May 10th
Tracey and I was up early in the morning for our long walk down to Pangboche. We were looking at about 7 hours but most of it was on the way down.
We started about 9 am as we left base camp, it was a very sad feeling but also a good feeling. I had been cold for 30 plus days and I was ready for some hot weather( BKK). As we pass by the many camps( mostly empty because everyone was down the mountain getting their body revived for the final push I couldn't help but wonder why I couldn't have just hung on a little little longer and tried to revive my body also but in my heart I knew I was finished. I had absolutely nothing left. I had pushed it as far as I could and it would just be a wasted effort to try to revive and go back up to the top. The camp had really changed as many people had gone home so it looked almost empty as now the camps had some space between themselves where everyone was on top of each other when I arrived.
We made our way out and passed so many people along the way that we had met when we were on the mountain. This was slowly turning out to be a pretty sad day for me so I was so ready to get down and away.
After about 5 hours we stopped in Pheriche and had a drink with some friends. We stopped to say good bye to Dr and we ran into Dave and Melissa Arnot the friend I meet up at camp 2. They looked so much better than when i saw them last and they were heading back up the mountain. We sat there an hour just chatting and wish them well( BTW they both made it but she did not do it without oxygen but this was here 3 rd summit in 3 attempts a monumental achievement and I believe it was 7th summit) and was on our last 2 hours of walking.
We met the oldest American who had summitted( 69 years old) on the way up with a large group of people and he was retracing his trail to base camp.
Anyway we finally made it back to Pheriche and it felt good. The walk was very long and actually was quite a chore for me. I kept thinking about the year before and the walk down and how easy it was for em to do it especially after your body is so acclimated but this year was so different but we did make it and I was taking the helicopter out and didn't really care about this anymore.
We stopped at Lama geshi's daughter's house for a few hours( ate and drank some) while the others made it down the mountain but they all began returning home.
We then made it back to Nima's house where w would be staying the night.
I had seen several of Wally's people on the way down so i knew he and Leila was down below us about 200 meters so I decide to walk down to see some old friends.
I went and visited them for while and it was good to see Leila and Wally for a few hours and the group of trekkers that they have. It was also god for me mentally as Wally and Leila treat me like their son and make me feel like a king especially in front of their other clients because I have traveled so much with them over the years and have been in many situations with them.
It was sad to leave but I wanted to get back up with my friends for dinner. We had a party and celebrated our time together and I mad ea promise that I would see all of them again in a few years as they were friends for life and definitely our paths would cross again
I laid down that night completely exhausted as the last few hours I had been going by my emotions and the feeling that this trip of a lifetime was finally over and while it was sad I knew my time would come again.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Personal Thanks and recognitions
Personal May 8, 2010
Friends, colleagues, family and friends of friends
This has been 1 of the most remarkable things I have ever done and seen. Without you as a supporter, I would not have experience what I have done over the past 35 days.
Climbing is one thing,( something I have been doing for almost 8 years now with little fanfare) but helping people understand what I did everyday when I climbed ( fun fast paced learning is what it is called), in a place that is the most unbelievable place on earth, is a feeling that I will never forget.
I was your lab rat and it was fun and exciting and I hope one day again, you can come along and learn even more in a another part of the world where I will be climbing. I have never done a blog. I have never even done a diary. I had always lived for the moment because this was a personal thing but this was the first for me. I opened myself up to the world on a mountain when all odds were against me, even though I had trained exceptionally hard for this for over 2 years. I was not comfortable in doing it at first due to the high success rate of failure in reaching the top but I would not trade this experience now for anything in the world as it shows me that if something is interesting and someone people know is doing it, it can be a learning experience for everyone even when the goal is not met. (I still have to tell you that I am so disappointed in the way it ended and I am sorry I was not able to give you even more)
Everest is a special place and I know each of you learned more about Mt Everest than you could have ever imagined. I know this because I got email, I got blog replies, I got phone calls and my family got more personal contact on a daily basis that ever before on any topic since I have been alive and that was 48 years ago. I heard from people on 6 of the 7 continents and a lot of them knew nothing about me climbing before much less Mt Everest. That is totally amazing!!!! I appreciated your prayers and support and it must have worked because I am coming home safely with everything attached and the mind is still good.
At this point (as I sit in this cold tent begging for some warm weather), I really am not interested in coming back to MT Everest but I also know time heals a lot of old wounds. (But it will have to be a lot of time) It still has a special place in my heart but it has taught me some very hard lessons with my physical body but also with my ego. I have my list to go back and reevaluate what happened, why? What could have been done different etc. I have quite a long list to go through but rest assured if I can conquer some of these things in a different day under different circumstances, I will make another run at this great mountain.
Again Thanks for all you have done for me. I hope that I will see some of the people that I have corresponding with in the last month before I have to climb this mountain again.
Friends, colleagues, family and friends of friends
This has been 1 of the most remarkable things I have ever done and seen. Without you as a supporter, I would not have experience what I have done over the past 35 days.
Climbing is one thing,( something I have been doing for almost 8 years now with little fanfare) but helping people understand what I did everyday when I climbed ( fun fast paced learning is what it is called), in a place that is the most unbelievable place on earth, is a feeling that I will never forget.
I was your lab rat and it was fun and exciting and I hope one day again, you can come along and learn even more in a another part of the world where I will be climbing. I have never done a blog. I have never even done a diary. I had always lived for the moment because this was a personal thing but this was the first for me. I opened myself up to the world on a mountain when all odds were against me, even though I had trained exceptionally hard for this for over 2 years. I was not comfortable in doing it at first due to the high success rate of failure in reaching the top but I would not trade this experience now for anything in the world as it shows me that if something is interesting and someone people know is doing it, it can be a learning experience for everyone even when the goal is not met. (I still have to tell you that I am so disappointed in the way it ended and I am sorry I was not able to give you even more)
Everest is a special place and I know each of you learned more about Mt Everest than you could have ever imagined. I know this because I got email, I got blog replies, I got phone calls and my family got more personal contact on a daily basis that ever before on any topic since I have been alive and that was 48 years ago. I heard from people on 6 of the 7 continents and a lot of them knew nothing about me climbing before much less Mt Everest. That is totally amazing!!!! I appreciated your prayers and support and it must have worked because I am coming home safely with everything attached and the mind is still good.
At this point (as I sit in this cold tent begging for some warm weather), I really am not interested in coming back to MT Everest but I also know time heals a lot of old wounds. (But it will have to be a lot of time) It still has a special place in my heart but it has taught me some very hard lessons with my physical body but also with my ego. I have my list to go back and reevaluate what happened, why? What could have been done different etc. I have quite a long list to go through but rest assured if I can conquer some of these things in a different day under different circumstances, I will make another run at this great mountain.
Again Thanks for all you have done for me. I hope that I will see some of the people that I have corresponding with in the last month before I have to climb this mountain again.
Reflexion day and get travel plans home
Sat May 8th.
Planning to go home (logictics)
I was awaking by the sun from a long night of restless sleep around 730 am. I met Jim for breakfast (ate 6 sausage patties with Heinz %& and they were delicious along with some great scrambled eggs and to discuss “now How do it get out this place to get home?” and let me tell you that it is not that easy.
I had already told him that I wanted to take the helicopter out to save me from walking 3- 4 extra days so he had already checked on this potential situation. The other problem we have is that Katmandu was going through almost the identical situation that BKK had been going through with the “red shirts” It had caused a “strike” in town and the town was only operating on a 12 hour day (6am -6 pm) and things were getting pretty difficult to navigate. Restaurants were running out of food, business running out of fuel etc and the town is on the verge of major shutdown and I want to get back to bkk ASAP.
I think we now know I will walk down to Pangboche and catch a helicopter all the way to KAT now where we were looking at Luckla and then trying the plane ride. I just didn’t want to do this and chance another luggage deal and maybe a deal with bad weather than would keep me in Luckla an extra night.
I am trying now to be back in BKK on Thursday May 13th if all goes well and hopefully be in the US sometime the last part of the month.
I will continue the blog as I traveled home.
Planning to go home (logictics)
I was awaking by the sun from a long night of restless sleep around 730 am. I met Jim for breakfast (ate 6 sausage patties with Heinz %& and they were delicious along with some great scrambled eggs and to discuss “now How do it get out this place to get home?” and let me tell you that it is not that easy.
I had already told him that I wanted to take the helicopter out to save me from walking 3- 4 extra days so he had already checked on this potential situation. The other problem we have is that Katmandu was going through almost the identical situation that BKK had been going through with the “red shirts” It had caused a “strike” in town and the town was only operating on a 12 hour day (6am -6 pm) and things were getting pretty difficult to navigate. Restaurants were running out of food, business running out of fuel etc and the town is on the verge of major shutdown and I want to get back to bkk ASAP.
I think we now know I will walk down to Pangboche and catch a helicopter all the way to KAT now where we were looking at Luckla and then trying the plane ride. I just didn’t want to do this and chance another luggage deal and maybe a deal with bad weather than would keep me in Luckla an extra night.
I am trying now to be back in BKK on Thursday May 13th if all goes well and hopefully be in the US sometime the last part of the month.
I will continue the blog as I traveled home.
Decison Day and the second guessing
Friday May 7th
Decision Day on the future of the climb
I was awaked about 7 with the noise of the kitchen. I knew when I open my eyes I had no other choice but to go down so when Nima opened my tent I told him that I needed to go down. He wanted me to discuss with Jim and confirm our path. I chatted with Jim on other options but I knew in my heart, I had no other choice but to go down. The CLIMB WAS OVER FOR STEVE AND TEAM FOR EVEREST 2010.You could feel it in the tent when Nima was in there to make the judgment call with Jim and I, even though the group knew it already without understanding the conversation. Then they were scared to be around me and didn’t know what to say so the next 15 mins or so was very awkward.
Nawang, the only one who speaks good English, came up to talk for the group. He was a monk for 12 years and is a very soft spoken compassionate man. All he could do is hug me and tell me about his life of climbing Mt Everest. He started at 19 years old and it took him 6 times before he could summit. It was a nice feeling that almost made me cry as I know it was from his heart but he just didn’t know what to do in this situation. After this, it was time to move. Things had to get back down to base camp and I had a long day to get back to base comp back through the Ice Falls.
Ok enough of the soft stuff, Nima and I decided we needed to leave in the next 15 mins. This was around 9 am and with the heavy snow and me less than 100% we were planning on 6 hours where we had done it in less than 5 just a week ago.
We started walking to camp 1 and the weather was actually pretty good. A little hot with some sunshine but the fog was coming up from base camp which I thought would be good. We made it down to camp 1 in 1.5 hours and I still felt pretty good. We fought each other about crampons all the way down the mountain because I didn’t want to wear them due to the heavy snow. I knew at places it was a little more dangerous to be without them but the snow buildup would be time consuming along with fatiguing if we added this to the equations. I won the battle until we reached the last ladder before the Ice Falls. I was glad I did as the last 100 meters I walked with the crampons before we entered the Ice fall was pure hell with the snow build up but we had made it safely.
The first 2 places in the ice fall to me are the most dangerous. It is 3 vertical ladders hanging on the side of a mountain that has shifted several feet since this adventure has started. The ladders also were now about 10 feet below the top line of the wall. I have a picture but as usual it doesn’t show how I viewed it. I navigated the top to get on the ladder and made my way down it slowly. Finally I was at the bottom of the crevasse, now we had to go back up the other side with 3 different ladders. Now 1 hard one down and I more wall to scale down. This is another drop of some 100 foot down but without ladders. (I really don’t know which I prefer but I think without ladders is better) I made it down with a hitch and know I knew the worse was over. There was plenty more of downhill stuff to navigate but not the length of these too wall descents at 1 time.
We continued on and I felt pretty good but I also remembered that most of all of this section above the “football field” was all downhill so all I had to do is to hang on and point them down hill.
We had just called Jim and told them we had entered the “popcorn’ area and we should be down in about 2 hours. We continued to move pretty good when I came to a crevasse that was about 6 ft across and it struck me as being a little wide especially for Nima who is so short. Then a few more feet and I had another large one which was probably closer to 7 feet wide and I went on over because I had momentum but then I stopped Nima. The next step was about 14 feet down and the ladders were just hanging by the ropes. We had just had a collapse in the ice fall and we had entered the region. About that time Nima was yelling to me to clip into the safety rope and get back up the hill until we knew what was happening.
About that time Wally’s 3 Sherpa’s came upon us and wanted to take a look at what had happened. They clipped and took a look and we called the Ice Dr’s for their help.
During the next 1.5 hours, Nima and 1 of Wally’s guides tried to fine ways around this pass but found nothing. It was snowing, it was cold and it was getting late and the Ice Fall doctors were still an hour away from us so Nima took it upon himself to repel down to the area and retie the ladders well enough for us to get across. (This was a place of 4 ladders covering about 80 feet across various crevasses that had dropped about 14 feet from the original location. I have a picture) It was funny that Nima got in front of me and said let’s go and was moving quiet quickly. I later found out that this was because he didn’t want me to think about anything but following him so we could get out there without any issues. It really didn’t matter as I was cold, numb and tired due to sitting there 2 hours while we waited for it to be repaired and it was snowing like crazy. As I sat there I thought this was probably another sign for me to go home. We met the Ice Fall Dr’s about 30 mins later and Nima informed them to go up and repair the place as he had only done it temporarily to get past it. (Nice!!)
Now we were finally on our way home and we had called Wally to have the camp send us some lunch in the bottom of the falls. At about 30 mins from the end we were met by Tracy, Jetta and Dawa with drinks and grilled cheese sandwiches. This was very nice of them and it help ease the pain to the finish line.
This was the end of the day for me because I was finally out of the Ice falls and off that Mountain.
As we arrived home everyone was so nice and I just went to sit in the dining tent to talk to Jim. I was still struggling with the decisions that I had made earlier in the day and I just wanted confirmation that I had done the right thing and also for the right reasons. Climbing mountains are learning experiences and you have to be smarter and wiser every time you go up a mountain so I needed to discuss many issues with Jim. The People in the camp knew what was happening and was very accommodating to me with clean socks, new shoes, my jacket and all of this while this discussion plus a few personal phone calls to some of my friends and family.
We had dinner and I headed off to the tent for a nights’ sleep at a lower altitude and everyone had said how much better I already sounded vs that morning at 21000 ft.
The night would turn out to be another hard one as I began to question all the decision that I had made that morning as I was feeling better but at the end of the day it was still the right decision and one thing for sure the mountain is not going anywhere and I am so much smarter today than I was when I started this adventure 35 days ago. I have not giving up climbing I will just have to change some habits if I want to come back to Everest.
Decision Day on the future of the climb
I was awaked about 7 with the noise of the kitchen. I knew when I open my eyes I had no other choice but to go down so when Nima opened my tent I told him that I needed to go down. He wanted me to discuss with Jim and confirm our path. I chatted with Jim on other options but I knew in my heart, I had no other choice but to go down. The CLIMB WAS OVER FOR STEVE AND TEAM FOR EVEREST 2010.You could feel it in the tent when Nima was in there to make the judgment call with Jim and I, even though the group knew it already without understanding the conversation. Then they were scared to be around me and didn’t know what to say so the next 15 mins or so was very awkward.
Nawang, the only one who speaks good English, came up to talk for the group. He was a monk for 12 years and is a very soft spoken compassionate man. All he could do is hug me and tell me about his life of climbing Mt Everest. He started at 19 years old and it took him 6 times before he could summit. It was a nice feeling that almost made me cry as I know it was from his heart but he just didn’t know what to do in this situation. After this, it was time to move. Things had to get back down to base camp and I had a long day to get back to base comp back through the Ice Falls.
Ok enough of the soft stuff, Nima and I decided we needed to leave in the next 15 mins. This was around 9 am and with the heavy snow and me less than 100% we were planning on 6 hours where we had done it in less than 5 just a week ago.
We started walking to camp 1 and the weather was actually pretty good. A little hot with some sunshine but the fog was coming up from base camp which I thought would be good. We made it down to camp 1 in 1.5 hours and I still felt pretty good. We fought each other about crampons all the way down the mountain because I didn’t want to wear them due to the heavy snow. I knew at places it was a little more dangerous to be without them but the snow buildup would be time consuming along with fatiguing if we added this to the equations. I won the battle until we reached the last ladder before the Ice Falls. I was glad I did as the last 100 meters I walked with the crampons before we entered the Ice fall was pure hell with the snow build up but we had made it safely.
The first 2 places in the ice fall to me are the most dangerous. It is 3 vertical ladders hanging on the side of a mountain that has shifted several feet since this adventure has started. The ladders also were now about 10 feet below the top line of the wall. I have a picture but as usual it doesn’t show how I viewed it. I navigated the top to get on the ladder and made my way down it slowly. Finally I was at the bottom of the crevasse, now we had to go back up the other side with 3 different ladders. Now 1 hard one down and I more wall to scale down. This is another drop of some 100 foot down but without ladders. (I really don’t know which I prefer but I think without ladders is better) I made it down with a hitch and know I knew the worse was over. There was plenty more of downhill stuff to navigate but not the length of these too wall descents at 1 time.
We continued on and I felt pretty good but I also remembered that most of all of this section above the “football field” was all downhill so all I had to do is to hang on and point them down hill.
We had just called Jim and told them we had entered the “popcorn’ area and we should be down in about 2 hours. We continued to move pretty good when I came to a crevasse that was about 6 ft across and it struck me as being a little wide especially for Nima who is so short. Then a few more feet and I had another large one which was probably closer to 7 feet wide and I went on over because I had momentum but then I stopped Nima. The next step was about 14 feet down and the ladders were just hanging by the ropes. We had just had a collapse in the ice fall and we had entered the region. About that time Nima was yelling to me to clip into the safety rope and get back up the hill until we knew what was happening.
About that time Wally’s 3 Sherpa’s came upon us and wanted to take a look at what had happened. They clipped and took a look and we called the Ice Dr’s for their help.
During the next 1.5 hours, Nima and 1 of Wally’s guides tried to fine ways around this pass but found nothing. It was snowing, it was cold and it was getting late and the Ice Fall doctors were still an hour away from us so Nima took it upon himself to repel down to the area and retie the ladders well enough for us to get across. (This was a place of 4 ladders covering about 80 feet across various crevasses that had dropped about 14 feet from the original location. I have a picture) It was funny that Nima got in front of me and said let’s go and was moving quiet quickly. I later found out that this was because he didn’t want me to think about anything but following him so we could get out there without any issues. It really didn’t matter as I was cold, numb and tired due to sitting there 2 hours while we waited for it to be repaired and it was snowing like crazy. As I sat there I thought this was probably another sign for me to go home. We met the Ice Fall Dr’s about 30 mins later and Nima informed them to go up and repair the place as he had only done it temporarily to get past it. (Nice!!)
Now we were finally on our way home and we had called Wally to have the camp send us some lunch in the bottom of the falls. At about 30 mins from the end we were met by Tracy, Jetta and Dawa with drinks and grilled cheese sandwiches. This was very nice of them and it help ease the pain to the finish line.
This was the end of the day for me because I was finally out of the Ice falls and off that Mountain.
As we arrived home everyone was so nice and I just went to sit in the dining tent to talk to Jim. I was still struggling with the decisions that I had made earlier in the day and I just wanted confirmation that I had done the right thing and also for the right reasons. Climbing mountains are learning experiences and you have to be smarter and wiser every time you go up a mountain so I needed to discuss many issues with Jim. The People in the camp knew what was happening and was very accommodating to me with clean socks, new shoes, my jacket and all of this while this discussion plus a few personal phone calls to some of my friends and family.
