Valerio Massimo Everest Expedition 2009

Hello to all from EBC.

Well I was supposed to post again on Friday, but frankly, could not be bothered and have spent a very relaxing ‘weekend’ doing precisely nothing, on Russell’s orders of course.

Anyway back to where I left off.  On Wednesday we trekked the 12km down to Lobuche Base Camp again.  The reason I hate this so much is that the trail is so dusty, and dust = mainly pulverised yak shit.  This is what you can’t help inhaling, and is the reason for the cough I’ve had when I’ve been down there.  I’ve been lucky enough not to get ill so far, but there is no avoiding that dust, try as I might with a bandana over my mouth and nose.

We eventually rolled into Lobuche BC and had a rather raucous dinner (it was just boys for once) that was, erm, not very intellectual and involved lots of filthy stories, mountaineering and otherwise, including the one about one of the guides tent-mates who went outside at Camp 4 on summit night to ‘do a number 2’, and came back into the tent whereupon his tent-mate was almost sick from the smell.  Apparently the turd in question was ‘homesick’ – he had laid it in the hood of his downsuit as he bent over in the wind.  I am taking Imodium on summit night as there is no way I am going to the loo at 8,000 meters…

The next morning we started the climb – all 1,300 meters of it – to the summit of Lobuche Peak, by-passing the old Camp 1 site on the col and pushing straight up the mountain.  Chris my tent-mate and I had been asked to slow down, both to perfect our technique for the Icefall, but really so that the Discovery cameraman Jamie could take some footage of us, as each time we have climbed we have left the film crew behind.  So slow down we did, and it was a very leisurely climb to the summit and then to the site of Camp 2, which had been cut into the knife-edge summit ridge (see below).

We got there by around midday so had the whole rest of the day to melt snow and generally pass the time.  Being on a sharp ridge we had to clip into a rope if we left the tents, otherwise a slip could mean a long 1,000 meter plus ride down to the glacier.  The lack of any sort of communal area kept everyone in their tents, with the only communication being the odd shout or lobbed snowball.  The views from the tent, however, were spectacular (see photo).  As the afternoon crept on it began to get very cold and by 6pm I had eaten by boil in the bag Pad Thai (no precious pasta this time) and settled into my sleeping bag for the night.

This is where I regretted not bringing my Thermarest.  A Thermarest is a small, inflatable mattress, which helps with comfort and insulation from the cold.  I thought I would try a night without it and just rely on Russell’s thin foam mats.  Big mistake.  Given we were the first team to try this camp, we were the first to discover its niggles.  Our tent floor was NOT flat, but was instead full of bumps, which as night fell became hard ice and impossible to flatten.  With one of Russ’s sleeping bags (not the warmest), I could actually feel the cold ice beneath me.  Much as I tried to sleep I could not.  It wasn’t the altitude – I felt fine on that front – but the cold and discomfort that made it a long, sleepless night.  I almost ranted out loud in frustration, as whichever way I turned, my hip would rub against another half melon sized lump of ice.  When you start your night at 7pm, it is a long, long time until sunrise…  It was also a bitterly cold night, and everything inside the tents that wasn’t in the sleeping bags froze or was dusted in frost – it must have been minus 25 centigrade.  Next time I go up the mountain, I am taking my Thermarest, and ideally my own sleeping bag…

Dawn came at 6am and we hastily got ready to descend.  It was still cold as we re-attached harnesses and put on cold boots and crampons.  I was in a rush to get out of there.  Cold soon turned into heat as the movement warmed up my body and I down-climbed in direct sunlight, despite the early hour.  By 8am I was at the col and by 8.45 I was back at Lobuche BC.  We had a brief breakfast and then headed up to Everest Base Camp.  I took the walk at a very leisurely pace, walking with a female teammate and stopping off at Gorak Shep internet café for a drink and a bit of surfing.

Since we were the first team back, the order was to rest until further notice.  So lots of rest, naps, snacking, and movies in the evening after dinner.  Even though we have been at Base Camp or above since the 9^th April, we are still acclimatizing, our bodies gradually producing more and more oxygen efficient red blood cells, so it is all beneficial.  As with every expedition to the Himalaya, especially Everest, the mantra is ‘Hurry up and wait’.

Yesterday afternoon a massive serac fall came crashing down the Icefall, giving Base Camp a dusting – another reminder of the dangers of where we are heading in the next few days.

Tonight Russ is throwing a party in the white pod or ‘Tiger Dome’ has become known.  This is part to celebrate the start of the new calendar month for the sherpas, part to celebrate the end of Phase 1 of our acclimatisation, and part just to let the team relax.  It is also logistically probably the last time we (climbers, guides, sherpas) will all be in camp at the same time until the end of the expedition, so another good reason.  If stories from past expeditions are to be believed, it should be a rather raucous affair.

