Base Camp Everest. May 7th
Bill Allen
Ephi, Neal, Chris, and I descended through the Khumbu Ice again this morning after 6 nights up at Camp 2. The rest of the team (Scott, Gregg, Irek, and Newall) are putting in their sixth night up high tonight, and will be back down here in the land of oxygen tomorrow.
It really feels good to be down here in the luxury of base camp. We had a beautiful morning, and the winds that have been forecasted have arrived and will likely put any summit plans on hold for at least a few days. We saw some beautiful cloud formations up on the top of Everest and Lhotse as the sun came up this morning. We generally get a pretty early start whenever we are going through the icefall to pass between the frozen blocks of ice while it is still cold. Chris and Neal will be posting some pics of their ski on the Lhotse face soon, it is a big face, and a bold ski, and very well done by both of them.
The shadow of Mt Everest in the clouds this morning. The wind was ripping up high as we left Camp 2 early this morning creating some interesting cloud formations over the high peaks.
Da Ongchuu Sherpa holds the ropes while Ephi crosses one of the dozens of small ladder sections in the Icefall.
We’re planning on heading down even lower in the valley to the village of Dingboche and our favorite lodge, the Snow Lion for a couple of days now. The oxygen down lower really helps to recover, and the bakery and sun room help as well. The main focus for the next few days will just be to relax and recover some of our strength (and weight). Acclimating to these extreme high altitudes is a balancing act, the longer we stay up high the more acclimated we become, but we also become physically tired and weaker with each day. Now that we’ve acclimated, it’s time to rest up. Our Sherpa team will take advantage of a chance to go down to Dingboche as well to recuperate a bit after putting in a couple of huge days of work hauling loads up to the S. Col.
We’ll be closely watching the weather forecasts from here on out and looking for a good chance to summit some time after the middle of May.
That’s all for tonight from Everest Base Camp.
