Valerio Massimo Everest Expedition 2009

Hello to all from EBC – it really is good to be back.

 

Sorry I haven’t posted properly since I left up the mountain, but thank you very much to Alix’s father who posted the brief updates I called in from my Sat Phone while I was on the mountain.

 

I have to say wow, it was truly amazing to be up high on Everest, and despite the extreme cold, it was an incredible few days up high.

 

But back to our departure.  I packed heavily, trying to use this trip to take all the additional gear I would need to the eventual summit attempt, which I would stash at Camp 2.  We carry all our own equipment on Everest, so the more I carried up now, the less I would carry through the Icefall for the summit attempt.  So in the pack went my down suit, down mitts and a range of gloves, Thermarest, expedition weight thermals, Thermos, summit food, etc – all 50lbs or well over 20kgs of it.

 

We left very early on the morning of the 29^th April – up at 1.45am, breakfast at 2am, leaving camp at 2.30am and leaving ‘crampon point’ (the part of the Icefall where you need to stop and put crampons on) at 3am.  It was pitch black as we entered the famous Icefall, a line of head-torches weaving its way through massive blocks of ice, some as big as six-storey buildings, looming overhead.  Moving as quickly as possible to minimize the time in the danger zone, we slowly made our way through this impressive natural maze.  There was a tension in the air, as everyone was aware of the danger of ice blocks breaking loose and flattening us, but there was little to no talking.

 

Eventually we arrived at a section called ‘Popcorn’, which was perhaps the biggest jumble of towering blocks of ice, and a little light appeared.  After a while we reached a spot called the ‘football field’, which is the only place in the Icefall where you can stop and take a drink, but I had been warned to expect ‘trash and prayer flags’ but failing to see any visible trash I moved through the small flat area – and my chance for a drink was gone and I was getting dehydrated.  We continued up over endless chunks of ice and up and across ladders lashed together to span crevasses or to scale ice walls, until finally, after the break of dawn, we moved to the most dangerous section which hugs Everest’s West Shoulder, and where we had to pass under a huge overhanging serac, waiting to fall (it did a few days later when we passed through again – see below) – we moved swiftly through the section and onto the flat area which signifies the top of the Icefall.  After a twenty minute traverse up and over the icefield we arrived at Camp 1 at 6,100 meters, at 6.45am – it had taken us roughly 3.45hrs to climb the Khumbu Icefall for the first time.

 

At Camp 1 we piled in to the single dome tent that had been erected, and as climbers and sherpas trickled into camp it got pretty crowded – by 8am there must have been 25 of us in the tent.  I drank for the first time since leaving Base Camp, and my body came alive as I rapidly rehydrated.  The guides wanted to wait for everyone to rehydrate and rest before deciding who was strong enough to head on straight up to Camp 2, only a further 300 vertical meters higher, but the entire length of the Western Cwm at the foot of the Southwest Face of Everest and the Lhotse Face.  Eventually, 5 out of our group of 14 climbers in Team 1 decided to press on, myself included.

 

So we plastered sun cream on every single bare piece of skin and set off for Camp 2, up what has been termed ‘Heartbreak Hill’ given the relentless uphill and circuitous route it takes up the Cwm.  My heavy pack was beginning to really wear me down, and I found myself hitching it up constantly and putting more weight onto my thumbs, to relieve my shoulders.  After about two hours we hit camp, but of course Russell’s was the furthest up the glacier – almost another hour to be precise – great if you are leaving camp heading up, not so great at the end of a long slog.  Finally, the tents came into sight, and soon I dumped my pack outside the mess tent and dove inside for a drink and respite from the searing heat, which was by now roasting the Cwm.

 

So we were here, at 6,400 meters.  We spent the afternoon resting and dined early, and it was so cold that we had to wear our full down suits for dinner and to sleep in, although Russell’s tight sleeping bags meant they had to be draped over us rather than allowing us to fit inside. 

 

The next morning the rest of Team 1 arrived, having spent the night at Camp 1, and we spent another two days resting and acclimatising – reading books, snoozing – and generally getting used to the altitude.  My already feeble appetite slipped further away.

 

On the morning over the 2^nd April we rose at 4am with the idea of leaving camp for the Lhotse Face at 5am.  Without an alarm I overslept by half an hour, and in the freezing cold rushed to get ready.  It was all a bit haphazard and I only managed to grab a quick hot drink for breakfast.  As we left the camp in single file, someone pointed out that my rucksack didn’t look as if it had a Thermarest in it – he was right.  So I stopped to pack it, and rushed to catch up with the group.  Once I reached crampon point 10 minutes later, I realized that I had laid down my helmet at my tent – so I had to go back and get it.  Eventually I left 20 minutes after everyone else, cursing my own late wake up.  I caught up with the back of the group within the first hour on the Face itself and passed four or five people.  It was steep, often blue ice, consistently between 45-60 degrees gradient.

