Valerio Massimo Everest Expedition 2009

Hello to all from EBC.

 

Well back to mountaineering from yesterday’s cricket diversion, and to what I did over the weekend….

 

On Friday we trekked the 12km down to Lobuche Base Camp to spend the night.  The lower altitude – 4,850 meters – was noticeable and I slept like a log.  On Saturday we climbed up to Lobuche col at 5,200 meters and we did it quickly, arriving shortly after 11am, so we had the whole day to lounge around, make lunch, and keep ourselves constantly hydrated, which is crucial at altitude.  In practice when you are up the mountain in tents this means melting snow – slowly and constantly – over a small primus stove.  I ate two portions of my trusted high altitude ‘tortellini with cream’, most of which I am saving for the high camps on Everest.  Delicious – it was the most I had eaten in days.

 

I hardly got a wink of sleep as the tent was not pitched flat on the col.  We ‘woke’ at 4.30am for a 5.30am start.  Our first job was to melt water to drink so we both lurched forward in our sleeping bags to light the stove we had filled with snow before going to sleep.  It takes a lot of time to get ready to break out of the tents at altitude – it is cold, dark and uncomfortable.  A hot drink each later and after fumbling to get dressed we were out of the tents putting on harnesses and crampons.  It was a beautiful morning with very little wind, and a blanket of clouds filling the valley.

 

We left at 5.45am.  We had been warned by the earlier group that the climb was a lot harder and longer than anticipated, and soon three of us went into a lead and tried to get into a rhythm, but the ice was steep and fluted, making for large, thigh burning steps.  Getting into a rhythm was impossible.  We climbed steadily upwards, without any rest stops, save for one forced stop where an ice screw has come loose and needed to be replaced.  I took advantage to plaster on sun cream and drink.

 

At around 8am we crested the final ridge to the false summit, which had loomed up above looking like the real summit all morning, but we knew different.  Once we got there the final narrow summit ridge revealed itself, with the summit itself as a large, overhanging cornice, which meant that once we reached the summit we would be sitting on an overhanging block of ice, not rock!  It is only from below that you can see it.

 

By 8.45am we were on the summit at 6,119 meters and it was beautiful, windless, with a 360 degree panorama of Everest, Lhotse, Cho Oyu and Makalu – four 8,000s in one view.  Amazing.  We spent an hour and a quarter on the summit, before the laborious descent to the col where we packed up our tents and descended all the way to Lobuche Base Camp for lunch.  Suffering slightly from food coma and sore legs, at about 2pm, two of us decided to make the arduous trek back to Everest Base Camp the same day, while the rest of the team remained.  The trek up seemed endless, with every moraine hill leading to another, and another…  After 12km of constant up and down and a total of 450 meters of height gain, we walked wearily into camp at around 5pm.

 

So that was Sunday.  I vowed it would be my last trip up and down the glacier, until of course I was corralled on Monday by Russell to walk down again for the cricket (see yesterday’s post).  I longed for a rest day, but yesterday was our team’s turn to spend hours practicing the ladders and ice techniques again.  By yesterday evening I was looking forward to at least a full days rest tomorrow – given there were no plan it seemed a dead cert.  However, as yesterday was the end of the ‘circuit’, the guides had a meeting to discuss revised teams and the plan for the next few days, which Russell announced in the white pod after dinner.

 

I was hoping for some rest and then to go up through the Icefall, although I feared the worst as the Icefall has had four major collapses over the past three days due to the high temperatures, with many climbers coming within a whisker of getting flattened.  We all gathered in the white pod and Russell announced the plan.  He said he was aware that most people did not want to go back down the valley to climb Lobuche Peak again (this time to camp higher on the summit ridge), but that the guides had unanimously decided that it was safer, and therefore the first group would leave…today.

 

This time, having observed everyone on the first climb, the guides have organized the groups according to speed and I am in Team 1 (or Lions), who leave……TODAY.  This means I don’t get the rest day I so badly wanted, but there you go.

 

So we leave in half an hour for ANOTHER trek down to Lobuche BC, spend tonight night there, and then tomorrow (Thursday) climb all the way from Base Camp at 4,850 meters, though the col, and up to the summit, below which the tents will be pitched, all in one push – 1,300 meters of altitude gain on difficult terrain…  We then plan to wake up on Friday on the summit ridge (having spent our first night above 6,000 meters), and descend all the way back to Lobuche BC for lunch, and then make the murderous climb back to Everest Base Camp the same day.  I swear this will be my last trip up and down this valley.

 

So I will be away until Friday and not posting, but Alix has flown in to Lukla and begun her trek, so she should be posting in my absence.

 

So once more down the valley….once more….

 

BTW the beard is growing rapidly and is incredibly unflattering, but I have vowed to keep it until Alix gets here, despite the blog campaign…

 

See you all on Friday – I will try and post something if I have the energy when I get back on Friday afternoon.

 

 

 

 

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