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Dispatch
30 - April
23
Time to descend to Base Camp for a few days of relaxtion
before re-ascending to set up Camp 3. I couldn't sleep with
the anticipation of chips and fried eggs - my favourite meal
on return from altitude! Without doubt, Dawa our cook would
have that ready for us.
It snowed all night and in the morning we were uncertain
if we'd make a go for it. After our second cup of tea, we
decided to - the eggs and chips won the day!
As usual we were not looking forward to the descent through
the ice fall. This moving river of ice has a mind of it's
own. Today, once again, it had changed completely; there
had been a few new serac falls and a lot of changes in the
crevasses. I think the biggest fear when climbing through
the Khumbu ice fall are the massive overhanging ice blocks
just waiting to tumble. Acutely aware of these dangers, Clare,
Pemba, Tenzing and
I made the journey from Camp 2 to Base
Camp in four hours.
We're all relieved to be back at Base Camp and yes, true
to form, Dawa had eggs and chips ready and waiting!
Today we met up with Samantha O'Carroll who arrived at Base
Camp while we were at Camp 2. She hopes to make her first
trip through the ice fall tomorrow.
There was an evacuation from Camp 2 today of an American
climber
with pulmonary oedema; last week, his wife, (who
was also climbing) was found to be 5 weeks pregnant - this
was the cause of her symptoms rather than AMS(!) and she
had to be evacuated also.
Clare descending into collapsed crevasse
Jumble of ice blocks to negotiate in ice-fall (Clare and
Pemba)
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Dispatch
29 - April 22
Tensions were high today as we were set to make our first
assault on the Lhotse face. Our objective was to further
improve our acclimatization at high altitude by climbing
over 1,000 feet before returning to Camp 2. The Lhotse face
is an impressive 4,000 foot wall of hard blue ice and affords
no mistakes.
The Lhotse face is also home to our next foothold on Everest
- Camp 3 at 24,000 feet. The weather so far has not been
kind to us and today we were hoping for this to change. The
Lhotse face is not a place to be caught in bad weather.
We set off at 5am in reasonable conditions; within an hour,
the winds had increased and the temperature had dropped.
With the wind chill temperatures were down to -40 degrees
Celsius. The going got tougher as we ascended the main face.
Clare was using her light weight boots and gloves and started
to feel extremely cold. We battled on for a further 2 hours;
at this stage, we decided it was safer to descend to avoid
potential complications such as frost bite. We had achieved
our objective for the day, which was to gain 1,000 feet.
Battered from the blasting winds that had rocketted the Lhotse
face, we returned to Camp satisfied though exhausted.
Approaching Lhotse face in high winds
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Dispatch
28
- April
21
Today we further acclimatized here at Camp 2, by resting
and going for
a walk up the glacier for about three hundred
feet. The winds have picked up and we are just hoping that
they will ease down for our approach to the lower regions
of the Lhotse face tomorrow. More teams are arriving
at Camp
2 now.
Working title productions, Discovery, Peak Promotions, The
Greeks, Henry Todd's Group and our own are now firmly established
here. Teams are starting to plan summit dates now. Our projected
date now looks somewhere between May 14 to May 20th, all
going well with the weather and our health.
Pat and Clare having dinner at Camp 2
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Dispatch
27 - April
20
Today
was a day to acclimatise at our rocky outcrop at Camp 2 Lowe
Alpine. Our only chore for the day was to
set up our mess tent, a North face 2- meter dome tent.
This task took just about all day; first we had to make
a level platform on the moving moraine and glacier. We
did this using a shovel, ice axes and bare hands; hard
work at altitude.
There are five of us now at Camp 2; Pemba Gyalje, Tenzing
Sherpa, Lhakpa Sherpa, Clare and myself.
As we have made this our Advance Base Camp, (having skipped
Camp One), our intention over the next few days is to
make this campsite as comfortable as possible. This will
be our jumping base to the upper reaches of Everest.
All essential equipment is now b
eing moved up from our
home at Base Camp Wyeth; it should take a further six
trips through the ice fall to fully stock Camp 2 .
The assault for the summit has begun and will take a
further four to six weeks to achieve our objectives.
Logistics and planning are now crucial to our success.
I think at this stage I should change the name of the
expedition, to the Joint Nepalese/ Irish Wyeth expedition
2004. Our sherpa team members are really behind the spirit
of our set out objectives and are
putting their full efforts behind it.
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Dispatch 26 - April
19 a push to camp 2
The frustrations of the last few days were beginning
to grind on my
nerves. Up every morning ready to go and yet another
mishap: The ice fall caved in, too much snow
and this morning it looked like it wouldn't happen again
because of high winds that buffeted Base Camp for most
of the night. But by 4:30 am they abated and we were
on our way.