We had dinner and I headed off to the tent for a nights’ sleep at a lower altitude and everyone had said how much better I already sounded vs that morning at 21000 ft.
The night would turn out to be another hard one as I began to question all the decision that I had made that morning as I was feeling better but at the end of the day it was still the right decision and one thing for sure the mountain is not going anywhere and I am so much smarter today than I was when I started this adventure 35 days ago. I have not giving up climbing I will just have to change some habits if I want to come back to Everest.
Rest Day ABC camp ( inspiring words from a new Friend
Thursday May 6th
Rest Day at Camp 2
We awoke at sunrise on the tent which is around 740am. It had snowed all night again so it was nice to have the sun get all the frost melted off the inside of my tent. It was really cold last night.
I didn’t feel that well when we woke up but I did want to get out and move around for the day. We had planned to go for a walk around 10 am maybe for an hour or so just up towards camp 3 (Nawang and me)
I could hear Dave Morgan and Melissa talking in the dining tent so I just stayed in the tent enjoying the morning until I heard them leave for their tents. We were sharing dining tents with them and it just happened that we overlapped one day as they had come down from camp 3 late last night. Dave is a good friend of Jim’s and an accomplished guide in his own right with multiple summits of Everest under his belt and he is guiding (filming for First Ascents (Eddie Bauer) for Melissa who is trying to become the first American woman to summit Everest without oxygen. She had tried last year with the First Accents Dream team but could ONLY summit with Oxygen. She is a very nice (early 30’s) woman and she later came back in the tent to talk to me while she waited on Dave to get ready to come back down to base camp. She was a very nice, compassionate woman and I enjoyed and appreciated her comments. Her occupation is a guide all over the world and she lives in Idaho but guides for RMI. She had heard about my problem and synthesized with me and was a very open and nice and offered some suggestions. Typically people like her are all about themselves and do not think much about us “weekend warriors” up in their territory but I can tell you that she was very nice and very nice looking also. They were heading down to the lower cities to breathe some heavier air and eat some different food because the high camp food is really bland. This really makes you feel bad when she has done this a couple of times and I am sitting there lumbering to make it to camp 3. Anyway you get the picture. All of us need to be humble at times to push us forward and she did this for me.
After I finished a good breakfast of pancakes, oatmeal and bacon, Nawang and I started out on our trek.
It was nice and sunny and we trekked up to the top of the campsites where all the big boys had their sites. Quite impressive and we then continued towards camp 3. After about 40 mins to a good pace walking I needed a drink of water. It was nice and I got a good education from Nawaang about the mountains and where all he had guided. He is a really nice guy and a good guide. We got up after a short bit and I told him that I had had enough. I wanted to get to the base of the Lhotse face but at that time I told myself to conserve energy for tomorrow climb. I felt ok and then we proceeded back down to the camp. Jim was happy that I made it past the upper tents and we would then plan for tomorrow’s run to the top of camp 3.
We returned home and had lunch then I headed to the tent to rest and thin about tomorrow. We had a talk scheduled wit Jim about 6 pm to discuss tomorrow.
When 6 came I talked to Jim about a couple of things. Could/should I stay another night to see if I could recover or just make the decision to come down? Nima stepped in and said let’s not decide tonight but wait until 8 am tomorrow. He really wanted me to go up but he was afraid I would be too weak to come back down and was concerned about my size if they had to get me back down. (I later found this out)
He brought me a good dinner (chicken, Hot dog wieners and boiled rice with butter) and I settled in for the night knowing that I had to make a major decision about tomorrow.
I rolled around for more than hours wrestling with the decision based on the way I felt and the magnitude of my decision. I can tell you it was not easy. I can tell you that the Lhotse face scared me in the condition I was in right then because with the conditions of the mountains one slipped and I could e hurt or even killed. But I also can tell you that I didn’t want to give up. I had never given up under these circumstances and I didn’t want to do it now. SO I can tell you May 6th at ABC was a long night for me to digest.
I finally fell asleep and waited for the 8 am call in the morning
Rest Day at Camp 2
We awoke at sunrise on the tent which is around 740am. It had snowed all night again so it was nice to have the sun get all the frost melted off the inside of my tent. It was really cold last night.
I didn’t feel that well when we woke up but I did want to get out and move around for the day. We had planned to go for a walk around 10 am maybe for an hour or so just up towards camp 3 (Nawang and me)
I could hear Dave Morgan and Melissa talking in the dining tent so I just stayed in the tent enjoying the morning until I heard them leave for their tents. We were sharing dining tents with them and it just happened that we overlapped one day as they had come down from camp 3 late last night. Dave is a good friend of Jim’s and an accomplished guide in his own right with multiple summits of Everest under his belt and he is guiding (filming for First Ascents (Eddie Bauer) for Melissa who is trying to become the first American woman to summit Everest without oxygen. She had tried last year with the First Accents Dream team but could ONLY summit with Oxygen. She is a very nice (early 30’s) woman and she later came back in the tent to talk to me while she waited on Dave to get ready to come back down to base camp. She was a very nice, compassionate woman and I enjoyed and appreciated her comments. Her occupation is a guide all over the world and she lives in Idaho but guides for RMI. She had heard about my problem and synthesized with me and was a very open and nice and offered some suggestions. Typically people like her are all about themselves and do not think much about us “weekend warriors” up in their territory but I can tell you that she was very nice and very nice looking also. They were heading down to the lower cities to breathe some heavier air and eat some different food because the high camp food is really bland. This really makes you feel bad when she has done this a couple of times and I am sitting there lumbering to make it to camp 3. Anyway you get the picture. All of us need to be humble at times to push us forward and she did this for me.
After I finished a good breakfast of pancakes, oatmeal and bacon, Nawang and I started out on our trek.
It was nice and sunny and we trekked up to the top of the campsites where all the big boys had their sites. Quite impressive and we then continued towards camp 3. After about 40 mins to a good pace walking I needed a drink of water. It was nice and I got a good education from Nawaang about the mountains and where all he had guided. He is a really nice guy and a good guide. We got up after a short bit and I told him that I had had enough. I wanted to get to the base of the Lhotse face but at that time I told myself to conserve energy for tomorrow climb. I felt ok and then we proceeded back down to the camp. Jim was happy that I made it past the upper tents and we would then plan for tomorrow’s run to the top of camp 3.
We returned home and had lunch then I headed to the tent to rest and thin about tomorrow. We had a talk scheduled wit Jim about 6 pm to discuss tomorrow.
When 6 came I talked to Jim about a couple of things. Could/should I stay another night to see if I could recover or just make the decision to come down? Nima stepped in and said let’s not decide tonight but wait until 8 am tomorrow. He really wanted me to go up but he was afraid I would be too weak to come back down and was concerned about my size if they had to get me back down. (I later found this out)
He brought me a good dinner (chicken, Hot dog wieners and boiled rice with butter) and I settled in for the night knowing that I had to make a major decision about tomorrow.
I rolled around for more than hours wrestling with the decision based on the way I felt and the magnitude of my decision. I can tell you it was not easy. I can tell you that the Lhotse face scared me in the condition I was in right then because with the conditions of the mountains one slipped and I could e hurt or even killed. But I also can tell you that I didn’t want to give up. I had never given up under these circumstances and I didn’t want to do it now. SO I can tell you May 6th at ABC was a long night for me to digest.
I finally fell asleep and waited for the 8 am call in the morning
Hard lonely day on the way to ABC camp
Wednesday May 5th
Trip from Camp 1 to Camp 2
We got up at 8 am about the time the guys arrived from the base camp. They had left about 4 am on their way to camp 2 with Nima and me. I got out of the tent and knew we were in for a hot day so I double checked to make sure I had full water bottles and some sweets to help me along the trial which should be no more than 4- 5 hours. Jim and I had done it in 3.5 hours the last trip but the snow was about 15 inches deep and this would make it slower with crampons and even slower without so we chose crampons until we go finished with the ladders.
I was doing well about the first hour and was moving up but I was sweating faster than I could get water in my body. I continued on up until we got to the last steep ladder and I told Nima he had to help me with my backpack. I was out of gas. I finally made it over the last ladder and was out of water, couldn’t pick up my backpack and quite frankly couldn’t go anywhere. I told Nima to go ahead and get me some water that I would keep moving if I could and I would meet one of the other guys but please bring me more to drink. He didn’t want to leave me but we had cleared all the ladders and I could see the trail even though visibility was only about 15 feet. We finally called Jim and Jim told Nima to go on up and get some help (water etc) and Jim and I decided it was best if I could to camp 2 and I agreed.
I sat there almost 45 mins. I was completely dehydrated for some reason. I had been drinking on the trail, I had drunk almost 2 liters during the night in the tent but I was out of gas. It was later determined that I was out of “protein” I had nothing left to give and it was now just living off my muscle and it just took me down. I would get up and just fall over. I was beginning to think that I couldn’t go up or down and I was halfway up. I had never in my life been in this kind of condition but I just couldn’t go nay where. Finally after about 30 mins it started to snow pretty hard and get colder. This cooled my body down and I had eaten a few candy bars and I was finally was able to move again. While the viability has worsened to about 5 feet I could still see the trail. I began moving (very slowly) and in about 30 mins I was welcomed by Mata and he had a litter of pineapple juice and a coke. I sat down and drank ¾ liter of the pineapple juice and then about ½ of the coke. He picked up my backpack and we proceeded up the mountain in a slow but steady pace. After 5 mins, Nawang showed up with some water and I drank about ½ liter of it. I was beginning to feel better and we all got in step and finished off the last 1.5 hours before we arrived at camp 2.We had to be slow and steady because we could barely see the trail and we could barely each person in front of us. The cold weather and snow felt good on me and the 3 Sherpa’s gave me the confidence to make it home.
Even with the 45 mins I was still able to make it to camp 2 in 4:45 so not too bad with the heavy snow.
I was ready for bed and the weather was bad so Nima brought me my dinner in my tent and I was actually hungry as I ate and went to bed.
Trip from Camp 1 to Camp 2
We got up at 8 am about the time the guys arrived from the base camp. They had left about 4 am on their way to camp 2 with Nima and me. I got out of the tent and knew we were in for a hot day so I double checked to make sure I had full water bottles and some sweets to help me along the trial which should be no more than 4- 5 hours. Jim and I had done it in 3.5 hours the last trip but the snow was about 15 inches deep and this would make it slower with crampons and even slower without so we chose crampons until we go finished with the ladders.
I was doing well about the first hour and was moving up but I was sweating faster than I could get water in my body. I continued on up until we got to the last steep ladder and I told Nima he had to help me with my backpack. I was out of gas. I finally made it over the last ladder and was out of water, couldn’t pick up my backpack and quite frankly couldn’t go anywhere. I told Nima to go ahead and get me some water that I would keep moving if I could and I would meet one of the other guys but please bring me more to drink. He didn’t want to leave me but we had cleared all the ladders and I could see the trail even though visibility was only about 15 feet. We finally called Jim and Jim told Nima to go on up and get some help (water etc) and Jim and I decided it was best if I could to camp 2 and I agreed.
I sat there almost 45 mins. I was completely dehydrated for some reason. I had been drinking on the trail, I had drunk almost 2 liters during the night in the tent but I was out of gas. It was later determined that I was out of “protein” I had nothing left to give and it was now just living off my muscle and it just took me down. I would get up and just fall over. I was beginning to think that I couldn’t go up or down and I was halfway up. I had never in my life been in this kind of condition but I just couldn’t go nay where. Finally after about 30 mins it started to snow pretty hard and get colder. This cooled my body down and I had eaten a few candy bars and I was finally was able to move again. While the viability has worsened to about 5 feet I could still see the trail. I began moving (very slowly) and in about 30 mins I was welcomed by Mata and he had a litter of pineapple juice and a coke. I sat down and drank ¾ liter of the pineapple juice and then about ½ of the coke. He picked up my backpack and we proceeded up the mountain in a slow but steady pace. After 5 mins, Nawang showed up with some water and I drank about ½ liter of it. I was beginning to feel better and we all got in step and finished off the last 1.5 hours before we arrived at camp 2.We had to be slow and steady because we could barely see the trail and we could barely each person in front of us. The cold weather and snow felt good on me and the 3 Sherpa’s gave me the confidence to make it home.
Even with the 45 mins I was still able to make it to camp 2 in 4:45 so not too bad with the heavy snow.
I was ready for bed and the weather was bad so Nima brought me my dinner in my tent and I was actually hungry as I ate and went to bed.
Back to Camp 1 and the ICE FALL
Tuesday May 4th
We get up early (3:30am) and Nima and I head for the Ice Fall. The weather is cold but no snow and w began our accent. Nima is a bit quicker than I like for my pace but we are doing well and making progress. Not too many people in the ice Fall as most people are still at camp 2 and camp 3 for the last time.
It is always amazing to me what has changed in the Ice Fall just in the last few days since I was there last. In this case, on the lower end (The popcorn) I think the changes are better. They might be a little steeper but it also cut off some ups and downs that to me are the killers.
We made it to top of the Popcorn to an area called the “Football Field” and area that at some point collapsed and it looks like a football field, and we were there in about 3 hours, my best time yet and I was feeling pretty good.
Then the sun came out and really started slowing me down along with the steep ups we have to climb to the rims with the 3 vertical ladders and the 2 straight up faces we have to climb to complete the Ice Fall. They continue to evolve but after slugging my way up these faces I had been on my feet for almost 6 hours, again my best time but I was beat and I still had almost 1.5 miles left ‘zig zagging” the ice field. This should have taking about 30 mins or so but it took me 1.5 hrs as I told Nima to go to the camp and I would be there when I go there. After all was said and done I was there in 7:30 mins total or about 30 mins quicker than the last time. I was happy about this but disappointed after such a good start to the “football field” area. I was dead tired and ready for bed. Since Camp 1 is only a tent site there is nothing to do other than sit in the tent. Nima gave me some food and I went to sleep we had to move up to camp 2 the next morning and I needed the rest.
I did talk to Jim and Wally by radio which made me feel good about the day but I knew my time was still too slow. I still didn’t understand why I just couldn’t sustain any stamina over the long haul but hopefully tomorrow would be better.
Weather was cold as we continued to get hammered by the snow in the Western Cwm, more than what they have seen in the past years.
We get up early (3:30am) and Nima and I head for the Ice Fall. The weather is cold but no snow and w began our accent. Nima is a bit quicker than I like for my pace but we are doing well and making progress. Not too many people in the ice Fall as most people are still at camp 2 and camp 3 for the last time.
It is always amazing to me what has changed in the Ice Fall just in the last few days since I was there last. In this case, on the lower end (The popcorn) I think the changes are better. They might be a little steeper but it also cut off some ups and downs that to me are the killers.
We made it to top of the Popcorn to an area called the “Football Field” and area that at some point collapsed and it looks like a football field, and we were there in about 3 hours, my best time yet and I was feeling pretty good.
Then the sun came out and really started slowing me down along with the steep ups we have to climb to the rims with the 3 vertical ladders and the 2 straight up faces we have to climb to complete the Ice Fall. They continue to evolve but after slugging my way up these faces I had been on my feet for almost 6 hours, again my best time but I was beat and I still had almost 1.5 miles left ‘zig zagging” the ice field. This should have taking about 30 mins or so but it took me 1.5 hrs as I told Nima to go to the camp and I would be there when I go there. After all was said and done I was there in 7:30 mins total or about 30 mins quicker than the last time. I was happy about this but disappointed after such a good start to the “football field” area. I was dead tired and ready for bed. Since Camp 1 is only a tent site there is nothing to do other than sit in the tent. Nima gave me some food and I went to sleep we had to move up to camp 2 the next morning and I needed the rest.
I did talk to Jim and Wally by radio which made me feel good about the day but I knew my time was still too slow. I still didn’t understand why I just couldn’t sustain any stamina over the long haul but hopefully tomorrow would be better.
Weather was cold as we continued to get hammered by the snow in the Western Cwm, more than what they have seen in the past years.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Monday Preparation Day
Monday May 3, 2010
Preparation Day
Got up this morning about 730 am with the sun shining and heating up my sleeping bag. Slept well and was warm and had a good breakfast. Eggs, pancakes, bacon and of course my coke that they bring to me every morning at 7 am. I was hoping that the weather would be good today for me to shower but after about 1.5 hours of sunshine the weather turn to crap with snow and wind.
Made a few phones calls to people before I am to leave tomorrow and started getting my stuff together.
We have left stuff at camp 1 and camp 2 so I will not bring much stuff up with me this time. I will put the top on my backpack, take a thicker pair of mittens and a few more shirts and that will be it.
Got my boots refitted with my crampons, got my harness refitted so I am good to go.
The BEGAN Satellite is not working so I hope I will be able to send this out before I leave tomorrow.
We just had a helicopter land with a few people ( The Italian team( Simone Mora) climbing Lhotse and Everest) who have come back from a few days off in Katmandu. (Rest and relaxation)The client that is climbing Everest, is a really rich Industrialist from Italy. With the Helicopter grand entrance today plus his offer of $25000 extra to spend up the process of establishing fixed lines last week, this “excess” showing one’s of wealth is beginning to bother the “old faithful”, they are starting to complain of the use of the air strip for personal use. Of course, the Sherpa’s are going as fast as they can but due to the weather on the top they have been held up, so the $25000 doesn’t mean much if you cannot live by putting in the fixed lines. Interesting to see how people react to these types of things. Even on Everest money talks even when it might not be appreciated. Funny!
The fixed lines are complete to the Southern Col right now and with the weather clearing in the next couple of days I am sure the Sherpa’s will complete the task by week’s end.
If this happens, I am sure the Russians will be on the summit right behind them as they have done nothing but complain from almost day about the fixed line even though they did not offer to help install them.
I am off until the weekend Take care and have a great week
Preparation Day
Got up this morning about 730 am with the sun shining and heating up my sleeping bag. Slept well and was warm and had a good breakfast. Eggs, pancakes, bacon and of course my coke that they bring to me every morning at 7 am. I was hoping that the weather would be good today for me to shower but after about 1.5 hours of sunshine the weather turn to crap with snow and wind.
Made a few phones calls to people before I am to leave tomorrow and started getting my stuff together.
We have left stuff at camp 1 and camp 2 so I will not bring much stuff up with me this time. I will put the top on my backpack, take a thicker pair of mittens and a few more shirts and that will be it.
Got my boots refitted with my crampons, got my harness refitted so I am good to go.
The BEGAN Satellite is not working so I hope I will be able to send this out before I leave tomorrow.
We just had a helicopter land with a few people ( The Italian team( Simone Mora) climbing Lhotse and Everest) who have come back from a few days off in Katmandu. (Rest and relaxation)The client that is climbing Everest, is a really rich Industrialist from Italy. With the Helicopter grand entrance today plus his offer of $25000 extra to spend up the process of establishing fixed lines last week, this “excess” showing one’s of wealth is beginning to bother the “old faithful”, they are starting to complain of the use of the air strip for personal use. Of course, the Sherpa’s are going as fast as they can but due to the weather on the top they have been held up, so the $25000 doesn’t mean much if you cannot live by putting in the fixed lines. Interesting to see how people react to these types of things. Even on Everest money talks even when it might not be appreciated. Funny!
The fixed lines are complete to the Southern Col right now and with the weather clearing in the next couple of days I am sure the Sherpa’s will complete the task by week’s end.
