Valerio Massimo Everest Expedition 2009

Hello to all from EBC.

Well all plans are made to be changed…  After yesterday’s intention to group everyone according to likely speed, the guides changed the plan so that each team has a relatively even balance of faster and slower climbers.  Also, yesterday afternoon saw people lobbying to keep themselves in (often National) groups, and to be fair in the main they are pre-expedition groups of friends as well – the three Norwegians together, the four Japanese together, the three South Africans together, and so on.  There is also one climber who needed to be in the team leaving first because….he has to get back to Everest Base Camp in time for his mother to arrive and climb another side peak with him! (he jokes she has more mountain experience than him, no doubt he is being modest but she sounds formidable…).  Given it is our first training peak and we are not high on the mountain, it doesn’t really matter and it is good idea to mix it up a bit.

So now the first team to leave had been renamed ‘Team C’, followed by ‘Team B’ the next day, with ‘Team A’ going down last, partly to remove any perception of ‘tiering’ according to ability.  One piece of good news is that one of the three Norwegians is currently recovering well from a severe bout of Acute Mountain Sickness – it was so bad he had to be put on oxygen at Base Camp and then descend to a lower altitude where he remains.  However, we are all very pleased to hear that he has recovered enough not to miss out on this first proper acclimatisation sortie – so well done on getting better!  He is due to join his fellow countrymen on the first team going down tomorrow.

I am in the same team as Chris Macklin, who I’ve climbed with since Lukla, the three South Africans Robby, Gilad and John (who are hilarious) and Christophe Vandevelde, the double-iron man competitor who I flew to Kathmandu with, so we should have fun while we acclimatise.

Speaking of double-iron man stuff, my ‘impossible to get hold of’ energy gels which Alix sent arrived by Yak yesterday.  These are the ‘EFS’ gels and powders that Christophe has with him and recommended as we chatted on the plane to Nepal.  So from deepest Wales, via the man in the white van called Zavi, via Russell’s business partner in Kathmandu, via a flight to Lukla and then via Yak up the Khumbu glacier, a large 15kg box improbably arrived and was deposited outside my tent.  Thank you to Alix and Chuuldim for getting it to me!

Tomorrow we will spend our first day in the infamous Khumbu Icefall in order to start getting used to the ladders, refresh our ice-climbing techniques, and get a generally better feel for this formidable obstacle.  The following day we will descend to Lobuche Base Camp for the four day climbing round-trip.

But for now, I am sorting my gear in the sun and resting ahead of the next 5 days of back-to-back activity.

Until the next post!

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Yesterday we climbed to the 5,500 meter summit of Kala Pattar (the classic Everest view point), or at least what we thought was Kala Pattar…  It was in fact an almost identical summit with a better view of Everest – so a guide’s minor case of mistaken directions led to us being the only group on top of this rarely climbed peak.  The views were stunning, it was a perfect day, and it was a very gentle way to begin the repetitive climb high / sleep low yo-yo of our acclimatization programme.  Some of the trekkers on their way home, however, weren’t so happy at having climbed the wrong peak and the expressions of frustration were obvious as they eventually puffed and panted their way to the top – the exceptions being the two female trekkers who climbed it with well acclimatized grace.

We were back in camp by midday and in the afternoon I took a walk up to the main Base Camp (pictured from the summit, below).  Now I can understand why Russell decided to camp away from the main EBC.  It was like a scene out of the middle ages – with a running sewer of a main path and yak-shit everywhere.  No organization, loos next to kitchens, etc.  A complete maze.  Coming back to our clean and organized camp – even if it is half an hour further from the start of the Icefall – made me realise how lucky we are to have the environment that we do back here.

I also had my second hot shower since we left Kathmandu – gas powered no less – which was sublime.  Given the size of the team, we are only likely to be able to shower once a week so I made sure I enjoyed it while it lasted.  From now until the next one it will be ‘bird baths’ (a bowl of hot water outside) or the infamous ‘wet wipe wash’ in the tent.

