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What a difference a day or two can make. The First Ascent team walked out of Namche and down through the farms and fields of Phak Ding the other morning. In short order, we’d gone from snow, ice and rock to wheat, barley and happy little kids in school uniforms crowding the trails. Erica Dohring and I took the standard six hours to cover the walk from Namche to Lukla under mostly cloudy skies. Compared to the Lhotse Face or the Khumbu Icefall, the stroll to Lukla is not terribly difficult… but sure enough, it ends with uphill just when most tired Everest enthusiasts would prefer for it to be downhill Read More…
The cyclone pushed us out of Everest Basecamp. Early yesterday morning, it tried to crush us in our tents. Heavy, wet snow was falling at the rate of perhaps three inches per hour. Everything was getting buried fast… tents, yaks, climbing gear. It was tough to tell just how much accumulation there was since the ground is so uneven to begin with at BC, but it was common to be thigh deep while attempting to get from one tent to another Read More…
Everest Dispatch #87
May 24, 2009
Everest Basecamp
’09 Pre-Monsoon Climbing Season
There are two distinct sounds that jar me away from the day to day life at Basecamp and instantly remind me of the sobering landscape in which we are living. The first starts as a low grumble, like a distant roll of thunder moving up the valley, then turns to a deep guttural roar that shakes through camp. It is as if the mountains themselves are groaning under the weight of their icy loads and they shift to ease their burdens. At the head of the Khumbu valley and surrounded by a full 270 degrees soaring peaks, Basecamp is ringed by steep flanks of rock, ice, and snow. The panorama surrounding Basecamp is stunning as some of the world’s highest peaks rear up directly above. Beginning with the hanging glaciers flowing from Pumori’s almost perfect conical summit, and stretching over Lingtren, Cholatse, Lho La Pass, Everests’ West Ridge, the Khumbu Icefall, and Nuptse’s impressive West Face, the Himalayas dwarf Basecamp. And from these faces comes the deep groans. It is the sound of falling ice and rock as the glaciers hanging high on the mountains above calve off, sending tons upon tons of ice crashing down the faces below. From Basecamp the first distant grumble echoes across the valley, growing in intensity as the falling chunks gain speed, breaking apart as they hit the mountain sides and dispersing into fine clouds of billowing ice crystals. These clouds of ice blast across the valley floor, like the smoke from a canon as it discharges its deadly load, billowing up in boiling white curtains that rushes through Basecamp. Read More…
I was perplexed this morning at ABC. Shouldn’t a night’s sleep have healed all wounds and refreshed me enough to seize one more Everest day? But as I lay –uncomfortably- in my sleeping bag at 5:30 AM, rubbing my eyes, stifling coughs and wondering why so many muscles hurt… I remembered what we’d accomplished the day before and why we deserved every bruise, blister and affliction in return. Read More…
Team Hahn Summit Day Audio Dispatch #02
Everest Dispatch #85
6:00pm May 23 Nepal Time
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We heard from Dave that the the summit team are currently descending from the South Col to Camp 2. They departed the Col. at approx. 12.30pm and are expected to arrive at Camp 2 around 5 pm. We will post an entry as soon as the team arrives at Camp 2.
The summit team including Dave, Seth, Melissa and Kent have arrived safely at the south col. They plan to spend a few hours resting and evaluate the weather conditions before making the decision to spend the night at camp 4, or descend to camp 2. As soon as we hear from them we will post a new entry.
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