The guides are meeting today to discuss the plan for the next stage of our acclimatization, which will involve a 5/6 day round trip up through the Icefall, to Camp 1, Camp 2, and Camp 3 at 7,400 meters smack bang in the middle of the Lhotse Face, before returning to Base Camp.  We are likely to be grouped into two teams from the previous three for this phase, with the first group leaving in a few days time.

The beard has now progressed to a ridiculously unflattering stage – I actually have to cut it with scissors as it is getting so long.  However, the blog campaign to shave it has taken a turn, with a few recent posts in favour.  We’ll see when Alix gets here as I am looking more like a Yeti every day.

So more news tomorrow morning after the party.

Namaste to you all on this Monday morning.

Camp 2 on the summit ridge with the summit shrouded in cloud

The inside of our tent at Camp 2

The view from the back flap of our tent - the Everest massif

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After several unexpected adventures, my mother and I are enjoying our first rest day in Namche Bazaar, the gorgeous capital of the region. 

To start at the beginning, my mother was meant to arrive in Kathmandu (directly from a wedding on the Isle of Wight) Tuesday afternoon for a leisurely dinner and last chance to shop before we set off for Lukla and the beginning of our two week trek to EBC.  All seemed well as her plane descended towards the runway despite strong winds, but at the very last minute the plane violently shuddered and the pilot revved the jets and took off again without any explanation. They eventually landed at Dhaka, an hour away, fairly rattled and still unsure why the plane had failed to land. Kathmandu meanwhile was plunged into darkness during a massive power cut so I ended up saying goodbye to civilisation with a lonely candlelit dinner in a rainsoaked cafe as I waited to see if she would make it in time. Luckily she finally made it by midnight and had just enough time to shower, repack and catnap before the rude awakening at 4am for our plane to Lukla.

The flight to Lukla is exactly as Valerio described- nasty, brutish and short (but with some excellent views along the way):

Lukla: Taken from the end of the (very short!) runway

We quickly met up with our lovely guide, Anu Dawa, and got ready to go as we watched the plane we had just landed in taxi off with a new load of trekkers heading back to Kathmandu. New passengers- and, it turned out, old luggage. They had unfortunately forgotten to unload my bags and so they made the trip back to the city and back again while we waited in a local teahouse for several hours with a group of disgruntled doctors; they had been waiting for spaces on a plane for three days, having missed theirs due to fog. Not a great sign for our return trip!

However, reunited with my bags and away from the angry medics we set off on our trek and were immediately plunged into the glory of the mountains- it’s difficult, especially as at this stage we’re just following in Valerio’s speedy footsteps, to express how gorgeous and dramatic the scenery is without sounding trite but I think it’s important to note that we managed to make the seven hour hike in.. half an hour.  Honestly…

The first day boasts no less than six Indiana Jones-style bridges spanning vast gorges and enlivened by a bouncy-castle feel as yaks and heavily-laden porters cross ahead of you. The constant stream of human traffic is astounding- much has been made of the Sherpas and their amazing abilities already in this blog but in the flesh their strength and stamina is truly amazing. . This man was walking backwards down the steps at the end of a bridge as his load of seven-foot planks for building would obviously not allow him to walk down normally:

A porter descending with wood for building

[Ah! Traveller’s delight- the computer crashed just as I was finishing so I am going to have to try to rewrite my post. ]

I’ve attached a few photos of our trip so far at the bottom although we are still very much following in Valerio’s footsteps.  From now on, however, we’ll be diverging as we head up to Gokyo Ri , meant to be one of the most beautiful views in the Himalayas, with three of the world’s highest lakes and a view of all the area’s great mountains. We’ll then head off across Asia’s biggest glacier to rejoin the main trekking trail at Lobuche (the town built on sewage for followers of this blog-yummy) and then up to EBC and Valerio. And his beard. (Has anyone thought to mention that when he does shave he will be half tanned and half pasty white? Nice.)

Before I sign off  I thought I’d add a couple of choice facts I’ve gleaned from the blogs of others on the expedition: Someone has brought up a giant Scalextric (sp?) set, so the floor of the Pod has now been transformed into a giant electric train set, to the immense delight of Sherpa and climber alike. Also, Valerio’s Team 1, the ‘Lions’ (who came up with the name? I suppose ‘Guinea Pigs’ was a little less magnificent) has been dubbed ‘Team Testosterone’ by the female climbers.

So, a few photos, and until next time.

Namche Bazaar and its stunning backdrop

Our first glimpse of Everest this morning: the tiny peak directly above my mother's head. On the right is Ama Dablam

Enjoying a 'late' lie in at 6:30am; it's still pretty cold even at this altitude.

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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.

Camp 1 on Lobuche col

From the early part of the climb soon after dawn, Ama Dablam rising to the left

The false summit and start of the summit ridge

Me on the summit of Lobuche Peak with Everest behind

Me on the summit ridge, descending

Looking back at the summit cornice on the descent

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