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.