If this happens, I am sure the Russians will be on the summit right behind them as they have done nothing but complain from almost day about the fixed line even though they did not offer to help install them.
I am off until the weekend Take care and have a great week
Sunday REst day May 2nd and schedule for week
Sunday May 2nd
We woke up at 6 am with more than a foot of snow on our tents. I knew something was wrong when I awoke because my tent had formed around my body and when I tried to stretch I couldn’t move. It was a strange feeling but before long the Sherpa’s were shoveling the snow off the tent and around the base. The dining tent almost collapsed but the Sherpa’s and Tracy got it back upright without any damage.
The day was long because the weather was not very good all day. It was cloudy and cold so a lot of time was spent in the tent. I should have been more productive but turning the IPOD on and getting warm in the sleeping bag was too tempting.
I did spend some time on the internet looking at what was happening in the world (especially BKK) and of course keeping up with the Celtics who lost a hard fought one to the Cavs in game one.
We had dinner with some friends and had a great meal, Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and salad. The dessert was apple strudel. After our friends left, I spent some personal time with Jim to discuss the next few days.
I wanted to try his harness as it was lighter and easier to put on and off. He said he would be happy to let me use it for this climb.
I also hope this helps me adjust my backpack so I can put more weight on my hips. The last few days with my harness on, the weight of the pack has been transferred to my shoulders and neck and this really hurts after a while pulling on the ropes with the weight also on them.
We also discussed boots. I think I will change my boots this time. I will go with my Sportiva’s with the built in gaiters. This will allow me to change my clothes on the bottom and maybe regulate my heat better. Also it will give me the boot to climb the Lhotse with a warmer boot for the colder weather. I will try this and see what I will do on the summit push. Maybe my Crisper’s up to camp 2 then switch to my Sportiva’s. I am just trying a different combination to make it better than the time before.
I also talked to him about camp 3. We are now in the time to “fish or cut bait” I need to be able to get to camp 3 in a reasonable amount of time. Jim doesn’t want me to sleep at camp 3 but would like for me to climb to camp 3 and touch and come back down all in a day (8-9 hrs) This will be a challenge due to the steepness, the ice surface, the lack of oxygen moving from 21000 to 24000 ft and the lack of my familiarity of fixed lines. If I did make it to the top and was too tired to go back down, this would be ok ( 2nd option)but we would have to stay at 24000 ft without oxygen and he believes that this just “hammers’ the body and he hopes this does not happen due to my health. Now all of this is providing we will have good weather so as they say” It is all on me” for the next few days.
I have eaten better and have stayed hydrated so I do not think I will have any issues but the mountain will let me know if I am ready enough to go to the top.
I will be gone Tuesday- Sat / Sun so do not expect any email or blogs posted
The plan is to go to camp 1 Tuesday
Camp 2 Wed
Camp 2 Rest Thurs
Camp 3 Friday if I return to camp 2 (option 1)
Camp 2 Sat if I spend the night at camp 3 ( option 2)
Base Camp Sat Option 1
Sun Option 2 Mother’s day
We woke up at 6 am with more than a foot of snow on our tents. I knew something was wrong when I awoke because my tent had formed around my body and when I tried to stretch I couldn’t move. It was a strange feeling but before long the Sherpa’s were shoveling the snow off the tent and around the base. The dining tent almost collapsed but the Sherpa’s and Tracy got it back upright without any damage.
The day was long because the weather was not very good all day. It was cloudy and cold so a lot of time was spent in the tent. I should have been more productive but turning the IPOD on and getting warm in the sleeping bag was too tempting.
I did spend some time on the internet looking at what was happening in the world (especially BKK) and of course keeping up with the Celtics who lost a hard fought one to the Cavs in game one.
We had dinner with some friends and had a great meal, Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and salad. The dessert was apple strudel. After our friends left, I spent some personal time with Jim to discuss the next few days.
I wanted to try his harness as it was lighter and easier to put on and off. He said he would be happy to let me use it for this climb.
I also hope this helps me adjust my backpack so I can put more weight on my hips. The last few days with my harness on, the weight of the pack has been transferred to my shoulders and neck and this really hurts after a while pulling on the ropes with the weight also on them.
We also discussed boots. I think I will change my boots this time. I will go with my Sportiva’s with the built in gaiters. This will allow me to change my clothes on the bottom and maybe regulate my heat better. Also it will give me the boot to climb the Lhotse with a warmer boot for the colder weather. I will try this and see what I will do on the summit push. Maybe my Crisper’s up to camp 2 then switch to my Sportiva’s. I am just trying a different combination to make it better than the time before.
I also talked to him about camp 3. We are now in the time to “fish or cut bait” I need to be able to get to camp 3 in a reasonable amount of time. Jim doesn’t want me to sleep at camp 3 but would like for me to climb to camp 3 and touch and come back down all in a day (8-9 hrs) This will be a challenge due to the steepness, the ice surface, the lack of oxygen moving from 21000 to 24000 ft and the lack of my familiarity of fixed lines. If I did make it to the top and was too tired to go back down, this would be ok ( 2nd option)but we would have to stay at 24000 ft without oxygen and he believes that this just “hammers’ the body and he hopes this does not happen due to my health. Now all of this is providing we will have good weather so as they say” It is all on me” for the next few days.
I have eaten better and have stayed hydrated so I do not think I will have any issues but the mountain will let me know if I am ready enough to go to the top.
I will be gone Tuesday- Sat / Sun so do not expect any email or blogs posted
The plan is to go to camp 1 Tuesday
Camp 2 Wed
Camp 2 Rest Thurs
Camp 3 Friday if I return to camp 2 (option 1)
Camp 2 Sat if I spend the night at camp 3 ( option 2)
Base Camp Sat Option 1
Sun Option 2 Mother’s day
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Personal comments
Thanks Jerri for the prayers from Prattville. I look forward to sitting around Gammy's table also but I would love have some biscuits and saugage also.
Lauren - a Mexican surprise should be interesting.
Philippe- Thanks for you comments Hope you and Veronique are well
Ashley- Thanks as always for your encouraging words.
I sure hope the "Red Shirts" are gone by the time I get back to BKK.
All thanks for the encouraging comments.
Lauren - a Mexican surprise should be interesting.
Philippe- Thanks for you comments Hope you and Veronique are well
Ashley- Thanks as always for your encouraging words.
I sure hope the "Red Shirts" are gone by the time I get back to BKK.
All thanks for the encouraging comments.
Rest Day #2 base camp Sat May 1st
Saturday May 1st
May Day at Mt Everest
Happy May Day to all. Wish I was home to see some of my friends and enjoy some warm weather. I am only 3 days away from being gone 1 month and how times fly. I am ready to be home but there is still much work to do before that happens.
It has been a long time of cold, snowy weather and food that I would love to swap for a Nathan’s chili dog, Poe’s hamburger, Pizza Company double pepperoni pizza, Outback onion loaf, anything at Bourbon Street (BKK), Chili’s fried cheese, Wild Wing lemon pepper wings, etc and if lucky, I have less than a month left before I can enjoy this kind of good food again.
I finally got my bath today because the weather was so much better today in the morning. I know you think of a shower at home but this is just a bucket of hot water with a ¼” spout on it to let it run over your body. Doesn’t sound like much but it still feels good. 90 degree F water falling over your body in 40 degree F weather actually feels good and at least you smell better. Add a little baby powder, deodorant, body lotion and some clean clothes and you feel like a million $’s, at least for a few days. Again the little things are big things up here.
Yesterday (April 30th) was the 25th anniversary of Dick Bass starting his climb of MT Everest and become the 1st person to summit all the “7 Summits and he later went on and wrote the book “The 7 Summits.” This really started the mountaineering craze and has led to the increase in people around the world in people trying to complete 7 summits. Dick is 80 years old now and was trying to make it base camp with a lot of help but this plan did not work.
This is for sure a dream of mine but is not the end of mountaineering career if I do not get done. I have slowly been getting them done but also have been experiencing other great mountains in the world also. If I can somehow complete this summit then I for sure will try to make the last 2 mts (Denali (Alaska) and Vinson (Antarctica)
We are having dinner at our place tonight with some guys from RMI ( Seth a friend of mine and Mark Tucker) and Peter Hackett ( Father of High Altitude medicine), and Ruth who is Dr in Alaska. This should be interesting conversation. We are having country ham from a place in Paris TN called, Swifty Ham so I am looking forward to dinner.
I am off for today so read up and give me your comments.
Thanks for all for the support and kind words.
May Day at Mt Everest
Happy May Day to all. Wish I was home to see some of my friends and enjoy some warm weather. I am only 3 days away from being gone 1 month and how times fly. I am ready to be home but there is still much work to do before that happens.
It has been a long time of cold, snowy weather and food that I would love to swap for a Nathan’s chili dog, Poe’s hamburger, Pizza Company double pepperoni pizza, Outback onion loaf, anything at Bourbon Street (BKK), Chili’s fried cheese, Wild Wing lemon pepper wings, etc and if lucky, I have less than a month left before I can enjoy this kind of good food again.
I finally got my bath today because the weather was so much better today in the morning. I know you think of a shower at home but this is just a bucket of hot water with a ¼” spout on it to let it run over your body. Doesn’t sound like much but it still feels good. 90 degree F water falling over your body in 40 degree F weather actually feels good and at least you smell better. Add a little baby powder, deodorant, body lotion and some clean clothes and you feel like a million $’s, at least for a few days. Again the little things are big things up here.
Yesterday (April 30th) was the 25th anniversary of Dick Bass starting his climb of MT Everest and become the 1st person to summit all the “7 Summits and he later went on and wrote the book “The 7 Summits.” This really started the mountaineering craze and has led to the increase in people around the world in people trying to complete 7 summits. Dick is 80 years old now and was trying to make it base camp with a lot of help but this plan did not work.
This is for sure a dream of mine but is not the end of mountaineering career if I do not get done. I have slowly been getting them done but also have been experiencing other great mountains in the world also. If I can somehow complete this summit then I for sure will try to make the last 2 mts (Denali (Alaska) and Vinson (Antarctica)
We are having dinner at our place tonight with some guys from RMI ( Seth a friend of mine and Mark Tucker) and Peter Hackett ( Father of High Altitude medicine), and Ruth who is Dr in Alaska. This should be interesting conversation. We are having country ham from a place in Paris TN called, Swifty Ham so I am looking forward to dinner.
I am off for today so read up and give me your comments.
Thanks for all for the support and kind words.
Rest Day at base camp Friday April 30th
Friday April 30th
Back to base camp rest day
Sleep well after the long trip down form camp 2 and the weather was much more pleasant. It was a little windier but it was at least 30 degrees warmer than what we had left. I wanted to take a shower but the wind was too much for today so I will wait until tomorrow. It has only been 6 days since my last one so 1 more day couldn’t hurt but I know I needed and wanted one.
I got my tent re organized for my next 4 days in camp. I am still a little sore on my shoulder, my legs hurt a bit, and I lost 1 toenail off my left foot ( 2nd toe which I damaged in Kilimanjaro in Feb )but it looks pretty good and I feel pretty good.
I also got a good hot shave. I have been trying that new 5 blade system my little Leah told me about but I hated to pay so much for the blades. But after a few shaves up here, I am beginning to like it. It shaves the longer beard better and it stays shorter longer. Thanks Little Leah as always you are the “savvy” consumer.
I will be trying to eat 3 meals a day and drinking as much as I can in the next few days to try and get ready for the next round on Tuesday morning. We will leave on our way up to camp 3 and will be gone for 4 more days. It will be just Nima and Nawang as Jim will stay in camp to get things ready for the summit run when we return. If you look at Jim original itinerary, we will only be a day behind if I successfully complete the next run so that is not so bad after I lost a week due to sickness. At this point he is worried about the “blue ice” on the Lhotse face and the fixed lines. They have installed 1 rope for going up and 1 for going down but in the opinion of many, the ropes are too far apart and could cause some issues with people trying to switch back and forth due to slow people. When it is nothing but ice to climb on, the crampons do not have much “gripping” power so people easily could have accidents as they unhook to try and get around people and the other rope not is a safe option to use due to the distance. I know it is hard to explain but to a mountaineer, it makes sense as not every person moves at the same rate and you have to have ways to pass on these steep slopes.
I sat down and wrote 5 days worth of blogs to cover the last 5 days on the mountain. Words cannot describe the feelings of what I just went through over the 5 days.(Good , Bad and the Ugly) I try in many ways to write words to make sure I keep the memories for the future but sometimes I cannot find the right way to express myself.
We had trouble with the satellite today and could not get on the internet yesterday. Jim and I downloaded our UUPlus email off the Thuraya Satellite which wasn’t the most efficient but we managed to get them downloaded and I responded to as many of you as possible. I really appreciate all the emails of support and information. As of yesterday, I have heard from people spread over 6 of the 7 continents and have heard from people I have not seen or heard from in more than 10 years in the last 3 ½ weeks so this is pretty incredible.
The weather turned bad around 3 pm today and the snow started. After several hours in the Communications tent (freezing to death and trying to type in below freezing weather), we retreated to the dining tent to just sit and talk and stay out of the weather in front of the heater. By the time we had finished dinner it was almost 9 pm and we headed for the comforts of the sleeping bag to warm up the cold feet.
By the time, we laid down the sky was full of stars and the moon was shining bright. I could only look at the Ice Fall and know I have only a few more days before I go back into there. The night was quite active with avalanches all around and we even heard a big “Thud” that sounded like it was in the ice fall but at this stage we do not know where it happen and what it did. I will most likely see when I go back on Tuesday.
Back to base camp rest day
Sleep well after the long trip down form camp 2 and the weather was much more pleasant. It was a little windier but it was at least 30 degrees warmer than what we had left. I wanted to take a shower but the wind was too much for today so I will wait until tomorrow. It has only been 6 days since my last one so 1 more day couldn’t hurt but I know I needed and wanted one.
I got my tent re organized for my next 4 days in camp. I am still a little sore on my shoulder, my legs hurt a bit, and I lost 1 toenail off my left foot ( 2nd toe which I damaged in Kilimanjaro in Feb )but it looks pretty good and I feel pretty good.
I also got a good hot shave. I have been trying that new 5 blade system my little Leah told me about but I hated to pay so much for the blades. But after a few shaves up here, I am beginning to like it. It shaves the longer beard better and it stays shorter longer. Thanks Little Leah as always you are the “savvy” consumer.
I will be trying to eat 3 meals a day and drinking as much as I can in the next few days to try and get ready for the next round on Tuesday morning. We will leave on our way up to camp 3 and will be gone for 4 more days. It will be just Nima and Nawang as Jim will stay in camp to get things ready for the summit run when we return. If you look at Jim original itinerary, we will only be a day behind if I successfully complete the next run so that is not so bad after I lost a week due to sickness. At this point he is worried about the “blue ice” on the Lhotse face and the fixed lines. They have installed 1 rope for going up and 1 for going down but in the opinion of many, the ropes are too far apart and could cause some issues with people trying to switch back and forth due to slow people. When it is nothing but ice to climb on, the crampons do not have much “gripping” power so people easily could have accidents as they unhook to try and get around people and the other rope not is a safe option to use due to the distance. I know it is hard to explain but to a mountaineer, it makes sense as not every person moves at the same rate and you have to have ways to pass on these steep slopes.
I sat down and wrote 5 days worth of blogs to cover the last 5 days on the mountain. Words cannot describe the feelings of what I just went through over the 5 days.(Good , Bad and the Ugly) I try in many ways to write words to make sure I keep the memories for the future but sometimes I cannot find the right way to express myself.
We had trouble with the satellite today and could not get on the internet yesterday. Jim and I downloaded our UUPlus email off the Thuraya Satellite which wasn’t the most efficient but we managed to get them downloaded and I responded to as many of you as possible. I really appreciate all the emails of support and information. As of yesterday, I have heard from people spread over 6 of the 7 continents and have heard from people I have not seen or heard from in more than 10 years in the last 3 ½ weeks so this is pretty incredible.
The weather turned bad around 3 pm today and the snow started. After several hours in the Communications tent (freezing to death and trying to type in below freezing weather), we retreated to the dining tent to just sit and talk and stay out of the weather in front of the heater. By the time we had finished dinner it was almost 9 pm and we headed for the comforts of the sleeping bag to warm up the cold feet.
By the time, we laid down the sky was full of stars and the moon was shining bright. I could only look at the Ice Fall and know I have only a few more days before I go back into there. The night was quite active with avalanches all around and we even heard a big “Thud” that sounded like it was in the ice fall but at this stage we do not know where it happen and what it did. I will most likely see when I go back on Tuesday.
Long walk down from ABC back to base camp
Thursday April 29th
Going home to Base camp from Camp 2 (ABC)
I didn’t sleep well last night possibly because I had been in the tent for some 14 hrs and was restless but when the call to get up at 5:15 am I for sure didn’t want to get up. I was warm in my sleeping bag, there was frost on the entire inside of the tent and every time I touched the tent frost would fall down onto my clothes. I am so big my head hits the top all the time so it is like it is snowing in my tent in the mornings when I get up before the sun dries it out. It was -4 degrees Fahrenheit and I did not want to get out of the bag.
I had put my pullover and jacket inside my sleeping bag to keep them warm and dry but as I was putting stuff on the frost was being knocked down on me. It was cold and wet. I finally got my clothes on for my trip and then I had to put everything in my stuff sacks for the clothes that I was leaving at camp 2, stuff that was being left at camp 1 for next week and stuff that was going to base camp which is what I was taking down in my backpack.
I finally had pushed everything outside to Nima and gang for the trip down and headed to the dining tent to get some breakfast, put on my harness and get my crampons. We finally walked out the door at 6:50am for our trip down and it included all 5 of us (Nima, Jim, Naawang, Zhagbu (camp 2 cook), Steve) We all had our crampons on and I realized that I had left my sunglasses in the tent so Nima didn’t have his on so he went back to get them but told us to go on down and he will keep going. I left with Nawang and Zhagbu and Jim waited on Nima. We covered the 7 miles pretty quickly and when we got to camp 1 we dropped the stuff off and Nima told us to keep going.
As I had told you on a previous day, there was 1 nasty vertical ladder in between camp 1 and camp 2. Well when we were going down it I got my crampons and the rope hung up and fell off the ladder. First it was a pretty quick deal. The carabineer (on my harness) attached to the safety rope caught me about the same time that the ground caught my shoulder. This was a wakeup call for me to be careful for the rest of the day to be more careful and also showed me how quick something can happen. It scared me to death. I got right up and tried to get loose of the rope that was attached to my harness and was a little dazed and then Jim yelled at me not to do it as I was standing next to a huge crevasse located right behind me. Well what a way to start the day but all is well. (BTW the shoulder is a little sore today (Friday April 30th) but will be ok)
Then we proceeded to the ICE Fall where I was now dreading those first 2 sets of 3 ladders. It was hard work on the first one and we had a lot of traffic around them which makes it even more complicated with everyone trying to find a place to stand and get up and down efficiently. As far as I can tell in the 3 days I have been in the falls there are no common courtesies. People come down and go up at random rates with little regard for the others. I might be wrong but this is how I have seen it.
While we were working hard, I became very hot and needed to take off a layer of clothing and I told Nawang. He told me we couldn’t do it here as it was too dangerous to stop and we would have to wait. I said ok but I didn’t know that meant 45 mins later. By then I had been overheated for that long and my energy had been sapped. We did finally stop and I drank almost a liter of water. I was smoking with the work but the stressed of those few ladders especially after what had happened to me earlier. After a few mins of changing clothes and drinking we continued on down the ice falls. I was moving steady but quite a bit slower. I was just drained but I knew I wanted to get down. Quite a bit of stuff of changed in the fall since I was there 4 days ago but something that didn’t change was it was steep and slick. The sun was now full on and I couldn’t take enough clothes off so I would have to just gut it out for the next 3 hours.