This is definitely one of the most difficult days we
have. We push from Base Camp Wyeth at 17,600 feet, to
Camp 2 Lowe Alpine at 22.250 feet. This is an enormous
push of over 4500 feet in one of the most hostile places
on earth and at high altitude.
The climb through the ice fall is exhausting and we arrive
at Camp 1 in a very good time of four and three quarter
hours. We take a half an hour rest before pushing on
through the Western Cwm.
Three and a half hours later we fall into Camp 2 Lowe
Alpine, suffering from heat fatigue. We had been caught
in the oven of the Western Cwm; the intense reflected
heat from the glacier and the side walls of Nuptse, Lhotse
and Everest really made us suffer.
When we a
rrived at Camp 2 Lowe Alpine, our Sherpas were
already busy at work setting up camp. Their energy and
strength is just unbounding. I tried to help, but the
lads laughed and said 'relax for a while, we have time
before dark' and at that Tenzing poured orange juice.
By four pm we were settled with three tents errected
and a kitchen tent for cooking.
Clare retired to her tent wanting to sleep off a high
altitude headache. Tenzing cooked dinner which consisted
of mushroom soup, vegetable rice, a tin of fruit cocktail
for dessert and a cup of the best of Irish Tea,
of course
Barrys when you come from Cork!
Now we will have four nights here at Camp 2 to acclimatize
to the thin
air
before
returning
to
Base
Camp
Wyeth.
Gill
Roche,
operations
director
in
Ireland
of
The
Irish
Everest office, informs me that there is lots of support
coming through the web, e-mail and phone at the moment
and I'd like to thank you all for your good wishes
and
support. The next few weeks should be interesting,
as
we get closer to the top of the world.
Moving through broken
seracs in ice field
Walking along edge of 500 foot crevasse
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Dispatch
25 - April 18
Base
Camp Wyeth snowbound: another day of frustration
The sound of the alarm clock rings in my ear. Its 3am again
and
time to get a move on the ice fall. I know before I even
dress, that
the probability is that we will once again have
to cancel our trip.
As I move to get ready, I hit the side
of my tent and an avalanche
of snow cascades off its sides;
a sure sign that conditions are not
good for today.
I can hear Clare and the Sherpa team readying for our rendezvous
meeting in the mess tent at 3:30am. I feel like roaring to
them to go
back to bed, but they would just think I am lazy.
No other alternative
but to put on all my warm cloths and
move.
Dawa and Tenzing, our cooks, have breakfast ready for us
and as
always ensure that it's a healthy one, enabling
us to have strength for
the task ahead. Dawa believes
a good breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Today's
delight is two boiled eggs each and
rice pudding.
A general discussion about conditions over breakfast with
the rest of
the team has us all thinking the same way. It's
too dangerous, too
risky;
it would be better and safer for everyone to wait another
day for
the weather to improve.
After breakfast, everyone retires to their tent;
no hurry
in the morning - we can all sleep in. This type of situation
is always a little frustrating, but climbing Everest is
about making safe decisions, no matter how enthusiastic
you may
feel. There are too
many things outside of our control
that can go wrong.
The rest of the day was spent tiding up the mess tent and
the kitchen tent. The weather forecast looks better for
tomorrow so we are quietly optimistic that tomorrow will
allow us
to get to Camp 2.
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Dispatch
24 - April 17th
Ready to go at 4am for Camp 2, 'Lowe Alpine'. The early
start is to ensure we make it through the ice fall before
the heat of the day makes
it too unstable, - not that it
is ever very stable, as it is constantly moving.
Two hours into the climb we get news from higher on the
glacier that a massive serac fall has taken out 150 meters
of the route to Camp 2. There was no use in trying to force
our way through; it would just be too dangerous to move
through this section of unstable ice.
All climbers and Sherpas were cut off from ascending or
descending the mountain. Those below and above the break
were trapped, unable to move from their respective camps
until such a time as the route would be re-fixed. This
is a job for the ice fall doctors. Each team on the mountain
has agreed to pay a local group of Sherpas to fix and maintain
the route from Base Camp to Camp two in the best interest
of group peace between the different teams on the mountain.
In late morning, the weather deteriorated; a low front
descended on Base Camp and it began to snow. Our intention
is to try for Camp 2 again in the morning. This will depend
on the route being re-fixed and weather conditions improving.
Fingers crossed we'll be able to move.
As light entertainment for the afternoon, we set up the
computer in the mess tent and played the Imax Everest film
and Caravan for the Sherpas and ourselves just to while
away a few hours.
Whiling away the hours in the mess tent
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