Saturday, April 19, 2008

Email / Team Updates

Team dispatches of our expedition are now being posted to
www.project-himalaya.com website - look for the dispatches web page.

This is contrary to my earlier advice team dispatches were to be posted to
www.mounteverest.net.

You can also send emails to base camp by sending to our general email
account everest@project-himalaya.com

Arrived at Base Camp 5,360m

Hi folks, well we finally made it to base camp, arriving here on April 16.

The week prior, James and I (very) slowly made our way up from Namche Bazaar
up the valley towards Gokyo. As opposed to the numerous trekkers along the
walking route, late starts and short 2~3hr days were a high priority; as was
making the most most of our apetites along the way. It seemed that most
lodge owners were happy to have us stay longer given the amount of money we
would spend on food. Noodle soup, potatoes, and eggs generally become the
staple dish with the occasional piece of home made apple pie. All the lodges
are small, family run operations, offering extremely basic ammenities. A hot
shower was a luxury usually at about $3 each and was typically a bucket of
luke warm water with holes in it above a small shed located outside the
lodge.

Our longest day was crossing over the Cho La pass which we underestimated to
be an easy 5hr walk. Well as we reached the top of what we thought was the
pass, we were shocked to see in front of us the trail descent down several
hundred meters across and rocky glacier moraine, only then to sharply ascent
up a steep and rocky headwall - the real Cho La pass! We kicked one step at
a time up the loose, slippery scree slope finally reaching the top of the
pass several hours later. On the other side, we were greeted by an equally
steep descent down the other side through snow, and rock. The altitude got
the better of me, with a severe headache from the altitude - something which
one just has to get use to going to alititude. Pretty much like a bad
hangover that never goes away. We reached the valley on the other side of
the pass and now felt a lot close to Everest. We then turned north up the
valley and settled in for the night in the vilalge of Lobuche, feeling
absolutely whipped, some 8.5 hours after starting out that day.

The following day we made our way up to Gorak Shep, and from here we were
now within 3hrs walk of Everest Base Camp; however at this point we Mount
Everest was still out of view.

To see Everest, we climbed in the evening light, to the top of Kalar Patar,
a nearby peak of 5,600m.

From the summit of Kalar Pater there was no mistaking the Everest - it's
prominent pyramid shape towering above the surrounding peaks in all it's
glory in the setting sun. Our objective now after several weeks of making
the approach, now seemed all the more real.

We arrived in base camp the following day, and quickly found our sherpa team
all busy setting up our base camp which is located at the foot of the Khumbu
Ice Fall which rised some 600m above our camp site. Base camp itself it set
in a cirque with a number of peaks rising steeply above us to 7,500m.

All our other team members have also arrived these past 2 days, and everyone
now is resting and eating well. In fact there is not much else to do here.
It is critical for all of us to get well acclimatised before heading further
up the mountain.

Night time temperatures in the tent are -11C however the moment the sun
rises over the surrounding peaks and hits the tents, the temperatures soar
to 30C, and there is no escape from the heat. When clouds pass in front of
the sun the temperature immediately drops and everyone grabs for their down
jackets for the brief time the sun is obstructed. Our camp is set up on the
glacier ice which we can constantly hear cracking and creaking beneath us.
At night time, avalanche activity is at it's peak and often we are awoken by
the sound of snow, ice and rock avalanches on the surrounding peaks.

The sherpas were busy yesterday building a stupa for the "Puja" ceromony
which will be held on Sunday. The Puja is a ceremony that all Nepalese
sherpas and our whole climb team will participate in before stepping foot on
the mountain. As a team we will all congregate around the stupa, laying our
ice axes and crampons at it's base, along with food offering to the mountain
gods, and in Nepalese, prayers will be made offering respect to the
mountain, and requesting safe passage of travel for all climbing members.
Thereafter the real climbing begins.

We had a team meeting today, going over events for the next few weeks. We
anticipate we will all travel 3 times through the ice fall. The sherpas will
begin carrying loads up to camp I and camp II. James and I are somewhat
acclimatised to base camp altitude and we shall accompany the sherpas Monday
morning, climbing through the ice fall aiming to reach camp I. We shall
spend a couple of nights there and then ascend higher to camp II and stay
there for a couple of days, climbing perhaps to ~7300m before returning to
base camp for rest, only to repeat this process again. Fun, fun, fun!

Bye for now...David