Entries from Expedition Dispatches
This is Seth checking in from Advanced Base Camp (Camp Two/ABC).
Today and tomorrow the teams will start their third and final rotation for acclimatization. If all goes well with the weather, tomorrow all teams will be at ABC getting ready for a climb up to Camp Three with hopes of spending one night there. We have been receiving several inches of snow over the past three days and conditions on the upper mountain have improved, infact today marks the first summit of 2010 from the South Side of Mount Everest! Nine people on top from three different teams.
The day began under grey and overcast skies, as opposed to the pattern we've all come to accept of sunny mornings and cloudy afternoons. Nothing much has come of those grey skies, so far, and in fact, Kaji Sherpa made a carry to the South Col at close to 8000 meters and reported calm and easy weather conditions. We expect Sherpas from several of our neighboring teams to fix rope from the Col to the summit in the next few days if the weather stays calm, which would be a huge benefit to all teams, naturally. We have just started to focus intently on our daily weather forecasts since we'll now be poking our noses up to heights where it all matters. Other than Kaji, the rest of the climbing team took it easy in basecamp, playing cards and horseshoes and packing for the coming rotation up the mountain. We've all been amazed, fortified... and simply stuffed by Kumar's culinary wizardry in the basecamp kitchen.
A little snow early but a beautiful evening now. All climbers and most Sherpa are here at Basecamp, eating, resting and taking showers.
We had a meeting with the other teams about the final fixing of the route and helicopter landings. Tomorrow we hope the fixing team will go as high as the Balcony then to the summit the next day, keep your fingers crossed for good weather.
We have been having some helicopter landings at Basecamp that are non-emergency, we are trying to develop a plan for usage in a responsible manner. A new breed of helicopter is now being used that is much more powerful than in the past, so the safety margin has been increased.
The community here is working on a win, win for commercial and rescue operations.
The winds picked up during the night and brought four plus inches of snow to Mt. Everest. Our plan was to move up the Lhotse face to Camp 3 for a day climb/acclimatization and then back to Camp Two for another night of sleep. But after breakfast the weather had not cleared and snow was still falling so we decided to join Dave and Leif (who had climbed to Camp 3 the day before) and head back down to Base Camp ending our second rotation on the mountain. We will start a rest "block" while we wait for better weather and head back up to Camp Two and then to Camp Three once the weather settles.
All is well here on Mount Everest.
Most of the climbers are up at Camp 2, tomorrow the last wave will make a push up to Camp Three and back to Camp Two for acclimatization if weather and route conditions allow. If all goes well all teams will be safely back to BC by Monday.
Thanks to Jim Whittaker and his Sherpa climbing partner Nawang Gombu for paving the American way to the summit on this day 47 years ago.
We woke up this morning at Camp 2 (Advanced Basecamp-ABC) to a few inches of snow and thought it would be a tent bound day. However, the weather cleared and it turned out to be a great day. The teams were able to move about the mountain in very nice weather.
Dave, Leif, Michael and I climbed up to Camp 3, after enjoying the view and a snack or two we returned safely to ABC for another night. Casey, Scott, Rob and Chad ascended from Camp 1 for their first night at Camp 2.
Currently, the whole climbing team is together at ABC getting ready for dinner.
BIG NEWS OF THE DAY (Dave Hahn to Mark Tucker via radio)
Our sherpa team carried everything needed for Camp 3. Tendi and the boys made it up in two hours from Advanced Base Camp (ABC) to Camp 3. We watched other sherpa going all the way to the South Col. The two halves of our team, the climbing members, met at Camp 2 for breakfast before Casey's team of four returned to Camp 1 for their final night. My four ventured up to the base of the Lhotse Face for exercise.
We reached 22,000 feet in our acclimatization effort. I was stunned to see such dry conditions on the upper section of the Western Cwm. The weather continues the normal pattern of clear in the morning and snow showers in the afternoon. We are excited to have the entire climbing team sleeping at ABC tomorrow night.
NEWS FLASH
Sherpa fix ropes to the South Col! A group from different teams reached Camp Four today. With weather blowing in the group got up and down safely starting at Camp Two.
All climbers from our team are at either Camp One or Camp Two, the report is, everyone is well. This will be a longer upper mountain rotation than the last. Fingers crossed that not too much snow falls tonight so tomorrow both teams can push higher up the mountain and return back to the same camp for another night to further their acclimatization process.
Our Sherpa team is at Camp Two planning to carry loads to Camp Three in the morning.
Nice progress!
With moderate winds blowing; Dave and Leif woke up early and moved to Camp 1, arriving in the early morning. The rest of us had a casual morning followed by some after lunch, packing and preparation for a team move to Camp One. The plan is to wake up at o'dark and push through the icefall to Camp One where we will spend two nights. After this we will walk to Camp Two where we plan on staying a number of nights with a daytime excursion to Camp Three.
Hello everyone,
The team continues to rest here in our comforts of Basecamp. We have been spending lots of time reading, watching movies, doing laundry, taking showers, and playing cards. In fact, we hosted the first Texas Hold 'em tournament last night. There were some of us who were lucky and a few of them that were not so lucky! (Thanks for the tip Kenny Rogers)
Today we spent most of the morning relaxing and getting a few things ready to be carried up the mountain by our amazing Sherpa crew. I would have to say that the majority of these great guys are smaller in stature than us, but easily twice as strong. It really is humbling to see the Sherpa working with such ease at these altitudes. After another great lunch provided by our head cook Kumar, we pulled out our oxygen mask and had a little practice with the oxygen bottles. We all looked like fighter pilots (well almost) and seemed like everyone said at one point "Luke I am your father". Just a few more rest days and then it's back to work. Everyone is looking forward to heading back uphill and for some warmer weather to arrive also.
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