 

As I moved up the face I felt the increased altitude but continued the repetitive climb higher, moving past another one of two of our group until only four were visible ahead.  Eventually after 3.40hrs of uphill grind, I reached the site of Camp 3, but of course as usual Russell had placed our camp another hour further up.  After scaling a 40ft blue ice-wall I sensed the camp must be near, but it hid itself until I was almost upon it.  Soon after I was finally at Himex Camp 3 – it had taken 4hrs and 40 mins.

 

Camp 3 is exposed, and our tent was at the end of the line, cut into the ice of the steep face.  I began to melt snow for drinks for the remaining climbers to arrive and there was a lot of activity, with tent platforms being cut and tents erected.  Eventually our tent was up and we piled in, and I continued the painful task of melting snow as a full blizzard rolled in.

 

I continued to task of getting bottles of water ready for myself and my tentmate, but the cold was now biting, and given our tent was on the end of a row we got spindrift in the vestibule, despite it being closed.  It took 2hrs to melt a litre of water due to the altitude. 

 

Soon enough, and after a brief sleep, the sun set, Everest’s mass blocking it out early, and the temperature fell sharply.  I felt fine at this altitude, unlike others who were feeling the signs of Acute Mountain Sickness common at this altitude – fatigue, headaches, nausea and dizziness.  I was very, very cold.  The kind of cold where you take your gloves off for ten seconds and they feel immediately frostbitten – it wasn’t enough to put the gloves straight back on, I had to put my hands in my armpits for a few minutes before I could put my gloves back on again.  I put on every stitch of clothing I had with me under my down suit, my hat on, my gloves on, and squeezed into my sleeping bag – it was a small size and came up to my waist.  The miserable night began.

 

The floor of the tent once again was completely uneven, with half melon lumps of ice digging into various parts of my body as I tried to curl into various different positions to sleep.  Sleep was very fitful and the night endless.  We were due to get up at 6.30am and leave for the descent to Camp 2 at 7.30am.   I got up – very unusually – at 5.30am and began to melt snow, moving to try and capture any warmth at all.  Outside it was beginning to blow a gale and I wanted to get down.  Then it was announced that we wouldn’t set off until 8.30am – it was frustrating. 

 

Eventually we left for the descent in the teeth of a storm, the steps from the previous day covered by snow and the cold biting.  Down we went, arm-wrapping some ropes, abseiling others – down and down without stopping, until two and half hours later we reached the bergshund (the massive crevasse at the foot of the face) – we were finally off the face and it was a half an hour walk into camp, with the wind speed still increasing.  I arrived encrusted in frost, my beard frozen, and piled into the mess tent.

 

During the afternoon the weather gradually cleared and we prepared to spend another night at altitude before the descent in the morning to the comforts of Base Camp.  After another bitterly cold night we left at 7am and by 8am we were at Camp 1 and ready to enter the Icefall.  This time we were travelling during the day, and we descended as quickly as possible.  As we neared the foot of the Icefall, two massive avalanches broke off the side of Everest five minutes apart, thundering into the Icefall and covering it, and over the area where we had passed through only an hour before.  A guide and two of the climbers from our group were in the area at the time and as the first avalanche came straight at them the guide shouted ‘take cover’ – one of the climbers was crossing a ladder at the time which must have been terrifying.  As the second avalanche hit, the guide shouted ‘unclip and run’, but both avalanches just left the climbers plastered in snow and unhurt – a very lucky escape for everyone and, as I’ve said before – a real reminder of how dangerous it really is.

 

Soon we were back at crampon point and, after a brief rest, we began the 20 minute walk back to our Base Camp.  We were back in one piece.

 

Alix arrived at Base Camp an hour later, which was wonderful – the first time I’d seen her in five weeks. We spent the rest of the day resting.  I should have posted, but was exhausted.

 

Everyone immediately recovered from any signs of AMS with the drop in altitude back to 5,300 meters, but one climber suffered mild frostbite on one finger which he will have to nurse carefully before we can go up again.

 

For the past few days we have had mixed weather, which didn’t enable me to get my solar panels out and therefore charge up all my equipment to post.  The sun has now returned briefly, so here I am again.

 

Yesterday we continued to rest and I finally tackled my beard – after two hours of wrestling with it rather painfully, I was clean-shaven once more – details for another post!

 

Patience is now key until we find out when weather conditions are right to leave for the summit attempt.

 

More updates and photos from Alix’s travels to Gokyo Ri and over the Cho La pass will be next.

 

Over and out from EBC.

 

 

 

 

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