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Text
from
Pat
-
May
5
The team have today reached Camp 3 Spórt Corrán Tuathail at a
height of 24,500ft. thus achieving a crucial milestone in our attampt on the
peak.
We now intend to retreat all the way back to the base of the mountain to rest
and recover in the highest village in the area, Dingboche. Amidst this lower
altitude and richer air, we will prepare for our push to the summit. This will
take us through our earlier camps to High Camp Wyeth on the South Col of Everest
at 26,000ft and thereafter on the South East Ridge on our way to the top.
This push will only be made following receipt of a clear weather window to
allow an opportunity to climb the technically difficult ground on the upper
reaches of the mountain. It is presently planned for May 20th
or so.
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Text
from
Pat
-
May
3
After getting an updated forecast today, there seems to be a break in
the weather
on Wednesday. A decision has been made to take a
chance and leave Base Camp
Wyeth early and make for Camp 2
Lowe Alpine. After a few hours rest there,
and with favourable weather, we intend to then make a push for Camp 3 Spórt
Corrán Tuathail.
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Dispatch
39
- May 2
Due
to heavy
winds and
bad weather
forecast that
has wind
chill factors down to – 40 degrees Celsius at Camp
Lowe Alpine. We have not being able to move from our
current position at Camp Lowe Alpine at 22,250 feet for
the last
four days.
It is with great difficulty and indeed sadness that we
have had to make
a decision to retreat to Base camp Wyeth
and make a further two adventures through the dangerous
ice fall and the Western Cwm,
before our final summit attempt
as we once again will try and establish and sleep at Camp
3 at 24,000 feet, a challenge not relished.
Staying at this altitude at Camp 2 for any longer would
be fruitless.
We have decided to return to Base Camp Wyeth
to recover from the hammering of high wind as Camp 2
and deteriorating conditions on our bodies and have postponed
our attempt to establish Camp Spórt Corrán
Tuathail on the Lhotse face for a few days until we receive
better wind forecast.
Above 20,000 feet the body cannot recover, due to the altitude.
This effects the body in many ways. Our thinking becomes
slower and impaired, our heart rate increases to 130 resting,
to breathe we burn 6000 calories and the oxygen we receive
is down to less than 50% of that at sea level. To stay
knowing the bad weather forecast would only be self defeating,
so we have chosen to make the long descent in high winds
back to Base Camp.
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Dispatch 38 - May 1
The bad news for the day is, that the weather is going
to get worse and this is likely to last for a further four
days.
What was meant to be a four day outing to set up Camp
(3) Spórt Corrán Tuathail is turning into
a mammoth trip just to get it established. It now may
take eight
to ten days as the weather pins us down at Camp (2) Lowe
Alpine. Listening to the winds beating against our tent
is enough to drive even the most level headed person
crazy. The constant sound of wind hurdling on the ridges
above
is like the sound of a train passing you in a station
at high speed and not stopping... but the train has an
endless
supply of carriages!
We arrived here at Camp (2) Lowe Alpine on the 28th April
with great enthusiasm. Though exhausted, we looked forward
to taking a rest day and then moving through to Camp
(3) Spórt Corrán Tuathail. Our plan was
to establish camp on the icey Lhotse face, have a night
there to acclimatize
and get back to Base to prepare for our summit bid.
Now, with no end in sight to the bad weather and our energy
being depleted from the altitude, it is a major decision
what's best to do next. There is no easy solution. No matter
which decision we make, our strength will be affected.
On the North side of Everest, I have sat out weather conditions
like this for two weeks at a time and it didn't affect
my strength when it came to a summit push. I was lucky
then.
It's amazing just to watch the winds from our Camp 2 -
stripping Everest of the snow that was attached to it.
It is now back to being a Black Pyramid and the Lhotse
face looks awesome as it is stripped back to blue ice all
the way from Camp 2 to Camp 3.
We will sit and wait to see what our radio contact will
bring at 6pm from Base Camp Wyeth.
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Dispatch 37 - April 30th
Clare and I have decided to give it a further day at Camp
(2) Lowe Alpine.
While our Sherpas have taken the opportunity to push with
loads to Camp 3 and then help out at fixing ropes with
10 other Sherpas across the Lhotse face to the infamous
yellow band and on to the South Col.
Without doubt these are the most enthuasthic Sherpas that
I have had in
all of my expeditions to the Himalayas. They are as excited
at the idea of getting to the summit as we are.
Clare and I are acclimatising to our lofty position at
Camp (2) Lowe
Alpine; the trick is to avoid burning ourselves out too
soon and here at
this altitude it is so easy. We are resting and eating,
trying to recover from our long ascent the other day
from Base Camp Wyeth. As you can imagine it is not easy
trying
to file reports back from this height.
Today, to amuse ourselves, we are sitting outside our mess
tent and looking up at the mighty Lhotse face and to
our goal for tomorrow -
Camp 3 (Camp Spórt Corrán
Tuathail) at 24,000 feet.
If we achieve this, it will give us a firm grip on the
mountain for our
summit attempt. Camp 3 is daunting when you look at
it from Camp 2. As you look up the Lhotse face from
Camp
(2) Lowe Alpine; it appears steep and dangerous. 4,000
feet
of blue ice with an unrelenting slope of 60 degrees,
right in the centre is Camp (3) Spórt Corrán
Tuathail which is etched from the slope of steep hard
blue ice.