We continued down and about 30 mins from the exit. We had some tea and a coke delivered into the ice fall. Zhagbu had gone ahead and had some of the guys bring us the drinks. It was perfect timing as I was out of water and needed a drink. We had our break gave them our backpacks and proceeded home and was there in the next 20 mins.
We were tired and wanted something to eat as it was almost 12 pm. We had the done the run in about 5 hours, 1 hour less than what Jim and the Sherpa’s had predicted. For me, it was not a min too early. I was shot and needed to sit down for a while.
When we got to the base camp, we went and sat in the dining tent for lunch and wait for Tracy (our base camp manager) to return from Gorak-shep. She had gone down to use the internet and was back within 30 mins of us arriving. She is nice and a friend of a friend of Jim’s who was looking for the neat trip. We sat around and talk and had lunch and I never left the tent until around 6 pm when all of a sudden I just went down and said I had to go to bed without dinner. Jim made me stay around a little while longer while they ate but I could barley hold my head up. I was tired getting cold and wanted to go to bed.
I did finally get into bed with my hot water bottle and went to sleep very quickly and slept all night. It was nice not to have to wake up for anything.
Going home to Base camp from Camp 2 (ABC)
I didn’t sleep well last night possibly because I had been in the tent for some 14 hrs and was restless but when the call to get up at 5:15 am I for sure didn’t want to get up. I was warm in my sleeping bag, there was frost on the entire inside of the tent and every time I touched the tent frost would fall down onto my clothes. I am so big my head hits the top all the time so it is like it is snowing in my tent in the mornings when I get up before the sun dries it out. It was -4 degrees Fahrenheit and I did not want to get out of the bag.
I had put my pullover and jacket inside my sleeping bag to keep them warm and dry but as I was putting stuff on the frost was being knocked down on me. It was cold and wet. I finally got my clothes on for my trip and then I had to put everything in my stuff sacks for the clothes that I was leaving at camp 2, stuff that was being left at camp 1 for next week and stuff that was going to base camp which is what I was taking down in my backpack.
I finally had pushed everything outside to Nima and gang for the trip down and headed to the dining tent to get some breakfast, put on my harness and get my crampons. We finally walked out the door at 6:50am for our trip down and it included all 5 of us (Nima, Jim, Naawang, Zhagbu (camp 2 cook), Steve) We all had our crampons on and I realized that I had left my sunglasses in the tent so Nima didn’t have his on so he went back to get them but told us to go on down and he will keep going. I left with Nawang and Zhagbu and Jim waited on Nima. We covered the 7 miles pretty quickly and when we got to camp 1 we dropped the stuff off and Nima told us to keep going.
As I had told you on a previous day, there was 1 nasty vertical ladder in between camp 1 and camp 2. Well when we were going down it I got my crampons and the rope hung up and fell off the ladder. First it was a pretty quick deal. The carabineer (on my harness) attached to the safety rope caught me about the same time that the ground caught my shoulder. This was a wakeup call for me to be careful for the rest of the day to be more careful and also showed me how quick something can happen. It scared me to death. I got right up and tried to get loose of the rope that was attached to my harness and was a little dazed and then Jim yelled at me not to do it as I was standing next to a huge crevasse located right behind me. Well what a way to start the day but all is well. (BTW the shoulder is a little sore today (Friday April 30th) but will be ok)
Then we proceeded to the ICE Fall where I was now dreading those first 2 sets of 3 ladders. It was hard work on the first one and we had a lot of traffic around them which makes it even more complicated with everyone trying to find a place to stand and get up and down efficiently. As far as I can tell in the 3 days I have been in the falls there are no common courtesies. People come down and go up at random rates with little regard for the others. I might be wrong but this is how I have seen it.
While we were working hard, I became very hot and needed to take off a layer of clothing and I told Nawang. He told me we couldn’t do it here as it was too dangerous to stop and we would have to wait. I said ok but I didn’t know that meant 45 mins later. By then I had been overheated for that long and my energy had been sapped. We did finally stop and I drank almost a liter of water. I was smoking with the work but the stressed of those few ladders especially after what had happened to me earlier. After a few mins of changing clothes and drinking we continued on down the ice falls. I was moving steady but quite a bit slower. I was just drained but I knew I wanted to get down. Quite a bit of stuff of changed in the fall since I was there 4 days ago but something that didn’t change was it was steep and slick. The sun was now full on and I couldn’t take enough clothes off so I would have to just gut it out for the next 3 hours.
We continued down and about 30 mins from the exit. We had some tea and a coke delivered into the ice fall. Zhagbu had gone ahead and had some of the guys bring us the drinks. It was perfect timing as I was out of water and needed a drink. We had our break gave them our backpacks and proceeded home and was there in the next 20 mins.
We were tired and wanted something to eat as it was almost 12 pm. We had the done the run in about 5 hours, 1 hour less than what Jim and the Sherpa’s had predicted. For me, it was not a min too early. I was shot and needed to sit down for a while.
When we got to the base camp, we went and sat in the dining tent for lunch and wait for Tracy (our base camp manager) to return from Gorak-shep. She had gone down to use the internet and was back within 30 mins of us arriving. She is nice and a friend of a friend of Jim’s who was looking for the neat trip. We sat around and talk and had lunch and I never left the tent until around 6 pm when all of a sudden I just went down and said I had to go to bed without dinner. Jim made me stay around a little while longer while they ate but I could barley hold my head up. I was tired getting cold and wanted to go to bed.
I did finally get into bed with my hot water bottle and went to sleep very quickly and slept all night. It was nice not to have to wake up for anything.
Day 2 at ABC
Wednesday April 28th
Day 2 @ Advanced base camp
Due to the weather, we stayed in our tents until about 8 am when the sun can shine brightly on them to warm them up. As I awoke early the entire tent on the inside was frozen. The sunglasses had a thick layer of frost on them and I just didn’t want to get up until the inside was thawed out.
By 845am the ice was gone and I was able to get up and go to breakfast. Pancakes and bacon was on the menu and I ate about half of it and a couple of pieces of bacon.
The wind had stopped during the night (Thank goodness) but it was still cold. The sun provided a good deal of warmth if you stood in the rays or was in your tent.
After breakfast, we all went back to our tents. The sun was shining and it felt good for about 30 mins. After that I did everything imaginable to try and stay cool but the heat in the tent was unbearable. I finally had to get up around 11 am and went to the dining tent. We stayed in the dining tent until around 12 when we had lunch and then I went back to the tent due to the cold weather again. I thought we were going on a 2 hr hike around 2pm weather permitting but before I knew it Jim was making his 5 pm base camp call. The opportunity to move up another 1000 ft had been lost but the weather was just too bad to go.
The snow had been falling for hours and the temperatures had been dropping and the sun was long gone. We would have another night of -0 Fahrenheit weather. It was a clear night when I looked out at the summit of Everest below a sky full of stars. The snow capped mountains were just unbelievable as the night looked like daylight inside the tent with all of the reflections off the snow.
It is amazing how much one can sleep his life away up here. The altitude, the cold weather outside vs the warm weather in the sleeping bag and the hiking just takes its toll on your body and I am not a lazy person at all.
One thing at this campsite that drove me crazy was the big rock in the middle of my tent. I could not find a way to keep my head up. I moved around every way I could in the tent (didn’t really care about where my feet pointed for religious purposes) and I couldn’t find a way to do it. The rock was perfectly placed right in the middle of my tent. I didn’t have the heart to tell the guys because they would have tried to fix the ground but I had seen the work they had done just to get it at this level which was not easy. The rock was right in my hip bones and it just worked on me all night. I was popping Aleve to help but it was not going to be helped until I got out of this tent site. What these guys accomplish on a “side” of nay terrain and on top of any surface (rock, snow and ice) is an amazing feat so doesn’t let it sound like I am complaining but did want to remember my 2 nights at ABC on my “teeter totter” rock in the middle of my bed.
We got up about 630 for dinner in the dining tent. It was another good meal of chicken and rice but it was so cold I could hardly eat. I had my Mountain Hardwear jacket on and I was still cold. I drank a couple of cups of hot tea but nothing was going to get me warm but the sleeping bag.
We went to bed at 715 pm and the wakeup call was going to come about 5 am for our trip back to home (base camp) and I was ready to go home. These 4 days were good for my acclimatization but I was smelling pretty bad and I needed a shower and I wanted the comforts of my bed in base camp vs these last 2 camps.
Day 2 @ Advanced base camp
Due to the weather, we stayed in our tents until about 8 am when the sun can shine brightly on them to warm them up. As I awoke early the entire tent on the inside was frozen. The sunglasses had a thick layer of frost on them and I just didn’t want to get up until the inside was thawed out.
By 845am the ice was gone and I was able to get up and go to breakfast. Pancakes and bacon was on the menu and I ate about half of it and a couple of pieces of bacon.
The wind had stopped during the night (Thank goodness) but it was still cold. The sun provided a good deal of warmth if you stood in the rays or was in your tent.
After breakfast, we all went back to our tents. The sun was shining and it felt good for about 30 mins. After that I did everything imaginable to try and stay cool but the heat in the tent was unbearable. I finally had to get up around 11 am and went to the dining tent. We stayed in the dining tent until around 12 when we had lunch and then I went back to the tent due to the cold weather again. I thought we were going on a 2 hr hike around 2pm weather permitting but before I knew it Jim was making his 5 pm base camp call. The opportunity to move up another 1000 ft had been lost but the weather was just too bad to go.
The snow had been falling for hours and the temperatures had been dropping and the sun was long gone. We would have another night of -0 Fahrenheit weather. It was a clear night when I looked out at the summit of Everest below a sky full of stars. The snow capped mountains were just unbelievable as the night looked like daylight inside the tent with all of the reflections off the snow.
It is amazing how much one can sleep his life away up here. The altitude, the cold weather outside vs the warm weather in the sleeping bag and the hiking just takes its toll on your body and I am not a lazy person at all.
One thing at this campsite that drove me crazy was the big rock in the middle of my tent. I could not find a way to keep my head up. I moved around every way I could in the tent (didn’t really care about where my feet pointed for religious purposes) and I couldn’t find a way to do it. The rock was perfectly placed right in the middle of my tent. I didn’t have the heart to tell the guys because they would have tried to fix the ground but I had seen the work they had done just to get it at this level which was not easy. The rock was right in my hip bones and it just worked on me all night. I was popping Aleve to help but it was not going to be helped until I got out of this tent site. What these guys accomplish on a “side” of nay terrain and on top of any surface (rock, snow and ice) is an amazing feat so doesn’t let it sound like I am complaining but did want to remember my 2 nights at ABC on my “teeter totter” rock in the middle of my bed.
We got up about 630 for dinner in the dining tent. It was another good meal of chicken and rice but it was so cold I could hardly eat. I had my Mountain Hardwear jacket on and I was still cold. I drank a couple of cups of hot tea but nothing was going to get me warm but the sleeping bag.
We went to bed at 715 pm and the wakeup call was going to come about 5 am for our trip back to home (base camp) and I was ready to go home. These 4 days were good for my acclimatization but I was smelling pretty bad and I needed a shower and I wanted the comforts of my bed in base camp vs these last 2 camps.
Walk to Camp 2 ( Advanced Base Camp)
Tuesday April 27th
Walk to Camp 2 (ABC)
As we expected, the Sherpa’s shook the tents at 6:30 am. (They had left base camp at 3:30 am and had scampered up the Ice Fall in 3 hrs, freaking amazing guys with 50+ lbs on their backs) Jim and I were just about ready to go when this happened so we continued to get our pads, sleeping bags and our other stuff in stuff sacks so the Sherpa’s could take our stuff up the mountain.
After about 45 mins of getting stuff together the Sherpa’s were on their way and Jim and I was ready to start our trek to Camp 2. Jim had anticipated about a 4 – 5 hour walk (about 7 miles) but it just didn’t seem like it would take that long looking at it the previous day but he had reminded me to sometimes your eyes can play tricks on you when you just look uphill. Our starting altitude point was about 19000 feet.
At 8 am we got started and were moving very well. This made me feel better as I was still frustrated about the 8 hour Ice Fall trip. The weather was good when the Sherpa’s left but by the time we were leaving Jim noticed the weather was getting bad from the west/southwest which he said was not a very good sign. We started and it was cold but we had made it to our previous day point about 30 mins quicker. One reason was because we had put on our crampons the 2nd day which made it a little quicker to move on the icy slippery slopes and we actually was feeling good after a good sleep. We had a few ladders (one pretty nasty vertical) and several “scary “crevasses that we had to navigate but after this was just one long continuous slope. I have thought over and over something I could use to describe the last 5 miles of walking but I could only describe a road in Tellico that I went for some training years ago on a recommendation by a friend Kevin Tumlin which was up as long as I wanted to walk that day or any day. I didn’t like it then and I didn’t like it this day either.
We walked about 2 1/2 more hours and we finally made it. What a frustrated feeling to just keep walking up for 2 + hours and never having a break of anything thing but up and almost dead straight. Again the slope was not steep or high but it was truly like a “death march” and I was tired when we got there. I did have to remember we were actually moving up more altitude than the Ice Fall 8 hr day (about 2000 feet) but we were getting there in an entirely different way. Jim did stop and continued to give me more history of things that had happened in these mountains over the years which I always thought was interesting. We also moved through 2 large patches along the trail where it showed the remains of 2 very large avalanches where some very large rocks and pieces of ice were now in the middle of the valley. I am glad I didn’t see these happen or be here when they did.
As we entered the camp, the weather started turning bad, the wind had really picked up so what Jim was saying early this morning was coming true. We were in for a cold afternoon and a miserable night.
I was now sleeping at the base of Mt Everest about 8000 feet from the summit and I could see it from inside my tent. What a view????
When we got there, we went straight to the tent and waited for lunch call. After about 2 hours, we got up and went to the dining tent for lunch. Good lunch but wasn’t too hungry so Nima was again concerned about my eating habits.
ABC- (Advanced base camp) this camp is similar to base camp with a dining tent and a kitchen. This is nice as you have someone else to go besides your tent to enjoy your food and conversation.
After lunch we returned to the tent until dinner time due to the weather situation. I just listened to my iPod as it was too cold to do anything outside the tent unless it was an essential task. The snow began to fall and the temperatures continue to drop. When dinner was ready, Nima came to my tent trying to serve me dinner. I refused and said let’s eat in the dining tent. Honestly if I would not have gotten up then I would not have eaten the food. It was a good dinner of chick and rice but I do not know if the cold weather was worth the walk to the tent.
Jim joined me but it was pretty scary with the wind just blowing the tent all over the place. Jim was actually worried that we might lose this dining tent if the wind got much stronger and blew the tent in a certain way and it would break the poles. After a quick dinner, we actually thought it would be safer in our individual tent. (Guys remember Berlin camp Aconcagua 2007; it was close to that but not quite)
I was tired, it had been a better day and I was ready for bed. The next day would be yet another adventure as we are going on a hike towards camp 3.
The temperature was -0 Fahrenheit and the wind continued to blow and it was snowing quite hard but in my bag with my hot water bottle it was pretty cozy. I could only think about those people, who had just moved up to camp 3 with this wind and the temperatures. Maybe tomorrow would be better or it would be a long day in the bag.
We did hear that 3 people were killed on the mountain on the North side (China) by an avalanche but nothing was confirmed yet. We also have heard that the weather from that side has been a lot worse than our side. I hope all is well over there as that is where the 13 year old boy is and Nawang’s bother is also over there.
Walk to Camp 2 (ABC)
As we expected, the Sherpa’s shook the tents at 6:30 am. (They had left base camp at 3:30 am and had scampered up the Ice Fall in 3 hrs, freaking amazing guys with 50+ lbs on their backs) Jim and I were just about ready to go when this happened so we continued to get our pads, sleeping bags and our other stuff in stuff sacks so the Sherpa’s could take our stuff up the mountain.
After about 45 mins of getting stuff together the Sherpa’s were on their way and Jim and I was ready to start our trek to Camp 2. Jim had anticipated about a 4 – 5 hour walk (about 7 miles) but it just didn’t seem like it would take that long looking at it the previous day but he had reminded me to sometimes your eyes can play tricks on you when you just look uphill. Our starting altitude point was about 19000 feet.
At 8 am we got started and were moving very well. This made me feel better as I was still frustrated about the 8 hour Ice Fall trip. The weather was good when the Sherpa’s left but by the time we were leaving Jim noticed the weather was getting bad from the west/southwest which he said was not a very good sign. We started and it was cold but we had made it to our previous day point about 30 mins quicker. One reason was because we had put on our crampons the 2nd day which made it a little quicker to move on the icy slippery slopes and we actually was feeling good after a good sleep. We had a few ladders (one pretty nasty vertical) and several “scary “crevasses that we had to navigate but after this was just one long continuous slope. I have thought over and over something I could use to describe the last 5 miles of walking but I could only describe a road in Tellico that I went for some training years ago on a recommendation by a friend Kevin Tumlin which was up as long as I wanted to walk that day or any day. I didn’t like it then and I didn’t like it this day either.
We walked about 2 1/2 more hours and we finally made it. What a frustrated feeling to just keep walking up for 2 + hours and never having a break of anything thing but up and almost dead straight. Again the slope was not steep or high but it was truly like a “death march” and I was tired when we got there. I did have to remember we were actually moving up more altitude than the Ice Fall 8 hr day (about 2000 feet) but we were getting there in an entirely different way. Jim did stop and continued to give me more history of things that had happened in these mountains over the years which I always thought was interesting. We also moved through 2 large patches along the trail where it showed the remains of 2 very large avalanches where some very large rocks and pieces of ice were now in the middle of the valley. I am glad I didn’t see these happen or be here when they did.
As we entered the camp, the weather started turning bad, the wind had really picked up so what Jim was saying early this morning was coming true. We were in for a cold afternoon and a miserable night.
I was now sleeping at the base of Mt Everest about 8000 feet from the summit and I could see it from inside my tent. What a view????
When we got there, we went straight to the tent and waited for lunch call. After about 2 hours, we got up and went to the dining tent for lunch. Good lunch but wasn’t too hungry so Nima was again concerned about my eating habits.
ABC- (Advanced base camp) this camp is similar to base camp with a dining tent and a kitchen. This is nice as you have someone else to go besides your tent to enjoy your food and conversation.
After lunch we returned to the tent until dinner time due to the weather situation. I just listened to my iPod as it was too cold to do anything outside the tent unless it was an essential task. The snow began to fall and the temperatures continue to drop. When dinner was ready, Nima came to my tent trying to serve me dinner. I refused and said let’s eat in the dining tent. Honestly if I would not have gotten up then I would not have eaten the food. It was a good dinner of chick and rice but I do not know if the cold weather was worth the walk to the tent.
Jim joined me but it was pretty scary with the wind just blowing the tent all over the place. Jim was actually worried that we might lose this dining tent if the wind got much stronger and blew the tent in a certain way and it would break the poles. After a quick dinner, we actually thought it would be safer in our individual tent. (Guys remember Berlin camp Aconcagua 2007; it was close to that but not quite)
I was tired, it had been a better day and I was ready for bed. The next day would be yet another adventure as we are going on a hike towards camp 3.
