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SKIING THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA PART 1
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GETTING INTO WINTER CLIMBING SHAPE WITH FA GUIDE CHAD PEELE
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CARSTENSZ PYRAMID THE HEROES PROJECT EXPEDITION IN THREE ACTS
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KYLE MILLER ON FIRST FILM PREMIERE AND TRANSITIONING FROM SKI BUM TO PRO ATHLETE
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BE FIRST RECIPIENT JON TURK RECAPS HIS EPIC, FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ELLESMERE ISLAND
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TAHOE GUIDE MEETING DAY 2 THE GUIDE BUILT PROCESS
Everest Dispatch #22
Everest Base Camp
Lat/ Long 17,500 ft.
by Seth Waterfall
Base Camp is a busy place these days as all of the teams have arrived and the route through the icefall is now open. In the daytime climbers and trekkers are constantly milling about camp, checking in with friends and other teams to see what everyone’s plans are. It’s quite a scene.
Since the Icefall Doctors completed the route to Camp 1 teams have been busy staking claims to the prime sites. At least one team has sent climbers to spend the night there thus starting their first acclimatization ‘rotation’. The Sherpas in our team went to Camp 1 the day the Icefall Doctors completed the final leg of the route and marked off an area for our camp there. Today our team carried loads of gear to the camp. This accomplished two things. The first and most obvious is to transport some of our gear further up the mountain. The second is to aid our acclimatization by climbing to almost 20,000 feet before returning to Base Camp to recover.
This was my first trip through the icefall in it’s entirety. Of course I’ve heard about it, read about it, and have had plenty of time to obsess about it over the last 6 days. But there’s no way to really get a feel for it other than climbing through it. I have climbed on plenty of glaciers. In fact I’ve spent weeks on end living on glaciers. But climbing through an icefall, where the glacier drops off of a steep slope, picks up speed and breaks up into crevasses (you can fall in these) and ice towers called seracs (these can fall on you) is not a normal or common thing, even for a mountain guide.
So we got up at 2:15 am this morning and started our climb at 3am. There’s two reasons to start this early. One is to get ahead of other people that may slow us down in dangerous sections. The other is to climb in the nice, cool temperatures of the night and avoid the oppressive heat of the day. Well, I must admit the ‘cool’ night time temps here are really ridiculously cold so getting out of my sleeping bag was the first crux of the day. From our camp it’s about 45 minutes to the first big crevasses. The Icefall Doctors use aluminum ladders to bridge crevasses. On Rainier we also use ladders to cross crevasses the only difference is that on Rainier we’ll use two to three ladders in a season, here there is about 35 ladders crossing crevasses and climbing up and down seracs. The Doctors do a great job of making things as safe as possible in the icefall. Of course there’s the ladders, but they also place tons of rope on the route so you can always be clipped in and safe from a big fall.
Once in the icefall itself there are precious few places to safely stop for a break. The glacier is always shifting and moving so you really don’t know when a chunk of ice may come crashing down. Your best bet for safety is to move quickly and in climb in control. Fortunately our team was able to stay fairly close together owing to our early departure. There were not many people for us to get caught behind and separated. We did manage to sneak in a couple of rest breaks, though we did make excellent time and we arrived at Camp 1 at the top of the icefall just before 7:00 am.
Camp 1 is a tricky place to camp. It is sandwiched in between the steep faces of Everest’s West Ridge and the north face of Nuptse. Both sides of the valley are prone to ice and snow avalanches. The trick there is to position your camp so as to mitigate the danger from both sides of the valley. Also the climbing route from Camp 1 to Camp 2 currently avoids the big crevasses in the center of the glacier but passes directly under some avalanche paths on Nuptse. We were discussing the relative merits of two different campsites and where the climbing route will be the safest when a large avalanche came ripping down off of the summit of Nuptse. To our shock there was a large group of people on the climbing route, directly under the avalanche. Fortunately most of the snow and ice from the avalanche landed in the ‘moat’ between the glacier and the steeper slopes of Nuptse and the folks on the route, including some Sherpas from our team were only blasted with a ‘powder cloud’ from the avalanche. Still, this was a scary event and a reminder to be ever respectful of the power of the mountains.
-Seth Waterfall
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Comments 
I am in awe of the things you all are doing up there!! I must say again the pictures are so beautiful!!! Stay safe and keep on keepin’ on!!!
Our class in Cashmere is in awe of the beauty and scenery. We wonder how often avalanches occur around you and does the constant rumbling of them keep you awake at night? Looks like it was a close avalanche and are happy no one was injured. Good luck in this endeavor and be safe.
Greetings from Saint John New Brunswick, Canada. We at the EBCSC are watching your journey daily. The pictures are beautiful. Look forward to hearing your reviews on the First Ascent gear. Enjoy your journey and stay safe!
Hello from salt lake city, ut. Loving the pictures and dispatches. Am extremely jealous stay safe and keep up the good work
Thankful that no one got hurt. Keep up these great reports, stay safe and love the pictures. More please.
I found your blog and am reminiscing about my trek in Nepal to EBC last fall (Oct/Nov 2008); Nepal is an amazing place and the Khumbu valley breathtaking. I’m not a mountaineer, though I think I wish I could have been, but even trekking gave me the exhiliaration I craved. Stay safe all.
New Jersey, USA
Can I be like you when I grow up!?! This looks too cool! I now can’t wait to check the site each day to see the latest adventures. Stay safe and thank you for the photos and blogs.
Its amazing how small the avalanche looks at first when there is no point of reference, then you see the microscopic people running the other direction and you realize how massive it is!
Greetings From R692 In Saratoga Springs,N.Y. We are all rooting for you and love the pictures,absolutely breathtaking!Good luck and we look forward to the next blog.
There have been many deaths and close-calls in mountaineering over the years. In most cases, a good communication network would have reduced fatalities. Many teams cannot afford the cost or weight of advanced radio networks at their advanced bases. Has anyone considered installing permanent cellphone towers and compact solar-powered switch-gear at one or two locations in the vicinity of Everest which could be accessed by climbers, porters and base camp alike. Obviously cellphones require glove-less operation, (this would conveniently limit their use to emergencies and night-time tent-use only,) but voice-dialing could also be utilized.
I’d like to sincerely thank… First Ascent, Eddie Bauer, the stellar Guide Team, Sherpas, the Support & Media Crew for sharing this journey, on a daily basis, with the outside world. I’ve been following this Expedition since day one and it has been a wonderful experience. Although I am located at Sea Level, exactly 7,874.43 miles away from Base Camp, I feel close to the project and those involved because of every ones insightful and descriptive Expedition Dispatches (the written word, the stunning photo and of course the video). I have shared this site and the expedition with many my friends and they are hooked. I’ve enjoyed tracking your movements using Google Earth when given the GPS co ordinances. Please keep it up. Thanks so much.