By Leif Whittaker:
It’s been over a month since I said goodbye to the comforts of home and embarked on this expedition and, to be honest, I’m starting to miss some things. Staying focused on the mountain is important, but during the fat part of the trip, when our team is resting and recuperating at base [...]
By Melissa Arnot:
Without the Sherpa who work on Mount Everest, this climb would be significantly different. Most people assume that Sherpa is a job title, which is a common misnomer. Rather, it is a tribe of people, all sharing the last name Sherpa and first names given for the day of the week [...]
By David Morton:
I emerged from my tent at BC this morning at about 4:30 a.m. The sun was still well below the west shoulder of Everest, where it rises each morning. But the ambient light created by the rising sun reflecting off the snow-plastered peaks we’re surrounded by bathes BC in an eerie [...]
By Melissa Arnot:
The sun doesn’t hit the ridge of Camp 1 until about 8 in the morning. I pull my buff over my eyes and groggily notice that my water bottle is frozen. I peek over at David, wondering if he slept any better than I did. He turns to me and inquires what I [...]
By Leif Whittaker:
From Camp I (19,800 ft) at the toe of the Western Cwm, Mount Everest appears terribly beautiful and incomprehensibly massive, but also, somehow, excitingly close. Four hours of careful climbing through the Khumbu Icefall has brought us to a grouping of three-person tents that are sandwiched between the dark crevasses and infinite peaks [...]
By Melissa Arnot:
Our Base Camp is at the top of the cul de sac that makes a dead end at the icefall. From here we can see almost all the other camps, and since we are so far away, visitors are scarce. I have been enjoying the silence, remembering that this trip is about climbing [...]
By Melissa Arnot:
The more time I spend in the mountains, the more I can hear the individual voice of each place I go. I am starting to realize that this mountain, Everest, has had a different voice each time I have been here. This year, so far, the voice has been quiet, calm and inviting. [...]
By Leif Whittaker:
There is a section of this mountain that, having imagined it for the last seven years, seems monumental, and I can hardly believe the anticipated hardships and dangers, the objective hazards I visualized, have finally become real seracs that hover dauntingly over my helmet, real crevasses spanned by lashed-together aluminum ladders, huge walls [...]
Subscribe