The temperature was -0 Fahrenheit and the wind continued to blow and it was snowing quite hard but in my bag with my hot water bottle it was pretty cozy. I could only think about those people, who had just moved up to camp 3 with this wind and the temperatures. Maybe tomorrow would be better or it would be a long day in the bag.
We did hear that 3 people were killed on the mountain on the North side (China) by an avalanche but nothing was confirmed yet. We also have heard that the weather from that side has been a lot worse than our side. I hope all is well over there as that is where the 13 year old boy is and Nawang’s bother is also over there.
Day 2 at camp 1
Monday April 26th
2nd Day at camp 1
We went to bed in the cold and wind and awoke in better weather. I felt better after a good night’s sleep and our plan was to get up and go for a 2 hour hike up the mountain in hopes of at least seeing camp 2 (ABC- advanced base Camp).
We finally got up around 10 am and started walking towards the (ABC) to see how we felt and take pictures. We were at the base of the valley looking at Nuptse on the right, Lhotse face in the middle and the big one, Mt Everest on the left. What an amazing place to see in one’s life. (Jim got some pictures) We started our walk up the 7 mile journey and was actually moving pretty good with what we had been through the previous day and in about 1:30 mins we were at a great place with a view on ABC and we could even see the first of the tents being placed on Lhotse face at camp 3. The weather was pretty good and we got some outstanding shots of the summit of Mt Everest. We took some lunch up there on the trail admiring all the views and listening to stories of climbs Jim had done over the past 20+ years and I was just was in awe of where I was and what I was doing. I appreciate all the people who allowed me to do this adventure. When you see things like this in nature, it really gives you an appreciation for the world we live in and the opportunities we are afforded and that we must take more of them or we will die and never really have seen the world around us.
After lunch, we decided to go back to the camp. We made it rather quickly and by then it was in the afternoon and the clouds and snow came back to welcome us into the evening. Again the main purpose when you return to the tent is to get warm. Jim and I both went to sleep with little conversation and you didn’t hear anything from either of us until about 9 pm and then it was too late to eat or try to cook and we just kept sleeping. We had to get up early in the morning for our trek into ABC and we knew the Sherpa’s would be up from base up around 6 am.
It was a long cold night and you cannot sleep 14 hours so you end up turning over and over hoping it is daylight when you open your eyes. I can only sleep on my side and the hard ground (even when you have a sleeping pad) make your hips hurt so that adds to the anticipation of the morning sunlight.
2nd Day at camp 1
We went to bed in the cold and wind and awoke in better weather. I felt better after a good night’s sleep and our plan was to get up and go for a 2 hour hike up the mountain in hopes of at least seeing camp 2 (ABC- advanced base Camp).
We finally got up around 10 am and started walking towards the (ABC) to see how we felt and take pictures. We were at the base of the valley looking at Nuptse on the right, Lhotse face in the middle and the big one, Mt Everest on the left. What an amazing place to see in one’s life. (Jim got some pictures) We started our walk up the 7 mile journey and was actually moving pretty good with what we had been through the previous day and in about 1:30 mins we were at a great place with a view on ABC and we could even see the first of the tents being placed on Lhotse face at camp 3. The weather was pretty good and we got some outstanding shots of the summit of Mt Everest. We took some lunch up there on the trail admiring all the views and listening to stories of climbs Jim had done over the past 20+ years and I was just was in awe of where I was and what I was doing. I appreciate all the people who allowed me to do this adventure. When you see things like this in nature, it really gives you an appreciation for the world we live in and the opportunities we are afforded and that we must take more of them or we will die and never really have seen the world around us.
After lunch, we decided to go back to the camp. We made it rather quickly and by then it was in the afternoon and the clouds and snow came back to welcome us into the evening. Again the main purpose when you return to the tent is to get warm. Jim and I both went to sleep with little conversation and you didn’t hear anything from either of us until about 9 pm and then it was too late to eat or try to cook and we just kept sleeping. We had to get up early in the morning for our trek into ABC and we knew the Sherpa’s would be up from base up around 6 am.
It was a long cold night and you cannot sleep 14 hours so you end up turning over and over hoping it is daylight when you open your eyes. I can only sleep on my side and the hard ground (even when you have a sleeping pad) make your hips hurt so that adds to the anticipation of the morning sunlight.
hike up to Camp 1 ( 3rd attempt through Ice Falls)
Sunday April 25th 1st trip to Camp 1
We left camp about 6 am on our way to camp 1. It was Jim, Nima and I, who quite frankly was a little nervous for many reasons. The fact that I hadn’t done much in the last 6 days due to the sickness, the horrible experience that I had encountered the previous Monday trying to get to camp 1 and the fact that the Ice Fall scares me to death was enough to make me a little apprehensive about the day.
I started good and we were making good progress as we progressed through the part called the “popcorn” but I felt myself start to slow down. We had been in the Fall about 3 hours and after we exited the “popcorn” section( 4 hrs) Nima left Jim and I to go on up to camp 1.I thought this was a good sign and we were making progress but then it seemed like it would never end. We kept moving and I saw 2 sets of ladders at the rim of the Ice Fall and Jim said we had those 2 sets left and then a “short” walk to camp 1. These ladders were both the same. They were 3 10’ alum ladders (30’ high) mounted completely independent of each other, with the middle ladder mounted offset about 4-5” and reinforced on the mountain face with rope (so they were flexible) with a good 1.5 ft overhang of snow and ice. (Don’t worry I will get pictures the next time through if they haven’t changed). They both were definitely not put there using any sound physics logic (just Ice Doctor knowledge of 20 + years of doing this) but it seem to hold all the other climbers I have seen go up so far but it still didn’t make me feel easy about being on them because where there were located meant some serious physical damage if you fell. Any way we finally made it out of the Ice Fall in 7 hours and I was happy we had only a short walk left (wrong). It was about a 1.5 mile winding through crevasses, ladders and hills. I had my doubts if I was going to make it. I kept looking for the trail ahead but I couldn’t see it and about that time I saw some people way in the distance and the people looked like they were ants (which mean a long way) but I saw no tents. At that moment of weakness, I thought it was no way that I could keep walking that much longer and then all of a sudden I walked on top of the ridge and saw tents in the valley. I cannot describe the feeling that I felt at that moment. I had only about 100 meters left and I would have a tent to sleep in for the next 2 nights. I got in to my tent and went right to sleep. Jim had got there just before me and he had gotten in his tent. We had finally made it after 8 hours of constant push. After a few hours I awoke and Jim made me some rice to eat and I ate it plus some coke. I had a “2 man tent” and Jim had the “3 man” because he had to cook for us. It was cold (below 0) and I just wanted to get warm in my sleeping bag. It was all I could do and I went back to sleep. What a day it had been and I was a bit disappointed in the time it took me to get to camp 1 because I had felt so good earlier in the day but we made it and that was all that mattered on this day. The night was good, I slept well and my health was still good but I was tired.
We left camp about 6 am on our way to camp 1. It was Jim, Nima and I, who quite frankly was a little nervous for many reasons. The fact that I hadn’t done much in the last 6 days due to the sickness, the horrible experience that I had encountered the previous Monday trying to get to camp 1 and the fact that the Ice Fall scares me to death was enough to make me a little apprehensive about the day.
I started good and we were making good progress as we progressed through the part called the “popcorn” but I felt myself start to slow down. We had been in the Fall about 3 hours and after we exited the “popcorn” section( 4 hrs) Nima left Jim and I to go on up to camp 1.I thought this was a good sign and we were making progress but then it seemed like it would never end. We kept moving and I saw 2 sets of ladders at the rim of the Ice Fall and Jim said we had those 2 sets left and then a “short” walk to camp 1. These ladders were both the same. They were 3 10’ alum ladders (30’ high) mounted completely independent of each other, with the middle ladder mounted offset about 4-5” and reinforced on the mountain face with rope (so they were flexible) with a good 1.5 ft overhang of snow and ice. (Don’t worry I will get pictures the next time through if they haven’t changed). They both were definitely not put there using any sound physics logic (just Ice Doctor knowledge of 20 + years of doing this) but it seem to hold all the other climbers I have seen go up so far but it still didn’t make me feel easy about being on them because where there were located meant some serious physical damage if you fell. Any way we finally made it out of the Ice Fall in 7 hours and I was happy we had only a short walk left (wrong). It was about a 1.5 mile winding through crevasses, ladders and hills. I had my doubts if I was going to make it. I kept looking for the trail ahead but I couldn’t see it and about that time I saw some people way in the distance and the people looked like they were ants (which mean a long way) but I saw no tents. At that moment of weakness, I thought it was no way that I could keep walking that much longer and then all of a sudden I walked on top of the ridge and saw tents in the valley. I cannot describe the feeling that I felt at that moment. I had only about 100 meters left and I would have a tent to sleep in for the next 2 nights. I got in to my tent and went right to sleep. Jim had got there just before me and he had gotten in his tent. We had finally made it after 8 hours of constant push. After a few hours I awoke and Jim made me some rice to eat and I ate it plus some coke. I had a “2 man tent” and Jim had the “3 man” because he had to cook for us. It was cold (below 0) and I just wanted to get warm in my sleeping bag. It was all I could do and I went back to sleep. What a day it had been and I was a bit disappointed in the time it took me to get to camp 1 because I had felt so good earlier in the day but we made it and that was all that mattered on this day. The night was good, I slept well and my health was still good but I was tired.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
personal updates april 24th
Personal April 24th Saturday
Thanks to all who have responded on the blog and I really appreciate all the kind words on the email. Tomorrow is a big day for me and I need all of your encouragement.
My address for personal email is sslaughter@uuplus.net Please only send text as I have scanning to block even large emails of text.
Danny – great story and appreciate the words
Cee- I hope all went well with the store specials. I can’t wait to come and see you guys sometime. I know it is tough with Lida on Vacation love ya Steve
Philippe- thanks to you for always checking on me
Graham- Thanks for your words from “Down Under” I hope all is going well in your business.
Toffee- we are so glad Ann is doing well enough now so she can translate for you again. Your friends have been worried about you and it was Ann who we should have been asking about and not you. Ann Thanks again for letting Martin come to spend time with Jim and me in the Himalayas. We miss him but we know we will see him again soon on a mountain and I hope to see you soon in Brisbane. Take care of yourself, Martin and Toffee but we really know that Toffee will be taking care of you too. Smile.
Claire- Great to hear from you. SO you got to the top of the “Big Granite “Kota Kinabalu. I hope it was drier on you than on me when I did it a few years ago in July. What a miserable up in the monsoon and a miserable trip down slip sliding away on that big granite stone in the monsoon. I hope you found some time to snorkel as I hear it is one of the top places in the world. Looking forward to climbing again soon Talk to Martin about PNG in Oct and see what we can do. I do not keep the phone on at all until I try to call someone. The batteries run down in no time due to the cold. When you get stationary let me know the number and I will call you. Start the number with the “+” sign then I shouldn’t have any problems calling. Take care and safe travels.
caroline- thanks for your comments i miss you and the little Leah take care of yourself
Thanks to all who have responded on the blog and I really appreciate all the kind words on the email. Tomorrow is a big day for me and I need all of your encouragement.
My address for personal email is sslaughter@uuplus.net Please only send text as I have scanning to block even large emails of text.
Danny – great story and appreciate the words
Cee- I hope all went well with the store specials. I can’t wait to come and see you guys sometime. I know it is tough with Lida on Vacation love ya Steve
Philippe- thanks to you for always checking on me
Graham- Thanks for your words from “Down Under” I hope all is going well in your business.
Toffee- we are so glad Ann is doing well enough now so she can translate for you again. Your friends have been worried about you and it was Ann who we should have been asking about and not you. Ann Thanks again for letting Martin come to spend time with Jim and me in the Himalayas. We miss him but we know we will see him again soon on a mountain and I hope to see you soon in Brisbane. Take care of yourself, Martin and Toffee but we really know that Toffee will be taking care of you too. Smile.
Claire- Great to hear from you. SO you got to the top of the “Big Granite “Kota Kinabalu. I hope it was drier on you than on me when I did it a few years ago in July. What a miserable up in the monsoon and a miserable trip down slip sliding away on that big granite stone in the monsoon. I hope you found some time to snorkel as I hear it is one of the top places in the world. Looking forward to climbing again soon Talk to Martin about PNG in Oct and see what we can do. I do not keep the phone on at all until I try to call someone. The batteries run down in no time due to the cold. When you get stationary let me know the number and I will call you. Start the number with the “+” sign then I shouldn’t have any problems calling. Take care and safe travels.
caroline- thanks for your comments i miss you and the little Leah take care of yourself
prep day at base camp
April 24th Sat
Slept well but awoke to a pretty windy cold day. I had a good breakfast (pancakes and cheese and eggs) I quickly finished off the pancakes but sure didn’t want the eggs but Jim was not going to let me off the hook. He said that the next few days will be very tough to eat and I really needed to eat them. I begrudgingly ate them but sure didn’t like the feeling of them going down.
It is not that I do not want to eat. I have no urge to eat 3 meals a day and I never eat breakfast. For me to get up from bed and go straight to eat is just not easy for someone who never eats.
I came in and go on the computer and checked and replied to emails and actually spent some time on the internet to get caught up on the BKK situation and some news. I learned that they were moving my work friends out of the apartment/hotel where I lived for 4 years due to the intensity of the situation and the latest bombs to another location which is much further from the main intersection. I called K Bee to make sure she was ok and if she needed to move but she said she was ok. She was not very happy with the Red Shirts and now the government as it is now closing the sky train which makes it very difficult for Thais to travel without a hassle.
We had a great lunch which I actually ate, got the base station set up for radios, swapped out my sleeping bag for the porters early morning trek so the same thing doesn’t happen like last Monday and got all my stuff located in the right place for easy and efficient working in the morning. Jim wants to leave right at 430 to try and keep us out of the sun as much as possible so this is ok with me.
I am looking forward to it as I feel better today and I am sure I have more food in me than the previous trip. I am checking email one last time here at 5 pm because I didn’t want to get caught like last night in the 25 degree weather trying to type and my hands were frozen. I tried to go back and fix as many problems in that last dispatch but I will fix them all one when I am too old to do anything else. It is the story that I am trying to convey so cut me some slack on the grammar and spelling.
I hope all of you have a great Sunday and to my friends in BKK Please be safe.
Slept well but awoke to a pretty windy cold day. I had a good breakfast (pancakes and cheese and eggs) I quickly finished off the pancakes but sure didn’t want the eggs but Jim was not going to let me off the hook. He said that the next few days will be very tough to eat and I really needed to eat them. I begrudgingly ate them but sure didn’t like the feeling of them going down.
It is not that I do not want to eat. I have no urge to eat 3 meals a day and I never eat breakfast. For me to get up from bed and go straight to eat is just not easy for someone who never eats.
I came in and go on the computer and checked and replied to emails and actually spent some time on the internet to get caught up on the BKK situation and some news. I learned that they were moving my work friends out of the apartment/hotel where I lived for 4 years due to the intensity of the situation and the latest bombs to another location which is much further from the main intersection. I called K Bee to make sure she was ok and if she needed to move but she said she was ok. She was not very happy with the Red Shirts and now the government as it is now closing the sky train which makes it very difficult for Thais to travel without a hassle.
We had a great lunch which I actually ate, got the base station set up for radios, swapped out my sleeping bag for the porters early morning trek so the same thing doesn’t happen like last Monday and got all my stuff located in the right place for easy and efficient working in the morning. Jim wants to leave right at 430 to try and keep us out of the sun as much as possible so this is ok with me.
I am looking forward to it as I feel better today and I am sure I have more food in me than the previous trip. I am checking email one last time here at 5 pm because I didn’t want to get caught like last night in the 25 degree weather trying to type and my hands were frozen. I tried to go back and fix as many problems in that last dispatch but I will fix them all one when I am too old to do anything else. It is the story that I am trying to convey so cut me some slack on the grammar and spelling.
I hope all of you have a great Sunday and to my friends in BKK Please be safe.
Friday, April 23, 2010
trail walk to gorbakshep
Went to bed at 9 pm last night and it was a little less cold than the previous 2 nights. I crawled in the bed and it seemed like I slept all night. I peeped out of the sleeping bag and it was light. What a relief and I felt good.
I just laid there listening to the IPOD, relaxing and thinking about the trip today. Finally got up at 810am for the breakfast call and had pancakes with melted butter and some great scrambled eggs. This was only the 2nd meal, (1 being dinner last night) that I actually could look at the food and not feel like I was going to throw up. I don’t know if that was because I had been sick or the thought that Jim was going to make me shovel something down. Anyway it was a good breakfast and we had decided to leave at 930am so I went back to the tent to change clothes and get my back ready.
Jim was on the computer and finally came by about 930am and said let’s go. A dash through the snacks and I was out the door. In the meantime ( only mins) Jim got consumed looking through the stuff that the porters brought up late last night. He was going through the list and of course I was looking myself. I saw Kraft Thousand Island Dressing; I saw 4 boxes of Pop Tarts, French’s mustard, Heinz Ketchup and 2 more bottles of Heinz 57. This made my morning today. It was like in the old days when Mom would come home from the store and we would tear through all the packages to see what favorite we go this month. (Yes we only went to the store 1 time per month) Then I thought I saw something else when they started removing all the stuff and taking it to the kitchen and dining tent, it looked like a jar of pickle spears. I knew I had requested them but Jim never acknowledge that he got them on the list. Well when I saw them I thought of 2 things 1) I want one of them right now and I did eat one and 2) wouldn’t my friend Roger Williams want one of my Clausen Dill spears. He loves them as much as I do.
After this small celebration, we were off to Gorbakshep. We are on one end of the base camp so we walk across base camp for almost 25 mins meandering up and down and around to we finally get clear and on the trail. The walk was rather slow; Jim was very deliberate so not to let me overdo it. It was a nice walk and we made it down there in an about 2 hrs and I felt pretty good. The only thing today was the wind was there all day so I never really warmed up, which would have been really nice. Nawaan went with us so he could use the land line phone to call and check on his wife, who is having the baby in KAT and they said that it would be around the first of May. He mother had arrived in KAT a couple of days ago so he was checking on them. He is such a nice guy (30 years old) and very inquisitive in a learning type way so it is very nice talking to him. We had a few teas and a hot lemon, I had a few snacks and Jim and Nawaan had some noodles and we were on our way back.
We are stating about 320 meters lower in altitude than when we left base camp so we knew we were moving back uphill but still this walk is a classic “up and down” Khumba region walk. Trails, large boulders, small rocks, water, mud, and yak poop etc so it is not just get on the trail and walk. We were back home in about 1 ½ hours and I still felt pretty good. A little tired but overall pretty good after the 5 hour round trip. We met people along the trail and heard that 3 more people are on their way home by helicopter. One lady Wanda was a MS lady who had climbed 6 of the 7 summits but just could not get this one done. This was her 2nd try and her lungs just would not let her take the long times at altitude. She was being taken up by one of my friends I met at Mt Rainier many years ago. He had just let her off at the helicopter in Pheriche and he was on his way back to base camp.
