Hi Folks
Well back in Dalian, China now having arrived here on Saturday and wasted no time catching up with a few good friends and indulging in a few cold Qingdao beers and some great seafood that Dalian has to offer. Right now I do not see this indulgence stopping anytime soon......
View from C3 looking down Western Cwm
Our trip down from base camp down to Kathmandu was fast, if not uneventful. We were motivated by the prospect of back to Kathmandu to do the rounds of all the good lil' restaurants tucked away in the alleys of Thamel, Kathmandu that serve all sorts of delicious of international cuisine for just a few bucks! One of the first stops included an awesome juicy hamburger at New Orleans, and a couple of cold beers at the Rum Doodle bar to sign our name on the summiters board alongside Sir Ed!
Whilst in the haste of returning to Kathmandu, I did not get any chance to summarise the events of our summit push, so here is an account of those few days......
17 May 2008 (Rest Day at C2)
We hung out at C2 today for a rest on our final summit attempt. Our Sherpa team did a carry up to C4 today and report that a pack, an oxygen bottle and a pair of sunglasses had come hurtling down the Lhotse Face today. For a while there was a lot of speculation that a climber had fallen however, fotunately, this does not look to the be the case.
18 May 2008 (Had Better Days - Fail to Reach C3)
Anselm, James, Jamie, Andy and I headed for C3 today, however, for whatever reason, both Andy and I were seriously lacking the energy and motivation needed to get ourselves up the Lhotse Face to C3 safely. Sometimes you have good days and bad ones; I guess this is what they call a bad one! One hour out of C2 we cust our losses and decided to return to C2 and give C3 another shot tomorrow. I was disappointed to be lacking the energy knowing that the climbing over the coming days was only going to get progressveily harder. Oh well......it was motivation to bounce back (somehow?) stronger tomorrow.
19 May 2008 (C2 to C3)
It was a good decision yesterday to return to C2. Today, I climbed with a lot of new energy and made C3 in reasonable time, there meeting up with Anselm, James and Jamie.
More rest - cramped conditions in C3
We made it a point to drink well, and eat what we could managed to digest for tomorrow's climb upto the South Col. We were getting closer, but the real tough climbing was still ahead of us.
20 May 2008 (C3 to C4)
Today we departed C3 about 9am after waiting for the sun to hit the tent, which on Lhotse Face is a little later than we were accustomed to at lower camps. We anticipated it would take us 5-6 hours to reach C4, therefore getting there mid afternoon allowing a few hours to rest prior to heading for the summit later tonight.
Getting started early in the morning, was taking progressively longer, because at altitude, we just get a little slower at everything we do!
Today, we start using oxygen for the first time on the expedition so this took a little extra time getting it set up for the first time. Unfortunately, using oxygen often eels caustrophobic until such time that you can get into a regular breathing pattern. Despite having used oxygen back on Cho Oyu in 2006 I did not feel any less discomfort putting it on this morning. I knew it would be difficult for the other guys on the team who will be using it for their first time today.
Climbing from C3 to C4
We managed to get out of the tent on time, and immediately out of camp we had a 8m vertical wall to climb, with large deep steps kicked into wall and which demanded good strength to pull oneself up the fixed lines. I managed to get up it, but the extra work requried to do so, only made the oxygen mask seeem more suffocating. Once I got to the top, it had left me completely exhuasted. Shit, I hope the rest of the day is going to be a bit easier than this!
About 20 minutes later my breathing pattern was starting to settle comfortably into a synchronised monotony....one breath, one step, one breath, one step.....it seemed to work well. I looked behind and see that James was struggling with his breathing and was sitting down to the side of the fixed lines. He was too far back to yell out to, but Jamie soon came up to his assistance. I hope he would be ok.
I continued on with the same speed as those other climbers on the fixed line. The route headed directly up above C3 for several hundred meter before traversing across the Lhotse Face to reach the Yellow Band some several hours later.
Traversing across the Lhotse Face to the Yellow Band
The upward steps remained monotonous, as was the breathing and the connecting to each fixed line; but the monotony at times was comfort and meant progress in the right (upwards) direction! I kept reminding myself that climbing mountains was all about gaining altitude, and a quick glimpse of my altimeter every so often verified that on this steep ground, altitude was being gained!
After climbing up through the Yellow Band, Andy, Jamie and I tool a good rest. Anselm had sped on ahead tagging behind a faster group of climbers. jamie informed us here that James had decided to turn around back to C3 as he was finding the ascent difficult. (As it turns out he decided to abandoned his attempt completely at this point and has since returned back
home to Ireland).
From here we could now see the route continuing on up to traverse a large rocky spur called the Geneva Spur, and then disappear up over the top to what was hopefully the South Col. Again, we continued on for another hour or so and rested at the bottom of the Geneva Spur, where we also removed our crampons to facilitate easier travel over the rock. It is here we realised that the climb to the South Col was going to take longer than expected and cut into valuable resting time we had planned at the South Col before heading for the summit later tonight.
We pushed on. At the top of the spur we had a short vertical scramble over rock, snow and ice which then accessed a flat rocky trail to our relief. This trail weaved it's way into C4 where we finally arrived some 8 hours after leaving C3. It was now 5pm and we would be leaving forthe summit in just 5 hours (at 10pm).
Top of the Geneva Spur with view of Everest face
At the South Col, despite it's notorious reputation, the temperature was relatively mild and a real plus is there was no wind. The weather forecast of no winds was thankfully holding true! A few tents had already been set up already by teams planning to attempt the summit tonight, other teams had stashed their C4 supplies in white mesh bags in preparation for their teams
arrival.
I wandered across camp and found our team tents and our Sherpa team busy making final preparations. Exhausted after the 8 hour trip from C3, I climbed inside the tent and it was first priority to boil and drink some water to hydrate, and force down a few noodles. Anslem who had arrived 1 hour earlier, liked particularly plain food, and he insisted the noodles be free of any satchel flavorings or liquid soup - eating was bland and difficult, but we managed.
C4 - The South Col
After eating, we all lied there resting, and catching any sleep we could before the summit attempt. However for me it was impossible to sleep any, or rest properly as my mind raced ahead with the anticipation that in just a few hours we would be heading off on the final round trip to the summit of Everest!
.................(to be continued in the next few days)
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