No, not emotionally; but physically! From now until we attempt to summit on May 25th, our team will be moving from Base Camp to Camp I, to Camp II, to Camp III, back to Base Camp, then to a village below Base Camp, back to Base Camp to Camp II, to Camp III, to Camp IV – then, finally – Summit to 29,035 feet!
This means for the next 2 weeks, we move up and down in the name of heavy oxygen and “fixing lines” above Camp II. This “Camp Dance” depends upon the Chinese reaching the summit with the Olympic torch on the north side (maybe happening as I speak) and of course on Mother Nature – the weather.
Military guards have been hanging out at base camp for some time now. The reason is to keep anyone from moving up the south side of Mt. Everest before the torch reaches the top from the north approach. The command to “shoot to kill” seems pretty extreme with a bunch of people who are just wanting to climb.
The weather is a big topic every day. For example, today we will climb once again in the Khumbu Ice Fall. Kent told me that it’s necessary to start this climb early, around 4:00 am before the ice heats up creating shifts making crossing ladders more precarious. This is easy for me since I’m an “early bird”, but for many climbers it’s not easy especially if it falls next to a night of bad sleeping.
Jim, a team member who is keeping a fantastic blog, tells it like this:
Climbing through the Icefall is a little weird. It is as hard going down as it is up, there are significant obstacles (crevasse crossing, vertical wall to rappel down, a ledge to traverse, etc.) to clear nearly every fifty feet (no exaggeration), it is amazing beautiful, but also deadly. Whereas the nights have been cold, the days have been unseasonably warm. Warm = more ice movement = greater risk. So, you basically race through the Icefall as fast as you can, to the point where I want to take tons of pictures but instead keep moving to reduce the time spent in this beautiful but dangerous land. The reward for a safe descent is the comfort of base camp… we had intended to breathe the thicker air here for several days before climbing up again.
Jim’s blog has been fun for armchair travelers (www.mounteverest2008.com) – see April 5th about Kent and his previous attempt and check out all the videos (also one of Kent grinding buckwheat!). (Note: Thanks to Ken Maudsley and the Communications Team of “Mount Everest 2008″ for all photos!)
Tags: China, Khumbu Icefall, Mt. Everest, Olympic Torch