We arrived at the camp and went it to drink a little Mt Dew and Jim wanted some tea. We had a visitor from IMG to come over and pick up a violin that had been delivered by our porter last night. Vern Tejas who is accomplished violinist/guitaiarts/Fiddle player himself side he had a classical Violinist on his team and he wanted to hear some music so he had one sent up the trail but the case was also full of drugs (all legal) so we gave Vern a hard time about really wanted to hear music or did he need the drugs. I wanted a picture with Vern because I see about 5 to 6 guys here( all in mid 50’s) who are all starting to see that they cannot continue to be the leaders at the top of the mountains anymore and the guard is changing. These 5-7 guys were the leaders of making this place and others what is it is today and were the reason why people like I want to come here and try to climb this massive mountain. Vern has submitted 8 times in 14 tries. He is a great guy and is very well respected in this small circle of Professional mountain guides.
As he was leaving Russell Brice was walking up. All of you should know Russell Brice. He is the guy who started “Beyond the limits: Everest” on the discovery channel a few years ago. What a nice guy. He was collecting money ($100 per climber) for the fixed lines being installed up to the top of the mountain. ( they are installing 7000 linear feet of rope with 1000 carabineers help people like me get too the top safely) I got a picture with him also as I think he is a really nice guy vs what my impression was off the TV show.
I finally went to my tent to change clothes and get into something warmer and then to check email and write this blog. I am now going to dinner and then to bed and hopefully another good night’s sleep.
I hope all of you have a great Friday and a great weekend tomorrow will be a day off and I will write more.
I just laid there listening to the IPOD, relaxing and thinking about the trip today. Finally got up at 810am for the breakfast call and had pancakes with melted butter and some great scrambled eggs. This was only the 2nd meal, (1 being dinner last night) that I actually could look at the food and not feel like I was going to throw up. I don’t know if that was because I had been sick or the thought that Jim was going to make me shovel something down. Anyway it was a good breakfast and we had decided to leave at 930am so I went back to the tent to change clothes and get my back ready.
Jim was on the computer and finally came by about 930am and said let’s go. A dash through the snacks and I was out the door. In the meantime ( only mins) Jim got consumed looking through the stuff that the porters brought up late last night. He was going through the list and of course I was looking myself. I saw Kraft Thousand Island Dressing; I saw 4 boxes of Pop Tarts, French’s mustard, Heinz Ketchup and 2 more bottles of Heinz 57. This made my morning today. It was like in the old days when Mom would come home from the store and we would tear through all the packages to see what favorite we go this month. (Yes we only went to the store 1 time per month) Then I thought I saw something else when they started removing all the stuff and taking it to the kitchen and dining tent, it looked like a jar of pickle spears. I knew I had requested them but Jim never acknowledge that he got them on the list. Well when I saw them I thought of 2 things 1) I want one of them right now and I did eat one and 2) wouldn’t my friend Roger Williams want one of my Clausen Dill spears. He loves them as much as I do.
After this small celebration, we were off to Gorbakshep. We are on one end of the base camp so we walk across base camp for almost 25 mins meandering up and down and around to we finally get clear and on the trail. The walk was rather slow; Jim was very deliberate so not to let me overdo it. It was a nice walk and we made it down there in an about 2 hrs and I felt pretty good. The only thing today was the wind was there all day so I never really warmed up, which would have been really nice. Nawaan went with us so he could use the land line phone to call and check on his wife, who is having the baby in KAT and they said that it would be around the first of May. He mother had arrived in KAT a couple of days ago so he was checking on them. He is such a nice guy (30 years old) and very inquisitive in a learning type way so it is very nice talking to him. We had a few teas and a hot lemon, I had a few snacks and Jim and Nawaan had some noodles and we were on our way back.
We are stating about 320 meters lower in altitude than when we left base camp so we knew we were moving back uphill but still this walk is a classic “up and down” Khumba region walk. Trails, large boulders, small rocks, water, mud, and yak poop etc so it is not just get on the trail and walk. We were back home in about 1 ½ hours and I still felt pretty good. A little tired but overall pretty good after the 5 hour round trip. We met people along the trail and heard that 3 more people are on their way home by helicopter. One lady Wanda was a MS lady who had climbed 6 of the 7 summits but just could not get this one done. This was her 2nd try and her lungs just would not let her take the long times at altitude. She was being taken up by one of my friends I met at Mt Rainier many years ago. He had just let her off at the helicopter in Pheriche and he was on his way back to base camp.
We arrived at the camp and went it to drink a little Mt Dew and Jim wanted some tea. We had a visitor from IMG to come over and pick up a violin that had been delivered by our porter last night. Vern Tejas who is accomplished violinist/guitaiarts/Fiddle player himself side he had a classical Violinist on his team and he wanted to hear some music so he had one sent up the trail but the case was also full of drugs (all legal) so we gave Vern a hard time about really wanted to hear music or did he need the drugs. I wanted a picture with Vern because I see about 5 to 6 guys here( all in mid 50’s) who are all starting to see that they cannot continue to be the leaders at the top of the mountains anymore and the guard is changing. These 5-7 guys were the leaders of making this place and others what is it is today and were the reason why people like I want to come here and try to climb this massive mountain. Vern has submitted 8 times in 14 tries. He is a great guy and is very well respected in this small circle of Professional mountain guides.
As he was leaving Russell Brice was walking up. All of you should know Russell Brice. He is the guy who started “Beyond the limits: Everest” on the discovery channel a few years ago. What a nice guy. He was collecting money ($100 per climber) for the fixed lines being installed up to the top of the mountain. ( they are installing 7000 linear feet of rope with 1000 carabineers help people like me get too the top safely) I got a picture with him also as I think he is a really nice guy vs what my impression was off the TV show.
I finally went to my tent to change clothes and get into something warmer and then to check email and write this blog. I am now going to dinner and then to bed and hopefully another good night’s sleep.
I hope all of you have a great Friday and a great weekend tomorrow will be a day off and I will write more.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Another day of recovery at base camp
April 22nd Thursday
Finally went to bed @ 830 pm on Wed night. I didn’t eat much as the smell of mo mo’s Jim had almost made me throw up. I went to the dinning tent just to try and stretch the day as long as I could to try and regain some strength. I just sat in front of the heater after I went in to help Curly and Larry try and light it. Think about “lost in translation” with me and 2 Sherpa’ s who do not speak any English nor do not have any mechanical skills ( no that it takes much to start a heater) but it was quite comical to a point. I was trying to be nice but really was in the mood to let 3 people with 3 different ideas try to start this heater( although I have been starting it every night so I knew what needed to be done). I was cold, tired and after the few moments of “humor” I told them “thank You” and I could just do it myself. They left the tent in all smiles and I started the tent and then almost collapse in the chair in front of it. That episode just about wore me out at this altitude.
I went to bed with a slight cough and Jim thought that this was more of an exhaustion cough than anything. I think he was right as I did it for about an hour and then fell asleep. I think I did pretty well later in the night as I awoke about the time the sun came up which is about 530 and I would just lay in the bed until it hit my tent about 745am( snoozing on and off) when the warmth of the sun would make my tent feel good. Jim’s tent is only a few feet away and we started discussing the day’s events and the even Sat’s event.
We both thought about my eating and we thought maybe I could eat something every hour instead of trying to force some big massive meal down me 2-3 times a day. We have done that pretty regular today and it seems to have worked some. I have been drinking water pretty good today including cokes and Mt dew just to add to the calorie intake.
We also both thought about taking a “test ride” hike tomorrow back down to Gorashep which is about a 2 hr walk done the mountain, have a hot lemon drink and walk back home just to see how the body does. I thought this was a great idea and look forward to it because I am still a bit shaken mentally after what happen to me on Mon and I want to know I can do this with some sort of certainty, Damn I lost an entire week due to some infection that if I would have had it at home I probably wouldn’t have missed a step but up here took me down to me legs. I have to admit I am mad about what happen but understand “stuff happens” and I will move on from now.
I spent quite a bit of time in the tent today trying to regain my focus. I begin to reorganize my stuff for the next couple of days, while listening to my iPod and generally trying to get back in the game mentally. The weather has been quite nice today with just a little wind. I know there is still a lot of time left to make this thing work out. If some of the guys I saw at the hospital yesterday think they still have a chance to make it then I for sure still have a chance. I saw some very sick people yesterday struggling in and out of that tent and I have seen those faces high on the mountain before so I know what altitude can do to you and I am lucky that that was not me.
Wally came and visited several times today and it was fun catching up with him His guys are heading up to camp 2 today. His main guy had a bad cough early in the week but Wally confirmed he was doing much better. Wally sounded awful with his cough but as I have said everyone at base camp gets sick it is how you minimize it that allows you to win or not.
I laughed at Jim as I heard him try to program the radios He talks to himself a lot so it was funny to hear his expressions which I cannot print in this blog because mine are bad enough but he sure made me chuckle a few times today. He finally got them done and we should be good to go. He also work with the Sherpa’s on the antenna’s which was funny but not a funny as the radios.
My face around my cheeks and the bottom of the chin began to peel today. I got burned on the way down on Monday I applied at 4am but never did again the reflection off the snow can just burn you up. MY nose which is usually the first place I get it was pretty much left unscathed but the other places are peeling deep. I will start the use of 50 SPC on Sat in lieu of the 30 I have been using. I have already seen some horrific faces on the mountain and I do not want to look like I did when I came off Aconcagua 2008. I know my little Leah remembers and it looked bad.
It is 530pm on Thursday and today has been good. I do feel better and I look forward to the walk tomorrow.
Couple of interesting things that did happen today.
There was a collapse in the Ice Fall today in the area called the “popcorn”. According to the information that we have heard no one was injured and we heard the Ice doctors have already got the trail remapped out so it will be interesting to see the differences when we go back in there on Sat.
This was also the first day in the last 3 days that I did not hear the helicopter fly someone out so that is always a good thing.
I am sure soon Jim will be chasing me around trying to shovel food in my mouth and I will be like the child who doesn’t want to eat but I am sure in the end we will come to some compromise.
Have a great day
Finally went to bed @ 830 pm on Wed night. I didn’t eat much as the smell of mo mo’s Jim had almost made me throw up. I went to the dinning tent just to try and stretch the day as long as I could to try and regain some strength. I just sat in front of the heater after I went in to help Curly and Larry try and light it. Think about “lost in translation” with me and 2 Sherpa’ s who do not speak any English nor do not have any mechanical skills ( no that it takes much to start a heater) but it was quite comical to a point. I was trying to be nice but really was in the mood to let 3 people with 3 different ideas try to start this heater( although I have been starting it every night so I knew what needed to be done). I was cold, tired and after the few moments of “humor” I told them “thank You” and I could just do it myself. They left the tent in all smiles and I started the tent and then almost collapse in the chair in front of it. That episode just about wore me out at this altitude.
I went to bed with a slight cough and Jim thought that this was more of an exhaustion cough than anything. I think he was right as I did it for about an hour and then fell asleep. I think I did pretty well later in the night as I awoke about the time the sun came up which is about 530 and I would just lay in the bed until it hit my tent about 745am( snoozing on and off) when the warmth of the sun would make my tent feel good. Jim’s tent is only a few feet away and we started discussing the day’s events and the even Sat’s event.
We both thought about my eating and we thought maybe I could eat something every hour instead of trying to force some big massive meal down me 2-3 times a day. We have done that pretty regular today and it seems to have worked some. I have been drinking water pretty good today including cokes and Mt dew just to add to the calorie intake.
We also both thought about taking a “test ride” hike tomorrow back down to Gorashep which is about a 2 hr walk done the mountain, have a hot lemon drink and walk back home just to see how the body does. I thought this was a great idea and look forward to it because I am still a bit shaken mentally after what happen to me on Mon and I want to know I can do this with some sort of certainty, Damn I lost an entire week due to some infection that if I would have had it at home I probably wouldn’t have missed a step but up here took me down to me legs. I have to admit I am mad about what happen but understand “stuff happens” and I will move on from now.
I spent quite a bit of time in the tent today trying to regain my focus. I begin to reorganize my stuff for the next couple of days, while listening to my iPod and generally trying to get back in the game mentally. The weather has been quite nice today with just a little wind. I know there is still a lot of time left to make this thing work out. If some of the guys I saw at the hospital yesterday think they still have a chance to make it then I for sure still have a chance. I saw some very sick people yesterday struggling in and out of that tent and I have seen those faces high on the mountain before so I know what altitude can do to you and I am lucky that that was not me.
Wally came and visited several times today and it was fun catching up with him His guys are heading up to camp 2 today. His main guy had a bad cough early in the week but Wally confirmed he was doing much better. Wally sounded awful with his cough but as I have said everyone at base camp gets sick it is how you minimize it that allows you to win or not.
I laughed at Jim as I heard him try to program the radios He talks to himself a lot so it was funny to hear his expressions which I cannot print in this blog because mine are bad enough but he sure made me chuckle a few times today. He finally got them done and we should be good to go. He also work with the Sherpa’s on the antenna’s which was funny but not a funny as the radios.
My face around my cheeks and the bottom of the chin began to peel today. I got burned on the way down on Monday I applied at 4am but never did again the reflection off the snow can just burn you up. MY nose which is usually the first place I get it was pretty much left unscathed but the other places are peeling deep. I will start the use of 50 SPC on Sat in lieu of the 30 I have been using. I have already seen some horrific faces on the mountain and I do not want to look like I did when I came off Aconcagua 2008. I know my little Leah remembers and it looked bad.
It is 530pm on Thursday and today has been good. I do feel better and I look forward to the walk tomorrow.
Couple of interesting things that did happen today.
There was a collapse in the Ice Fall today in the area called the “popcorn”. According to the information that we have heard no one was injured and we heard the Ice doctors have already got the trail remapped out so it will be interesting to see the differences when we go back in there on Sat.
This was also the first day in the last 3 days that I did not hear the helicopter fly someone out so that is always a good thing.
I am sure soon Jim will be chasing me around trying to shovel food in my mouth and I will be like the child who doesn’t want to eat but I am sure in the end we will come to some compromise.
Have a great day
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Personal
Toffee Please come back I have heard from many of your fans that your words of wisdom are truly inspirational.
All thanks for all of your comments it really helps
I am posting now here at 6 pm wed night it has turned very cold and I am ready to get in my bed.
have a great day
All thanks for all of your comments it really helps
I am posting now here at 6 pm wed night it has turned very cold and I am ready to get in my bed.
have a great day
Feeling better and went to Hospital
April 21st Wed.
I awoke with my favorite fragrance again this morning, the smell of pee. I am sure all of you would like to smell this when you wake from a good night’s sleep. Well I hope this will be my last. The last time I went this morning I was able to be regular and was able to hold it until all was in place so I was pretty happy with that process.
I was able to get up and go to breakfast and eat pretty well and then went in the communications tent to read email and talked to Mark Dale in Australia and it looks like we finally got a big deal we needed and some warranty issues cleared. So Life was getting back to normal mentally but the body is still shot. The weather finally cooperated and I was able to get those nasty clothes off (even Jim was talking about it) on me, took a nice shower (well as nice as it can be in 40F degree weather and I put on my favorite pair of long underwear (Thanks Sybil) they are best wearing and the thinness is perfect for what I need on the climbing trips. I am off to eat lunch now and then over to the hospital. Jim and I have been going through every detail of the last couple of days to try to nail down what really happen but at this point there is no real conclusion. I have been climbing 8 years and Jim has been doing it for 38 years and we cannot put a series of things that happen that point to a clear conclusion. I will update this letter before I post it if the Dr has anything else to add. Well we went to the doctor and guess what he gave me for the next 3 days, Cipro, surprise for you guys in the medical field. He said I could have a little bit of a kidney infection, (yes not normal for a man my age) but that is what we are treating. The lungs are still good but we had to wait on several who are not in good shape. I am so glad that is not my problem because that is something that is hard to overcome as you get higher.
Jim went and got oxygen for us to go up to camp 3 today so that made me feel good. This is a pay to play type deal when you pay for it is yours unless you are lucky to unload it at a fire sale. The cost was about $2500 so it is not cheap. These are refill bottles which we will use below but he did not spend the big money for the summit (new) bottles yet. He will wait and see how I do in the next few days of climbing which hopefully will be day 3 from now. I have to get food liquids and rest over the next couple of days so I can be ready to go again. I feel so much better but am still tired and have little energy but after the last couple of days I will take anything better.
I spent the day trying to reorganize worked a bit and saw the doctor so it was a pretty full day. The one thing is that I got up at 8 and am still up at 5:30 which is has been 4 days since that has happened.
Have a good day and may tomorrow be better than today.
I awoke with my favorite fragrance again this morning, the smell of pee. I am sure all of you would like to smell this when you wake from a good night’s sleep. Well I hope this will be my last. The last time I went this morning I was able to be regular and was able to hold it until all was in place so I was pretty happy with that process.
I was able to get up and go to breakfast and eat pretty well and then went in the communications tent to read email and talked to Mark Dale in Australia and it looks like we finally got a big deal we needed and some warranty issues cleared. So Life was getting back to normal mentally but the body is still shot. The weather finally cooperated and I was able to get those nasty clothes off (even Jim was talking about it) on me, took a nice shower (well as nice as it can be in 40F degree weather and I put on my favorite pair of long underwear (Thanks Sybil) they are best wearing and the thinness is perfect for what I need on the climbing trips. I am off to eat lunch now and then over to the hospital. Jim and I have been going through every detail of the last couple of days to try to nail down what really happen but at this point there is no real conclusion. I have been climbing 8 years and Jim has been doing it for 38 years and we cannot put a series of things that happen that point to a clear conclusion. I will update this letter before I post it if the Dr has anything else to add. Well we went to the doctor and guess what he gave me for the next 3 days, Cipro, surprise for you guys in the medical field. He said I could have a little bit of a kidney infection, (yes not normal for a man my age) but that is what we are treating. The lungs are still good but we had to wait on several who are not in good shape. I am so glad that is not my problem because that is something that is hard to overcome as you get higher.
Jim went and got oxygen for us to go up to camp 3 today so that made me feel good. This is a pay to play type deal when you pay for it is yours unless you are lucky to unload it at a fire sale. The cost was about $2500 so it is not cheap. These are refill bottles which we will use below but he did not spend the big money for the summit (new) bottles yet. He will wait and see how I do in the next few days of climbing which hopefully will be day 3 from now. I have to get food liquids and rest over the next couple of days so I can be ready to go again. I feel so much better but am still tired and have little energy but after the last couple of days I will take anything better.
I spent the day trying to reorganize worked a bit and saw the doctor so it was a pretty full day. The one thing is that I got up at 8 and am still up at 5:30 which is has been 4 days since that has happened.
Have a good day and may tomorrow be better than today.
long day at base camp sick
April 20 Tues
I got up around 8 am when the hot sun had hit my tent and it felt good. I got up and had a good breakfast of eggs, bacon and potatoes and my pop tarts. While I was sitting there discussing yesterday with Jim I also managed to drink 3 ½ liters of water and did not have to go to bathroom so that certainly told me something about hydration.
We chatted on until about 11 am and then I needed to go to the bathroom and I never got out of the tent again.
Now when I went back to the tent I had no blanket or sleeping bad (remember I had peed on it and they were washing and drying it for me so I was laying on my sleeping bad on the ground which was pretty cold not to mention every rock was piecing every bone on my body no matter which was I was able to turn.
Once again I thought I could shake it off and finally around 1ish I called Jim over and told him if he could go and see a doctor for me as I know I am sick and not just dehydrated. He went over and asked the favor and a Dr named Steve came and visited me about 230ish He was the one on call and the tent is pretty busy right now. (They have evacuated at least 5 people already this week) He spent about 20 mins with checking me and asking quite a few questions but he only conclusion was I had picked up probably 1 of the million viruses floating around here but if I could make it over the hospital then he could do a better check on me. I said ok and thought later in the day I would be able to get up but that time never happened.
