Hey Everybody, I apologize for not updating the blog in so long but I hope to be updating again soon. After spending a week acclimatizing at Base Camp the team got ready to hike up to Advanced Base Camp.
The walk to Advanced Base Camp was broken into two days to cover the 15 miles and 1200m of elevation gain. As I have for the whole expedition, I took my place in the back of the pack and took my time hiking up to Interim Camp which is placed halfway between Base Camp and Advanced Base Camp. It took about 6 or 7 hours before I made it to Interim Camp. Camp was very basic and was just used to give us a place to sleep for the night before finishing the hike the following morning. It was another 7 hours of slow hiking before I arrived in Advanced Base Camp and weather turned bad about 30 minutes out. The wind picked up, it started to snow and it got bitterly cold.
At ABC I felt the elevation gain immediately just walking 20 yards from the mess tent to my tent. After 2 rest days I was better acclimatized to the height of ABC and things got a little easier. On this trip up to ABC the goal was to reach the top of the North Col and then return back to BC for 5 days rest. The route up the North Col is fixed with ropes anchored into the ice and to climb it you use an ascender and back-up safety devices in case of a slip or fall. It was a long, hard day climbing the North Col and at 7000m my muscles were screaming for oxygen.
Climbing the fixed ropes was good experience and kept the climbing interesting because you are always unclipping and clipping into new ropes and it requires constant attention. There were a few crevasses to cross and two of the larger ones were rigged up with ladders to allow for a safer crossing. On the steeper sections it became one step to 15 seconds of rest but I finally made it up, took a few photos and some video footage and headed right back down. The way down took about 30 minutes using a technique called abseiling and an hour after that I was back in Advanced Base Camp for a good meal and some hot drinks. We were lucky with good weather the whole day and that made things a lot easier. The rest of that day was spent resting and in the morning I left at 8am and got back to Base Camp at 12 noon to a relatively rich oxygen level and the comforts of Base Camp.
At Base Camp the shower heater was broken but I got a pail of hot water from the Sherpa cooks and made my own shower out of that. Getting clean is one of the best feelings here and putting on clean clothes is a huge morale booster. You can wash dirty clothes in buckets and then hang the wet clothes on your tent to dry during the day. I'm spending the days in Base Camp here resting and eating as much as I can to restore my energy levels.
Right now it looks like I'll be heading back up to Advanced Base Camp on Thursday, take a rest day Friday, climb back up to the North Col Saturday and sleep there, climb to 7500m Sunday, return to the North Col to sleep and then descend to Advanced Base Camp on Monday, and finally come back to Base Camp on Tuesday. From there I will be ready for my summit bid and will just be waiting for a favorable weather window. Not much exciting is happening here at Base Camp, although we did get a new toilet tent today because one of our two was in pretty rough shape so that’s good. I am running dangerously low on beef jerky but I have plenty of chocolate bars left to hold me over.
Unfortunately yesterday we received word that there was an avalanche on the North Col. Details aren't completely clear yet but it is thought that there was at least one fatality, but I'd rather not speculate and wait until the real information comes through. You can read about deaths and accidents on Mt. Everest all you want but yesterday I had a real weird feeling knowing that this occurred in a place I had been only a few days before and being on the mountain makes you feel a whole lot closer to the tragedy. My condolences to the families and I hope there are no more accidents this season. Well, I'm feeling strong and looking forward to getting back up on the mountain and ticking off the next objective of this trip. Thanks for checking in, Max!
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Keep up the good work Max. Everyone is thinking about you. Wish we could send you some jerky but you'd be a grandfather by the time you received it.
ReplyDeletehey bud it is me Joe bud keep up the good work everyone is proud and ps BJ Penn Lost hahahaha. well man its good you are having a great time your a good man my family says great job too man. have a great day
ReplyDeleteA Holy Cow in a mailbox trumps ice in a tent anyday! Oliver
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