust to the altitude. Lunch comes next and then is shortly followed by nap time or just relaxing in the tents. Dinner is at 6:30 sharp and dress attire is down jackets and insulated pants. Although the dining tent is quite comfortable being double walled, carpeted, and it even has a propane heater. Clearly we are not roughing it!
Everyone seems to be doing great and we are enjoying these few days of rest before we get busy. Today we had a gear review and dress rehearsal and then went for a short stroll through the lower glacier.
A special thanks tonight to Mark Tucker and Jeff Martin for providing a wonderful burrito dinner!
Namaste!
Hi, this is Linden calling in with a dispatch from Chukung.
What a day!
We woke this morning about 2 a.m. The winds that were bothering us yesterday afternoon had died down to just a whisper. We had a quick climbers breakfast and headed off up the mountain. We climbed and watched the moon rise over Makalu followed shortly by the sun. Sunrise caught us right at the base of the glacier. We kept climbing up the glacier to the base of the headwall. The team made great work ascending the 800 or so vertical feet of the fixed line, despite some adverse conditions. Everyone handled it well.
About nine in the morning were standing on the top of Island Peak. The entire team made the summit. We had the entire summit to ourselves, even though it's only about the size of a ping-pong table. After a few celebratory photos we headed back down the fixed line, to the glacier and back to High Camp. We packed up High Camp and walked all the way to Chukung. We arrived just before the last rays of sunlight disappeared. We dropped into our tea house tired, hungry but very happy.
We plan to walk to Namche tomorrow and arrive in Lukla the following day.
This is Seth saying hello from Everest Base Camp!
This is the team's second full day at base camp and we're steadily getting our communications gear online. We've got a large solar array and we are able to power all of our communication equipment completely by the sun. As you can imagine, though, getting several computers up and running for email access is not a trivial task at 17,500 feet in the heart of the Himalaya. That said, all of the planning and hard work that my boss, Jeff Martin, and our Basecamp Manager, Mark Tucker, have put in is paying off and we'll all be able to email and call our families and friends shortly.
It's not all about the modern conveniences here though. We've also been busy becoming a part of the base camp community. Last night we paid a visit to the Icefall Doctors and the Himalayan Rescue Association. RMI and First Ascent have made generous clothing and gear donations to the Icefall Doctors this season and last. Last night we dropped off new climbing clothes for 'the docs'. Those guys work extremely hard at establishing and maintaining the fixed ropes and ladders through the icefall so that the expeditions can focus on the upper parts of the mountain. It was great to be able to show our appreciation by giving them brand new climbing gear.
After visiting the Icefall Doctors we dropped by the HRA to visit the medical doctors at base camp. We had a few clothing items from First Ascent to share with them as well. The HRA is a full medical clinic that is open to anyone here at base camp. This allows expeditions to pool their money to fund the clinic as opposed to each expedition brining their own doctors. The doctors at the clinic usually conduct some kind of research and this year they are working on treatments for the notorious 'Khumbu Cough'. It's nice to know that there is work being done on a treatment for the painful cough; I just hope that no one in our expedition becomes part of the study.
We've also started to think about heading up the mountain. Today we had our Puja. This ceremony involves a blessing by a Buddhist Lama and the raising of our Puja Pole. It is also a big party and folks from around base camp dropped by to help us celebrate. Our camp is now laced with prayer flags and we have all been blessed and are now free to move up the mountain. This is most important for our Sherpa team as they do not enter the icefall until after the ceremony. Now that we've had our Puja we will spend several days practicing for the icefall and upping our acclimatization. Then we'll be ready to start our first rotations up into the Western Cwm. Wish us luck!
Hi, this is Linden checking in with the Island Peak Team from High Camp on Island Peak.
We packed up camp this morning and climbed to just shy of 18,000', to our High Camp here on Island Peak. We are camped about 1,500' feet below the glacier and will have some more moderate rock scrambling to get up to the approach to the climb.
We went up this afternoon to get the route fixed in. Everything looks good and we are planning to leave tomorrow morning about 3 a.m. for our summit bid. Our plan is to climb to the summit of Island Peak and then descend to High Camp and Base Camp and head back to Chukung.
We will give a call tomorrow night from Chukung hopefully with good news. We had a little bit of wind today so keep your fingers crossed that it will hold off until we are back at High Camp. The team is doing well and everyone is excited for the climb. We are about to head off to bed and we'll check in again tomorrow.
Namaste from Everest Basecamp.
Our first full day at Mount Everest began with saying goodbye to Scott's Dad, Jeff. As planned, he headed down valley this morning just after a sumptuous breakfast in our dining tent. The team enjoyed mild temperatures and an "easy" day resting and getting organized at 17,500 ft above sea level. We met for a strategy session in which we discussed plans for first week of the climb as well as for "big picture" plans for the how the rest of the climb might play out. Jeff Martin and Mark Tucker worked hard to buff out our electrical and communications systems (we rely largely on solar energy, satelite link-ups and handheld radios in these areas). Importantly, we gathered the entire team so that the American climbers could get to know the Nepali team members and vice versa. Tendi Sherpa and Lama Babu -along with our great chef Kumar- facillitated the introductions. We spent the afternoon resting and chatting. We intend to meet with the famous and hard-working "Icefall Doctors" who are currently putting in the climbing route through the Khumbu, and later we'll tour the Himalayan Rescue Association's basecamp clinic and meet the medical doctors. It seems abnormally hot and dry for early April, and each afternoon we've seen the air get murky with forest fire smoke from somewhere down valley. A quiet day has been punctuated by giant ice avalanches off the surrounding glaciers... keeping things interesting.
Hi, this is Linden calling with a dispatch from Island Peak Base Camp.
We left Chukung this morning and walked for several hours up the Imja Khola Valley through big piles of old glacial moraine eventually making our way to the base of Island Peak where our base Camp is set up. It is tucked right between a giant glacial lake and the slopes of Island Peak right above us.
After rolling in to camp and getting settled we had a top notch lunch and spent a couple hours in the afternoon finishing up some trainining and getting the team dialed in for the climb. Everyone is showing their experience in the mountains and looking very prepared for the climb.
We are moving to High Camp tomorrow with plans to summit the following morning pretty early. The weather has been really nice so far and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way. We will give you a call tomorrow from High Camp.
Our team arrived at Everest Basecamp today around 1 p.m. They left Lobuche this morning on the last leg of their trek. The tents were set up and ready for their arrival. The team spent the afternoon getting moved into their tents, their homes for the next several weeks.
After organizing their gear and getting their barrings around Basecamp, we enjoyed a nice team dinner and everyone has headed to their tents for the first night in their new "home away from home".
Hey, this is Linden calling with a dispatch from Chukung.
We woke up this morning to an absolutely beautiful morning - one of the best of the trip. We had a pretty relaxed breakfast. After our long day yesterday, it was nice to sit in the sun and enjoy that second cup of coffee. We headed from Pheriche up the Imja Khola Valley and were surrounded by Ama Damblam, Nupste and Lhotse. Just up the valley is Island Peak and we were staring right at it. We checked into our tea house and had a relaxing afternoon. We spent some time parring down our gear for our climb.
Tomorrow we are headed to Base Camp and plan to spend some time finishing up the last of our training. We will talk to you tomorrow from Island Peak Base Camp!
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