It was funny I was lying against the back wall on the ground in the tent, my pad was just thrown in there with my blanket on top of my clothes and I was wondering what he was thinking. The Sherpa’s wanted to make my bed but I just couldn’t get up. It was all was cleaned and dry but it had begun to snow so we had to put it back in the tent.
After the doctor left they came into the tent and just put it in the middle of the tent and at sometime I eventually rolled over on my better smelling linen which was nice.
Jim kept trying to feed me with all my favorites but I could move much less sit up and eat. I was shaking one hour and going back to sweating the next. This went on all night as I slept very little except one time when they thought I was gone. They were screaming into the tent and I was not moving so the young boy Dawa was scared and he went out and got one of the other Sherpa’s to come and shake me to see if I was alive. When He grabbed my leg I came up immediately. I don’t know who scared who the most but at least I was alive.
All night was another “peeing” fiasco and by the time I woke up this morning my clothes smelled so bad I was about to vomit not to mention the smell of the pee bottle when it was open inside my sleeping bag so I knew what today held for me
There were many times I thought about throwing in the towel last night. I was tired scared because I didn’t know what was going on with my body and really how much does a man have to take to prove is manhood or reach some silly dream? You know I have spent well over $100,000 on this trip that I have planned for over 4 years and these 2 days has certainly knocked me back physically and mentally and I just didn’t know if I could go on. But I never called to Jim and made it through the night Thank Goodness.
Thanks for all the prayers as I really needed the past 2 days.
I got up around 8 am when the hot sun had hit my tent and it felt good. I got up and had a good breakfast of eggs, bacon and potatoes and my pop tarts. While I was sitting there discussing yesterday with Jim I also managed to drink 3 ½ liters of water and did not have to go to bathroom so that certainly told me something about hydration.
We chatted on until about 11 am and then I needed to go to the bathroom and I never got out of the tent again.
Now when I went back to the tent I had no blanket or sleeping bad (remember I had peed on it and they were washing and drying it for me so I was laying on my sleeping bad on the ground which was pretty cold not to mention every rock was piecing every bone on my body no matter which was I was able to turn.
Once again I thought I could shake it off and finally around 1ish I called Jim over and told him if he could go and see a doctor for me as I know I am sick and not just dehydrated. He went over and asked the favor and a Dr named Steve came and visited me about 230ish He was the one on call and the tent is pretty busy right now. (They have evacuated at least 5 people already this week) He spent about 20 mins with checking me and asking quite a few questions but he only conclusion was I had picked up probably 1 of the million viruses floating around here but if I could make it over the hospital then he could do a better check on me. I said ok and thought later in the day I would be able to get up but that time never happened.
It was funny I was lying against the back wall on the ground in the tent, my pad was just thrown in there with my blanket on top of my clothes and I was wondering what he was thinking. The Sherpa’s wanted to make my bed but I just couldn’t get up. It was all was cleaned and dry but it had begun to snow so we had to put it back in the tent.
After the doctor left they came into the tent and just put it in the middle of the tent and at sometime I eventually rolled over on my better smelling linen which was nice.
Jim kept trying to feed me with all my favorites but I could move much less sit up and eat. I was shaking one hour and going back to sweating the next. This went on all night as I slept very little except one time when they thought I was gone. They were screaming into the tent and I was not moving so the young boy Dawa was scared and he went out and got one of the other Sherpa’s to come and shake me to see if I was alive. When He grabbed my leg I came up immediately. I don’t know who scared who the most but at least I was alive.
All night was another “peeing” fiasco and by the time I woke up this morning my clothes smelled so bad I was about to vomit not to mention the smell of the pee bottle when it was open inside my sleeping bag so I knew what today held for me
There were many times I thought about throwing in the towel last night. I was tired scared because I didn’t know what was going on with my body and really how much does a man have to take to prove is manhood or reach some silly dream? You know I have spent well over $100,000 on this trip that I have planned for over 4 years and these 2 days has certainly knocked me back physically and mentally and I just didn’t know if I could go on. But I never called to Jim and made it through the night Thank Goodness.
Thanks for all the prayers as I really needed the past 2 days.
Unsuccessful trip to Camp I
April 19th Mon
Jim and I were awaken around 3:30 am in the morning as the Sherpa’s were eon their way up the mountain. We had decided before went to bed that we would go only if it was a clear morning and it didn’t snow all night. When the kitchen fired up the gas stove at 2:30 I heard it and I heard the snow so I was hoping that we wouldn’t go up. I had a terrible night sleep and didn’t feel well but that wasn’t what was on Nima Tashi mind. He was going up the mountain and when he awoke me at 330am and again at 331am I saw his hand come through my tent asking for my sleeping bag. This was the deal but I didn’t know I was only going to have 1 min to get organized before I had to give it up.
Just a little background on the sleeping bag.
When I am leaving early am in the cold weather I stuff all my clothes in my sleeping bag so they will stay warm until I put them on in the morning. So when he woke me up at 330am and at 331am wanted my bag that meant I had to get all of my stuff out of my bag and would have to get dressed in the cold tent. And when it is cold outside the clothes get cold quickly so the socks were the first thing on me but I had to put a band aids on my heels because my new boots made some slight blisters on the back of them when we had gone up a few days ago. After the band aids then a strip to duct tape to make it slick so the socks would just slide over the heel on those steep inclines. Now the trade off of the cold clothes was to carry that extra 4 kilos or not so you know the sleeping bag went out the tent when I saw the hand and didn’t think anymore about it.
Jim and I both were moving a little slow (later found out that Jim was feeling good either) but we made it to the dining tent and decided to have a little breakfast. I didn’t feel like eating much so I had just a little coke. It was a funny feeling, not nausea or headache or anything like that just didn’t have the “spring in the step” We sat in for about an hour and we finally decided to leave about 5 am. The walk to the ice fall entrance is about 15 mins and it is a nasty walk over the base camp glacier in your stiff boots. You are slipping and sliding all over the place and by the time you make it to the Ice Fall you are breathing like you know what. (I hate it like you wouldn’t believe)
Ok we are now at the Ice Fall and we put our crampons on, (now I do like this because it allows you to be lazy because you will not slip) and start of the mountain. I was not feeling good but kept thinking it would get better. We started in the Ice Fall and at the steep hills; Jim was stopping to catch his breath. I thought this was good because this would allow me not to be lagging behind. This went on for about an hour and Jim got better and I got worse. We actually talked about it on the mountain when he finally turned around and said that he was finally feeling better. At this point I was not being dead weight but I was certainly being slow but we continued. I thought if I could just get to camp 1 I could rest and surely I was strong enough to get there. We continued on and finally after 3:15 we got the first ladder in the Ice Falls. Now this was the same place that Martin, Nima, and I were at in less than 1 ½ hrs the first time we went up so this shows how slow I was on this trip. We talked again and I said let’s keep pushing up. I really didn’t want to go down. I knew what a commitment this was to get back to base camp. It was a long way but the bottom was so much up and down I just didn’t know that I could do it. Up was a lot steeper but it would be shorter and I thought I could just push through it but it wasn’t happening. AN hour later I ask Jim about the status and he said we were about ½ way. I told him we needed to go down. This was one of the hardest decisions that I had made so far because I knew what “crap” I was going to have to go through to get back to base camp. I just didn’t know if I could do it. I absolutely had no power in my legs. I was shot and really didn’t know why. I had climbed many mountains and never before had this happened to me. One thing that was happening was I was peeing about 10 mins without any notice and it was immediate ( less than 10 seconds),it hurt like hell, it was gold color( which I know is not good but not the worse it could be) and it was very little. Holy shit I am dehydrated some but something is wrong here. BTW I am a good water drinker as I learned this a long time ago on this High Altitudes climbs and I know my body well so I was baffled.
With a lot of patience from Jim, with me basically walking about 10 steps, going down one hill and going up one hill and me constanly asking him can he see the end we finally made it out 3 ½ later. Two days before we had madwe it down in less than 40 mins from not too much further down than when Jim and I turned around so you know we have a problem.
We made it to the crampon removal area and I just sat there and told Jim to go on home. It was only a couple hundred meters and quite honestly I didn’t know how I was going to get up that hill and especially didn’t know when but he wouldn’t leave me.
SO we ventured on up the hill passing by some friends who wanted to make sure we were ok because they had seen others that had seen me and told them that I was not doing well.
We were back at the camp in about 25 mins. We had just completed 8 hours of walking and we had gone nowhere. What a defeating thing for anyone to stomach and it was proablbly the hardest walk I had ever done in my life and I have had some hard ones ( the 26 Kilometers walk out of Acocongua is one at the top of my list)
Ok we leave at 5 am and I am back in my tent at 1 pm exhausted delirous and just wanted to be left alone. Only my pee bottle needed to be my friend.
I laid across the tent with my feet outside for over an hour trying to just remember who I was and the Sherpa’s were so helpful. They removed my harness, my boots and helped me get into bed. Jim later came with a homemade grill cheese tomato ham speciafiaclly made for me. The Sherpa’s had never seen such a thing but I was not hungry but knew I needed something. I did manage to eat one of them and then I rolled over to try to get some sleep.
I mention these next few items so one day I can laugh about them but if you want to skip reading this section I will not be offended.
After a while I realized that my pants and underwear were wet because I had sat on the snow so much on the way down and I needed to get them off or my bag was going to get wet and cold. Some how I did get them off down to my ankles ( I know this because I woke up later cold and my legs were tied to together) I had tied the bottom of my ankle tight to keep the snow out of my boots and I guess when I was trying to remove my pants I couldn’t figure out how to get them off so I left them until I woke up cold. I did finally manage to get them off b ut the Sherpa’s had destroyed my organized tent looking for my hat that not I could find any damn I do not know how long this sage went on but I finally found something to wear. Now add this drama with me having to piss at a moments notice. Ok 10 sec ( and I mean no more than 10 sec and it was flowing)to find the pee bottle, find the head lamp ( they couldn’t find mine so they gave me one of the sherpa’s which was totally different from mine so I could never find the regular light button, undo the screw cap and get it out of my pants and into this bottle. Funny huh? So you know what happen most of the night. I didn’t hit the bottle enough and my blanket and sleeping pad was in bad shape the next morning I now know what if feel like to be in an old folks home because when I awoke on Tuesday morning I thought I had moved my bed to the urinal. This was not good. The last funny of the night was on Jim. I had the pants story and he had the same thing happen to him with his shirt. He couldn’t figure out how to get his shirt because he couldn’t undo the buttons.
High altitude is a great thing, Huh?
Somehow I made it through the night and actually felt much better after that crazy day/night.
Jim and I were awaken around 3:30 am in the morning as the Sherpa’s were eon their way up the mountain. We had decided before went to bed that we would go only if it was a clear morning and it didn’t snow all night. When the kitchen fired up the gas stove at 2:30 I heard it and I heard the snow so I was hoping that we wouldn’t go up. I had a terrible night sleep and didn’t feel well but that wasn’t what was on Nima Tashi mind. He was going up the mountain and when he awoke me at 330am and again at 331am I saw his hand come through my tent asking for my sleeping bag. This was the deal but I didn’t know I was only going to have 1 min to get organized before I had to give it up.
Just a little background on the sleeping bag.
When I am leaving early am in the cold weather I stuff all my clothes in my sleeping bag so they will stay warm until I put them on in the morning. So when he woke me up at 330am and at 331am wanted my bag that meant I had to get all of my stuff out of my bag and would have to get dressed in the cold tent. And when it is cold outside the clothes get cold quickly so the socks were the first thing on me but I had to put a band aids on my heels because my new boots made some slight blisters on the back of them when we had gone up a few days ago. After the band aids then a strip to duct tape to make it slick so the socks would just slide over the heel on those steep inclines. Now the trade off of the cold clothes was to carry that extra 4 kilos or not so you know the sleeping bag went out the tent when I saw the hand and didn’t think anymore about it.
Jim and I both were moving a little slow (later found out that Jim was feeling good either) but we made it to the dining tent and decided to have a little breakfast. I didn’t feel like eating much so I had just a little coke. It was a funny feeling, not nausea or headache or anything like that just didn’t have the “spring in the step” We sat in for about an hour and we finally decided to leave about 5 am. The walk to the ice fall entrance is about 15 mins and it is a nasty walk over the base camp glacier in your stiff boots. You are slipping and sliding all over the place and by the time you make it to the Ice Fall you are breathing like you know what. (I hate it like you wouldn’t believe)
Ok we are now at the Ice Fall and we put our crampons on, (now I do like this because it allows you to be lazy because you will not slip) and start of the mountain. I was not feeling good but kept thinking it would get better. We started in the Ice Fall and at the steep hills; Jim was stopping to catch his breath. I thought this was good because this would allow me not to be lagging behind. This went on for about an hour and Jim got better and I got worse. We actually talked about it on the mountain when he finally turned around and said that he was finally feeling better. At this point I was not being dead weight but I was certainly being slow but we continued. I thought if I could just get to camp 1 I could rest and surely I was strong enough to get there. We continued on and finally after 3:15 we got the first ladder in the Ice Falls. Now this was the same place that Martin, Nima, and I were at in less than 1 ½ hrs the first time we went up so this shows how slow I was on this trip. We talked again and I said let’s keep pushing up. I really didn’t want to go down. I knew what a commitment this was to get back to base camp. It was a long way but the bottom was so much up and down I just didn’t know that I could do it. Up was a lot steeper but it would be shorter and I thought I could just push through it but it wasn’t happening. AN hour later I ask Jim about the status and he said we were about ½ way. I told him we needed to go down. This was one of the hardest decisions that I had made so far because I knew what “crap” I was going to have to go through to get back to base camp. I just didn’t know if I could do it. I absolutely had no power in my legs. I was shot and really didn’t know why. I had climbed many mountains and never before had this happened to me. One thing that was happening was I was peeing about 10 mins without any notice and it was immediate ( less than 10 seconds),it hurt like hell, it was gold color( which I know is not good but not the worse it could be) and it was very little. Holy shit I am dehydrated some but something is wrong here. BTW I am a good water drinker as I learned this a long time ago on this High Altitudes climbs and I know my body well so I was baffled.
With a lot of patience from Jim, with me basically walking about 10 steps, going down one hill and going up one hill and me constanly asking him can he see the end we finally made it out 3 ½ later. Two days before we had madwe it down in less than 40 mins from not too much further down than when Jim and I turned around so you know we have a problem.
We made it to the crampon removal area and I just sat there and told Jim to go on home. It was only a couple hundred meters and quite honestly I didn’t know how I was going to get up that hill and especially didn’t know when but he wouldn’t leave me.
SO we ventured on up the hill passing by some friends who wanted to make sure we were ok because they had seen others that had seen me and told them that I was not doing well.
We were back at the camp in about 25 mins. We had just completed 8 hours of walking and we had gone nowhere. What a defeating thing for anyone to stomach and it was proablbly the hardest walk I had ever done in my life and I have had some hard ones ( the 26 Kilometers walk out of Acocongua is one at the top of my list)
Ok we leave at 5 am and I am back in my tent at 1 pm exhausted delirous and just wanted to be left alone. Only my pee bottle needed to be my friend.
I laid across the tent with my feet outside for over an hour trying to just remember who I was and the Sherpa’s were so helpful. They removed my harness, my boots and helped me get into bed. Jim later came with a homemade grill cheese tomato ham speciafiaclly made for me. The Sherpa’s had never seen such a thing but I was not hungry but knew I needed something. I did manage to eat one of them and then I rolled over to try to get some sleep.
I mention these next few items so one day I can laugh about them but if you want to skip reading this section I will not be offended.
After a while I realized that my pants and underwear were wet because I had sat on the snow so much on the way down and I needed to get them off or my bag was going to get wet and cold. Some how I did get them off down to my ankles ( I know this because I woke up later cold and my legs were tied to together) I had tied the bottom of my ankle tight to keep the snow out of my boots and I guess when I was trying to remove my pants I couldn’t figure out how to get them off so I left them until I woke up cold. I did finally manage to get them off b ut the Sherpa’s had destroyed my organized tent looking for my hat that not I could find any damn I do not know how long this sage went on but I finally found something to wear. Now add this drama with me having to piss at a moments notice. Ok 10 sec ( and I mean no more than 10 sec and it was flowing)to find the pee bottle, find the head lamp ( they couldn’t find mine so they gave me one of the sherpa’s which was totally different from mine so I could never find the regular light button, undo the screw cap and get it out of my pants and into this bottle. Funny huh? So you know what happen most of the night. I didn’t hit the bottle enough and my blanket and sleeping pad was in bad shape the next morning I now know what if feel like to be in an old folks home because when I awoke on Tuesday morning I thought I had moved my bed to the urinal. This was not good. The last funny of the night was on Jim. I had the pants story and he had the same thing happen to him with his shirt. He couldn’t figure out how to get his shirt because he couldn’t undo the buttons.
High altitude is a great thing, Huh?
Somehow I made it through the night and actually felt much better after that crazy day/night.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Camp I Preperation and Sunday April 18th
April 18th 2009 Sunday Camp 1 Preparation day
I had a long night of a little sleep. It was cold, had some of those “crazy” High altitude dreams and I had my first day in 15 days that I just wanted to quit and go home. I actually think that this is not that bad. On every trip I have gone you always have days or nights when you really have to ask yourself what the ‘Hell” am I doing and it is time to quit and go home. In every case you just keep going because you have worked too hard to get to this point, not to mention the money you have spent on these silly adventures. In the past, I had my friends around to pick me up when you had these lonely “feel sorry” days as we call it, but here, I am all alone so I needed to a little more pick me up from the inside. Martin had left and I am sure that is why it happened today. After getting up, talking with Jim, getting a great breakfast burrito, drinking some Mt Dew and getting a shower, I am beginning to get back in the game and ready to go to camp 1. The weather in the morning was great but as we have seen every day the sleet/ hail/snow starts around 3 pm and it starts to get cold. I hope I will be at comp 1 tomorrow before the weather changes.
Note: Found out today that Jim’s dad is Jack Williams who was one of Jack Welch’s right hand men during his reign of GE. Jack and his wife lived in Asia almost his entire career but the Jim and siblings always lived in the US.
I spent the morning reorganizing my stuff to take up to camp 1 and camp 2. The Sherpa’s take stuff up and leave it and you just keep moving stuff up the mountain and hardly ever bring anything down until the end of the trip. This is a little difficult as you begin to split off your clothes and will have to make adjustments along the way as you can’t have 2 or 3 of everything to take up. NIma got my stuff and they will carry it up in the afternoon.
The next thing to day was go over the meal plan for the next 4 days. That was a little bit of challenge because of my eating habits but I believe we got it done. I also filled a bag up of my favorite snacks to make sure I will eat something for the next four days. I gave Jim credit for being a good snack shopper as I liked many things that he had brought.
Jim continues to get the antenna and mountain radios ready for use over the next few weeks. Looks like we are finally get everything set up for the long journey. Nima and a few of the guys are going back down the mountain while we are gone to get some more supplies.
Tracey, the base camp manager should have landed in KATMANDU today. She sent a note to Jim that she was leaving Singapore and she has more supplies including my condiments and also my 12 volt inverter so I can have my computer hooked up in my tent with a light and don’t have to worry about running the battery down. This will be nice as it will be much warmer in my tent in my sleeping bag. She should be here in about 9 days as she makes her way up the mountain.
