Today was a rest day in BC. I never realize at the time how much being up high is taking out of me. I did not feel well at all so I wondered up to the Himalayan Rescue Association tent and got a check out. This is the best deal on the mountain. You make [...]
I have spent the last three nights at Camp I and Camp II after making my first foray through the ice fall. This is always one of the hardest parts of the climb. Your body has not really had time to acclimatize to BC yet at 17,500. C1 is at about 19,500 and C2 is [...]
Base Camp is going to the dogs. Last night I heard the first dog barking in BC. At some point every year they will follow climbers to BC and then hang around until the season ends. In 2006 we actually had one dog follow us all the way to C2 including crossing the ladders. He [...]
Snowed again last night. We have settled into the standard Everest weather pattern of clear and bright in the morning and cloudy, windy and snowy in the afternoon. For a while yesterday afternoon we had “snow thunder”. Just like a good ole Georgia thunderstorm with lightening and thunder except it is snowing and you generally [...]
I hope you will extend to me a point of personal privilege to deviate slightly from the climbing blog as today is a very special day for me. It is a rare confluence of circumstances that allow one to even attempt a mountain like Everest. You have to have the financial resources, good health, time [...]
It is Saturday morning in the Khumbu. Took a long hike yesterday afternoon. We stumbled on the raised grave of a climber from Kazakhstan who died on Everest a couple of days after we came down from our summit push in 2009. It was somewhat hidden and I am not sure the authorities even know [...]
I am sitting here listening to all the small streams running through base camp. An hour ago they were frozen solid. My tent will go from 0 degrees at night to 100 degrees during the day. It is like a sauna without the steam. Human Corning Ware – out of the freezer and into the [...]
Another beautiful morning at Base Camp. Our BC manager, Pertemba Sherpa, managed to round up some ladders for the people new to Everest to practice on. Everest is approached up the Khumbu glacier. A glacier is a moving river of ice. The Khumbu at times and places is moving about a meter (roughly three feet) [...]
The morning was clear and calm this morning. I got up early to make a phone call and then spent the an hour wondering through BC. The sky starts getting light about 5:30 but the sun did not hit our spot in Camp until 7:38 this morning. That is the most important number in my [...]
Arrived at Base Camp yesterday. It was only a four hike but it is up and down, up and down with the tents never seeming to get any closer. Last night was as I expected: temps in the teens, low saturation (sat) rates, racing pulse and general lethargy. Sat rate is the percentage of O2 [...]