A fall on this face is likely to be fatal as to successfully
ice axe arrest here would
be virtually impossible.
Tomorrow, all going well, we will try to overnight at Camp
3. This will
give us a firm hold on the mountain for our final summit
assault.
The Sherpas had a hard day today as the winds above Camp
(2) Lowe Alpine were 60-70 miles/hr.
Base camp tonight confirmed our worst expectations - that
the jet stream winds are approaching Everest.
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Dispatch 36 - April 29
Exhausted from the labour of our
efforts of pushing from Base Camp Wyeth to Camp (2)
Lowe Alpine, we relax and try to acclimatise
to the thin air.
Clare isn't feeling great today and we decide it's prudent
to wait for
another day. The one thing you need to learn about high
altitude
mountaineering is that success is patience.
All our Sherpas are now at Camp (2) Lowe Alpine, ready
for our
approach on Camp 3 Spórt Corrán Tuathail.
A
brief discussion with Pemba and he agrees with the plan
of waiting
another day.
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Dispatch 35 - April 28
A good morning for our journey from Base Camp Wyeth to
Camp 2 Lowe Alpine, over 4500 feet above. We are hoping
this will be our second last time to ascend though the
infamous ice fall. Hopefully the next time it will be our
last as we try for the summit.
This time we did some filming as we progressed through
to Camp 2 for our short film. Pemba has been
trained in as a camera man and his enthusiasm, as with
everything
he does, is most impressive.
Pemba used the Sony VX 2000 and I a smaller Sony
camera. No big budget like the Discovery Channel,
or the David
Breashers film, based
on the film "Into Thin
Air".
After 5 hours we arrived at Camp 1, which was good going,
considering that we did a lot of filming in the ice fall.
Then a further 3 gruelling hours of pushing through the
Western Cwm as the sun beat down on us. We got grossly
dehydrated from the heat and arrived at Camp 2, totally
exhausted from the rigours of the day. Clare had a bad
headache after the push from Camp 1 to 2.
We are now well established at Camp (2) Lowe Alpine. We
have three North
Face VE25
tents as well as a 2-metre North Face Dome Tent
and a large mess tent for the team.
All oxygen and tents for the remaining camps are now
in place as well as most of the food for our summit attempt.
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Dispatch 34 - April 27
We spent most of today making the final preparations for
our ascent to Camp 3. Making sure the oxygen bottles
and regulators were in perfect working order before being
transported
to Camp 2 Lowe Alpine by our climbing Sherpas;
Lhakpa, Jangbu, Lama and Nangbi. We are feeling quite relaxed
and well
prepared at this stage but there is still so much
to organise before heading up to the higher camps where
forgetting
any of our vital equipment and supplies is not
an option.
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Dispatch 33 - April 26
We spend most of this afternoon preparing food supplies
for the higher camps. Boxes of chocolate bars, energy bars,
sweets, nuts, coffee, tea and energy drinks were spread
out on a large plastic sheet outside our mess tent to be
sorted out by Pemba and Dawa. Different combinations of
foods had to be packed carefully depending on which camp
they were destined for. Such foods are extremely important
to sustain our energy at the higher camps. It is also very
important to pack our favourite treats for the higher camps
where eating can become difficult as our appetites can
become suppressed at high altitude.
In the evening we had some more visitors for dinner. Luanne
from the HRA and Lincoln from Peak Promotion. As usual
Dawa and Rinji prepared a wonderful meal and we all had
a great evening exchanging stories and chatting until very
late. Lincoln and Luanne were anxious about getting back
to their camp safely in the dark. Even with head torches
the journey across base camp over snow-covered boulders
and rocks is not for the faint hearted! We offered them
a tent for the night but they declined and headed out into
the freezing darkness back to their own camp, careful not
to stumble over any sleeping yaks!
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Dispatch 32 - April 25
Our base camp support team consisting
of Adrian Rahill and Sheila Kavanagh finally arrived this
afternoon
accompanied by their guide Pasang Rinji Sherpa. We were
about to
send out a search party when they popped their heads
into the
warmth of our mess tent. Outside, the snow was still
falling heavily and after we exchanged some welcoming
hugs Dawa
brought us some hot Sherpa tea. Adrian and Sheila were
accompanied by Dara Scott from Galway whom they met
in Kathmandu a few days earlier. It's always nice
to meet people from home so we invited him to join
us at base
camp for the night. Tim Orr had already arrived an
hour earlier and also joined us for the night at base camp
before heading back down to Kathmandu. He and Pasang
Rinji Sherpa
are planning to explore a little more of the area as
well as do a little climbing before they have to be
in
Kathmandu
by mid May. Tim will also be exploring Imja Tse and
its surroundings in preparation for a climb of the 20,305ft
peak towards the end of May.
We had a great evening at Base Camp Wyeth with the new
arrivals and all the visitors. Dawa and Rinji prepared
a delicious, sizzling meal for everyone and afterwards
we had a sing-song. Tim played the guitar, ignoring the
snapping strings as he went along and still managed to
produce some wonderful tunes despite the fact that he was
now down to only three strings!
We ended the evening with a hilarious DVD of Billy Connolly.
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Dispatch 31 - April 24
We returned to Base Camp Wyeth from Camp 2 Lowe Alpine
this morning for a few days rest before our ascent to Camp
3 in the next few days. We had a visit from a number of
trekkers from the UK but apart from that we used this day
to relax and take it easy. In the evening we took some
time to unwind and watched a movie on DVD.
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