They took out the 2nd person off the mountain today. We do not know what the condition was with this person but that is 2 people that taken the helicopter out in the last 3 days. Diarrhea is running rampart in the camp but so far we are all good. The medical tent has been very busy with this and the cough.
I took for the first time in my climbing career, the pill Diamox 250 mg. It supposedly helps regulate your breathing at high altitudes. One of the things that happen during the night, is because of heavy breathing you are constantly getting awaken during the night. I usually take Tylenol PM which numbs me through these times but Jim hates this as it suppresses respiration. I sleep through it but it is not good for my body. The down side to Diamox is that it makes you use the bathroom all the time so my “Pee Bottle” is close to me at all times. I will try this for the next few days and see what happens. It is interesting to note that all guides have differing opinion on the use of Diamox (some strongly against, some indifferent and some strongly for it) but most climbing people at Everest are “pro” Diamox vs other places than I have climbed. I will keep you updated on how it is working or not.
We were sitting in the tent when we heard a huge avalanche on the snow side today. Finally one of the overhangs that we have been looking at for a couple of days came down. What a spectacular seen. It is not over our pass but was right behind our camp. It was pretty hot today with the sun shining so I am sure this is why it finally came down.
The other thing we had to do today is to get our “bodily fluid” bags. This has been a huge controversy here over the years. There was huge push in 2000(with Jim Williams playing a huge part in it) to eliminate tons of waste on the mountain and it is much better but the battle with human waste is still a huge problem. I have seen it first hand at the Tetons and MT Rainer that these fancy (all in one) bags really work. It was decided yesterday that all teams would attempt to try and make these bags work.
Note: one of the reasons to why this has failed is that Sherpa’s do not like to handle human waste so this has hindered the process but in the case the climber will be responsible for removing his own waste. This is great, just added another 6- 8 kilos to my backpack. Note really upset but weight is weight.
I will let you know how this transpires over the next few weeks because if it works it should make a huge difference on the mountain. I still remember the smell at Camp Berlin (Aconcagua, Argentina) and walking up Mt Elbrus (Russia) when we got close to the Lodge. What a disgusting smell it was at these 2 places.
The other thing we had to get done today was to redo my harness with all the right hardware. I used Jim’s hardware in the Ice Fall when we went in to train a few days ago. I thought this was a pretty good set up and was very easy to use quickly to affix to the ropes so I wanted to changed my from previous climbs. The other thing I had to incorporate was my ascender. I have not used an ascender since I was in Bolivia in 2006 but here it will be used a lot since most of the climb is on fixed ropes and the ascender can help you get up the steep places because it allows you to use your arm (in my case right handed) to help pull you up the hill attached to the rope and it is also another safety attachment if you fell. We got this done and I am ready to leave tomorrow morning at 430 am.
The mountain has been quite calm today so tomorrow might be real busy. Jim is not too worried but did say we will probably walk about 2-2 ½ hours before we stop as this timing aligns itself with the sun coming up on us when we will probably have to make a clothing adjustment. We will install our crampons after about 20 mins of walking so I can make a clothing adjustment at this time. I get quite hot walking and wear very little clothing so we have to keep moving or I will get very cold very fast which is not good.
I hope most of you enjoyed Jim’s updated blogs yesterday but with all we have been doing today it is still behind a few days. We have discussed these blogs and have already picked out the pictures for the writings but there is not enough time in the day for him to keep it updated. I am sure while we have nothing to do at camp one he will get caught up but that will be 4 days from now. He is taking his little 10 inch computer but I will not travel with mine. Mine is almost 3.5 kilos so that is out of the question.
You will not see anything from me for the next 3-4 days. It could be 3 days if I perform well but it might be 4 days so do not panic. We might move on up to camp 2 if I feel good. This would be a good thing if it happens. Believe me if something happens to me all of you will know it pretty quickly.
Just got an email form Martin. He is “flying” down the hill in Record time as we all expected. He made it to Namche and I am sure by now he is enjoying his own private shower in almost 8 days. Take care my friend you are already missed.
I wish everyone a nice Sunday and please say a prayer for me to have a safe trip through the ICE FALL.
I had a long night of a little sleep. It was cold, had some of those “crazy” High altitude dreams and I had my first day in 15 days that I just wanted to quit and go home. I actually think that this is not that bad. On every trip I have gone you always have days or nights when you really have to ask yourself what the ‘Hell” am I doing and it is time to quit and go home. In every case you just keep going because you have worked too hard to get to this point, not to mention the money you have spent on these silly adventures. In the past, I had my friends around to pick me up when you had these lonely “feel sorry” days as we call it, but here, I am all alone so I needed to a little more pick me up from the inside. Martin had left and I am sure that is why it happened today. After getting up, talking with Jim, getting a great breakfast burrito, drinking some Mt Dew and getting a shower, I am beginning to get back in the game and ready to go to camp 1. The weather in the morning was great but as we have seen every day the sleet/ hail/snow starts around 3 pm and it starts to get cold. I hope I will be at comp 1 tomorrow before the weather changes.
Note: Found out today that Jim’s dad is Jack Williams who was one of Jack Welch’s right hand men during his reign of GE. Jack and his wife lived in Asia almost his entire career but the Jim and siblings always lived in the US.
I spent the morning reorganizing my stuff to take up to camp 1 and camp 2. The Sherpa’s take stuff up and leave it and you just keep moving stuff up the mountain and hardly ever bring anything down until the end of the trip. This is a little difficult as you begin to split off your clothes and will have to make adjustments along the way as you can’t have 2 or 3 of everything to take up. NIma got my stuff and they will carry it up in the afternoon.
The next thing to day was go over the meal plan for the next 4 days. That was a little bit of challenge because of my eating habits but I believe we got it done. I also filled a bag up of my favorite snacks to make sure I will eat something for the next four days. I gave Jim credit for being a good snack shopper as I liked many things that he had brought.
Jim continues to get the antenna and mountain radios ready for use over the next few weeks. Looks like we are finally get everything set up for the long journey. Nima and a few of the guys are going back down the mountain while we are gone to get some more supplies.
Tracey, the base camp manager should have landed in KATMANDU today. She sent a note to Jim that she was leaving Singapore and she has more supplies including my condiments and also my 12 volt inverter so I can have my computer hooked up in my tent with a light and don’t have to worry about running the battery down. This will be nice as it will be much warmer in my tent in my sleeping bag. She should be here in about 9 days as she makes her way up the mountain.
They took out the 2nd person off the mountain today. We do not know what the condition was with this person but that is 2 people that taken the helicopter out in the last 3 days. Diarrhea is running rampart in the camp but so far we are all good. The medical tent has been very busy with this and the cough.
I took for the first time in my climbing career, the pill Diamox 250 mg. It supposedly helps regulate your breathing at high altitudes. One of the things that happen during the night, is because of heavy breathing you are constantly getting awaken during the night. I usually take Tylenol PM which numbs me through these times but Jim hates this as it suppresses respiration. I sleep through it but it is not good for my body. The down side to Diamox is that it makes you use the bathroom all the time so my “Pee Bottle” is close to me at all times. I will try this for the next few days and see what happens. It is interesting to note that all guides have differing opinion on the use of Diamox (some strongly against, some indifferent and some strongly for it) but most climbing people at Everest are “pro” Diamox vs other places than I have climbed. I will keep you updated on how it is working or not.
We were sitting in the tent when we heard a huge avalanche on the snow side today. Finally one of the overhangs that we have been looking at for a couple of days came down. What a spectacular seen. It is not over our pass but was right behind our camp. It was pretty hot today with the sun shining so I am sure this is why it finally came down.
The other thing we had to do today is to get our “bodily fluid” bags. This has been a huge controversy here over the years. There was huge push in 2000(with Jim Williams playing a huge part in it) to eliminate tons of waste on the mountain and it is much better but the battle with human waste is still a huge problem. I have seen it first hand at the Tetons and MT Rainer that these fancy (all in one) bags really work. It was decided yesterday that all teams would attempt to try and make these bags work.
Note: one of the reasons to why this has failed is that Sherpa’s do not like to handle human waste so this has hindered the process but in the case the climber will be responsible for removing his own waste. This is great, just added another 6- 8 kilos to my backpack. Note really upset but weight is weight.
I will let you know how this transpires over the next few weeks because if it works it should make a huge difference on the mountain. I still remember the smell at Camp Berlin (Aconcagua, Argentina) and walking up Mt Elbrus (Russia) when we got close to the Lodge. What a disgusting smell it was at these 2 places.
The other thing we had to get done today was to redo my harness with all the right hardware. I used Jim’s hardware in the Ice Fall when we went in to train a few days ago. I thought this was a pretty good set up and was very easy to use quickly to affix to the ropes so I wanted to changed my from previous climbs. The other thing I had to incorporate was my ascender. I have not used an ascender since I was in Bolivia in 2006 but here it will be used a lot since most of the climb is on fixed ropes and the ascender can help you get up the steep places because it allows you to use your arm (in my case right handed) to help pull you up the hill attached to the rope and it is also another safety attachment if you fell. We got this done and I am ready to leave tomorrow morning at 430 am.
The mountain has been quite calm today so tomorrow might be real busy. Jim is not too worried but did say we will probably walk about 2-2 ½ hours before we stop as this timing aligns itself with the sun coming up on us when we will probably have to make a clothing adjustment. We will install our crampons after about 20 mins of walking so I can make a clothing adjustment at this time. I get quite hot walking and wear very little clothing so we have to keep moving or I will get very cold very fast which is not good.
I hope most of you enjoyed Jim’s updated blogs yesterday but with all we have been doing today it is still behind a few days. We have discussed these blogs and have already picked out the pictures for the writings but there is not enough time in the day for him to keep it updated. I am sure while we have nothing to do at camp one he will get caught up but that will be 4 days from now. He is taking his little 10 inch computer but I will not travel with mine. Mine is almost 3.5 kilos so that is out of the question.
You will not see anything from me for the next 3-4 days. It could be 3 days if I perform well but it might be 4 days so do not panic. We might move on up to camp 2 if I feel good. This would be a good thing if it happens. Believe me if something happens to me all of you will know it pretty quickly.
Just got an email form Martin. He is “flying” down the hill in Record time as we all expected. He made it to Namche and I am sure by now he is enjoying his own private shower in almost 8 days. Take care my friend you are already missed.
I wish everyone a nice Sunday and please say a prayer for me to have a safe trip through the ICE FALL.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Details and plans for the next 2 weeks
Jim and I plan to go to Camp 1 on Monday April 19th and we will stay at least 2 days but more like 3 days. This would include a full trip through the Ice Fall which would be about 2-3 hours more than what we did the on the training day. Camp 1 is roughly 19000 ft. 1 day while we are there, we will walk about ½ of the 7 miles up to camp 2. This gets us around the corner to be able to see camp 2 and then we will return home.
Our support staff has been up the mountain every morning the last 4 days to help set up the camps at Camp 1 and camp 2 so they will be taking tomorrow off to rest a bit and help Jim and I finish up the last little details of base camp setup. Then some of them will return down the mountain to get more supplies for our trip.
After we return home, I will stay at base camp for about 4 days and then proceed up the mountain again to camp 2, which is 21000 ft. I will go with the lead Sherpa guide (Nima Tashi) to work on our relationship. (Speed, habits and Language). We will need to work on our language issues as his English is not the best and neither is mine (South Alabama) which makes it worse for him because he doesn’t hear well. So we will have to work on a few signals to make this work. Don’t worry, Nima Tashi is a great person, an accomplished guy (summitted Everest 11 times) and is generally considered one of the hardest working Sherpa’s on the mountain. I climbed with him on the Grand Teton last September but this is a completely different climb with different rhythms. Martin spent 45 days in Oct/Nov (Baruntse) with him being the lead Sherpa including the entire crew (guides and Kitchen crew) and feels completely comfortable with them so his recommendation meant a lot to me.
I spent quite a bit of time discussing this with Jim this morning while we worked on the tent setup. This part is another essential part of the success of my summit attempt. I have had failure and have had success with a pretty stringent program over the years and I know what works for me to make it to the top so we just have to spend some time together to make sure the basics are messed together. I always walk in the back of the pack as this gives me time to adjust to almost anything and with me being the only one in between 3 Sherpas I am a bit uncomfortable with it since it a roped climb including mostly fixed ropes due to the severe steepness of the mountain especially on summit day so I just need some comfort with who I am with. Sherpa’s are real animals on the mountains and their pace can be quite fast and I need them also understand my little idiosyncrasies so we can be successful. Nawang Pasang is the other lead guide who speaks very good English and this will be his 4th summit attempt (with having 3 summits in the last 4 years) with numerous times up to the Southern Col and Dawa Tsuring will be the 3rd Sherpa and this will be his first summit attempt but has been up the Southern Col many times as a working Sherpa.
I feel pretty good about all of these guys as I have met and spent time with their families as we came up the valley to get here so I understand their motivation and commitment to get home safely as they have families who depend on them and Nawang’s wife will actually have their baby when we are on the mountain and she told us to bring him home safely personally when we had dinner with his brother and her.
I will fill the rest as we move through these next few weeks and once we start you can fill in your calendars as I will not be able to post blogs or answer emails when I am on the mountain.
Our support staff has been up the mountain every morning the last 4 days to help set up the camps at Camp 1 and camp 2 so they will be taking tomorrow off to rest a bit and help Jim and I finish up the last little details of base camp setup. Then some of them will return down the mountain to get more supplies for our trip.
After we return home, I will stay at base camp for about 4 days and then proceed up the mountain again to camp 2, which is 21000 ft. I will go with the lead Sherpa guide (Nima Tashi) to work on our relationship. (Speed, habits and Language). We will need to work on our language issues as his English is not the best and neither is mine (South Alabama) which makes it worse for him because he doesn’t hear well. So we will have to work on a few signals to make this work. Don’t worry, Nima Tashi is a great person, an accomplished guy (summitted Everest 11 times) and is generally considered one of the hardest working Sherpa’s on the mountain. I climbed with him on the Grand Teton last September but this is a completely different climb with different rhythms. Martin spent 45 days in Oct/Nov (Baruntse) with him being the lead Sherpa including the entire crew (guides and Kitchen crew) and feels completely comfortable with them so his recommendation meant a lot to me.
I spent quite a bit of time discussing this with Jim this morning while we worked on the tent setup. This part is another essential part of the success of my summit attempt. I have had failure and have had success with a pretty stringent program over the years and I know what works for me to make it to the top so we just have to spend some time together to make sure the basics are messed together. I always walk in the back of the pack as this gives me time to adjust to almost anything and with me being the only one in between 3 Sherpas I am a bit uncomfortable with it since it a roped climb including mostly fixed ropes due to the severe steepness of the mountain especially on summit day so I just need some comfort with who I am with. Sherpa’s are real animals on the mountains and their pace can be quite fast and I need them also understand my little idiosyncrasies so we can be successful. Nawang Pasang is the other lead guide who speaks very good English and this will be his 4th summit attempt (with having 3 summits in the last 4 years) with numerous times up to the Southern Col and Dawa Tsuring will be the 3rd Sherpa and this will be his first summit attempt but has been up the Southern Col many times as a working Sherpa.
I feel pretty good about all of these guys as I have met and spent time with their families as we came up the valley to get here so I understand their motivation and commitment to get home safely as they have families who depend on them and Nawang’s wife will actually have their baby when we are on the mountain and she told us to bring him home safely personally when we had dinner with his brother and her.
I will fill the rest as we move through these next few weeks and once we start you can fill in your calendars as I will not be able to post blogs or answer emails when I am on the mountain.
Martin's leaving and a good day at the office
Saturday April 17th
Woke up early as usual but couldn’t get out of the bed this morning as it was very cold. It seemed like it changed about 3 am when I needed to put some more clothes on and added an extra blanket. I finally got up about 7am. The sun is up but doesn’t hit on us until about 745am.
It has been a cold, windy and cloudy day. The wind is coming in from the north and has been real cold so I hope it is a better day tomorrow as I really would like to have a shower before we go up to camp 1 for a couple of days.
Martin left today, while it was a bit sad seeing too old men leaving each other with tears in their eyes, I was happy to have spent the last 2 weeks with a great friend who came in to support me personally on this adventure of mine and added more in his mountaineering career highlights. We had a great time discussing our last 6 years of adventures (and all the great friends we have made and miss) and are already planning the next one in Oct in PNG so all of you are invited ( details to follow when I get off this one, just let Martin know asap if you are interested). We went by to see Wally before he left and got some great pictures to remember and Martin was wearing his new hat ( Everest Doctor’s Hat 2010) which he said would be a collector’s item when he returns to Australia late week. He will be back in Katmandu in 4 day of hard walking and if gets lucky with the weather in Lukla for the return journey. He plans to spend a few days seeing his friend (ANG) and the 2 kids he supports educationally in Katmandu.
After I returned to our camp, I started helping Jim set up the communication tent. It has been a great day for working inside and we now have set up an official office at Everest base camp 2010. If you saw it you would think Jim and I were just working away back in the US. We have satellite phones; we have radios for Staff, a desk telephone, Printer and 3 computers. We have email service, internet service and blogs for me and for Exploradus so we should be set now to communicate when we are here in the camp. I will get a picture of this and show it when I return but Jim sets up a pretty good operation. If the damn heater worked a little better, I think I could be very productive.
I have set up an alternative email address which I will send out if David and I cannot get it worked out with my company email. We should have this done in the next couple of days as I just have been able to communicate with him via email so early next week should be good to go either with my new address or my company address.
The rest of the day we continued to get the mess tent set up and now we really have a home here and tried to stay warm.
Woke up early as usual but couldn’t get out of the bed this morning as it was very cold. It seemed like it changed about 3 am when I needed to put some more clothes on and added an extra blanket. I finally got up about 7am. The sun is up but doesn’t hit on us until about 745am.
It has been a cold, windy and cloudy day. The wind is coming in from the north and has been real cold so I hope it is a better day tomorrow as I really would like to have a shower before we go up to camp 1 for a couple of days.
Martin left today, while it was a bit sad seeing too old men leaving each other with tears in their eyes, I was happy to have spent the last 2 weeks with a great friend who came in to support me personally on this adventure of mine and added more in his mountaineering career highlights. We had a great time discussing our last 6 years of adventures (and all the great friends we have made and miss) and are already planning the next one in Oct in PNG so all of you are invited ( details to follow when I get off this one, just let Martin know asap if you are interested). We went by to see Wally before he left and got some great pictures to remember and Martin was wearing his new hat ( Everest Doctor’s Hat 2010) which he said would be a collector’s item when he returns to Australia late week. He will be back in Katmandu in 4 day of hard walking and if gets lucky with the weather in Lukla for the return journey. He plans to spend a few days seeing his friend (ANG) and the 2 kids he supports educationally in Katmandu.
After I returned to our camp, I started helping Jim set up the communication tent. It has been a great day for working inside and we now have set up an official office at Everest base camp 2010. If you saw it you would think Jim and I were just working away back in the US. We have satellite phones; we have radios for Staff, a desk telephone, Printer and 3 computers. We have email service, internet service and blogs for me and for Exploradus so we should be set now to communicate when we are here in the camp. I will get a picture of this and show it when I return but Jim sets up a pretty good operation. If the damn heater worked a little better, I think I could be very productive.
I have set up an alternative email address which I will send out if David and I cannot get it worked out with my company email. We should have this done in the next couple of days as I just have been able to communicate with him via email so early next week should be good to go either with my new address or my company address.
The rest of the day we continued to get the mess tent set up and now we really have a home here and tried to stay warm.
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