For lunch I opened one of my precious risottos (with porcini mushrooms) and went into the Sherpa cook tent to make it myself.  God it tasted delicious, even if it was out of a packet (it was Riso Gallo BTW E…).  Anything different can lift your mood, as despite the high relative standard of the cooking here, it is basically a rota of the same things, and if it’s meat, it is mainly Yak.  Yaks are sacred and not supposed to be slaughtered, yet it is OK to eat them if they ‘fall off the trail’.  Despite their famously sure footing, a lot of Yaks seem to fall off the trail…  I am not a fan – a bit too chewy for me.  Dinner was chicken (finally), which had made its way up from Lukla on the back of a Yak, somewhat ironically.

After dinner everyone piled into the White Pod to watch a film (yes we do have a widescreen TV here at our Base Camp).  Inexplicably someone put on Hellboy 2, which if you haven’t seen it, is the most idiotic film ever made.  Needless to say no one owned up into having loaded it into the DVD player and there were gentle recriminations this morning over breakfast as everyone complained it was the worst film they’d ever seen.  I left early to watch Louis Theroux on my iPod in my sleeping bag…yes the film was that bad.  From now on someone has to vouch for whatever is screened, although it can’t be too racy if any of the Sherpas are watching – their society is a conservative one and female nudity is a definite no-no.

Today we had a full team meeting to discuss the plan for the next few weeks.  Russell is sticking with his plan for the team to acclimatise away from the Icefall, by descending to Lobuche BC and climbing Lobuche peak.  The first team (the group is being split into three teams) will leave the day after tomorrow for the ascent – at over 6,100 meters it is a proper climb (and an extra Himalayan summit), with a decent height gain from the Base Camp at 4,850 meters (GPS revealed it to be 100 meters lower than we previously thought), and involving a night camped out on the mountain.  It is however, two hours down the valley, after which we have to trek back up.  Shame it isn’t next door, but it makes sense to keep out of the Icefall for as long as we can and Russ’s innovative approach is already being copied by some of the other teams.

Today the guides are having a meeting to split the group into three teams, each of which will have different schedules.  The aim is to have the fittest / most acclimatized / healthy / experienced (and therefore theoretically fastest) climbers in Team 1, followed by Team 2 and then the slowest in Team 3.  As Russ explained, this makes sense logistically – keeping people of the same pace together.  Chris Macklin, David Tait and I have consistently shown a similar comfortable ‘walking pace’ (defined as not getting breathless – i.e. being able to hold a conversation while walking) since Lukla and are in a very small minority in that we haven’t yet had any signs of illness or altitude sickness (touch wood).  Anyway the guides will decide and we’ll find out tomorrow.  In any event David will eventually be on a slightly different programme given this will be his second attempt to climb the mountain without oxygen.  These teams are likely to change of course as we all move higher, people react differently to the altitude and/or get sick, but they will provide a very early indication of possible eventual summit teams.  One thing is for sure – there is a long way to go and a lot of painful altitude to be gained before thoughts can turn to the summit…

Me at the summit of our own private Kala Pattar with Everest behind

Main Everest Base Camp (center left, random colours) and our Base Camp (bottom right, yellow tents) from the summit of our Kala Pattar

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Today is Easter Sunday, so Happy Easter to you all from Everest Base Camp.

Today is particularly auspicious as we held the traditional Sherpa Puja Ceremony this morning.  This is the real starting point for all Everest expeditions, as before any Sherpa or team member can set foot on the mountain proper, a Lama holds the ceremony, with the entire team in attendance, in order to pay homage to the mountain deity.

The Lama sits in front of the stone square temple – built by the Sherpas. The two-hour ceremony starts as the Lama begins to chant.  Offerings of chocolate, biscuits and various drinks are brought to the altar, and Sherpas hand out rice to be thrown into the air.  The food offered is handed around alongside Chang – a potent beer brewed by the Sherpas.  Hot sweet tea and cold drinks are also passed round.  Each Sherpa and climber brings a piece of equipment to the altar to have it blessed for good luck – an ice axe, crampons, etc.  Strings of prayer flags are strung to each corner of the camp, which look truly beautiful when set against the white background of the mountains as they flutter in the wind.

The ceremony ends with flour being applied to the face in three marks – two across the cheeks and then one on the chin (see pictures below).

After the ceremony there is beer and whisky for everyone, and traditional Sherpa dancing, before work resumed around camp after lunch.

Tomorrow the first of the Sherpa teams will head up into the Icefall to begin to establish Camps 1 and 2, so the expedition really begins today. 

The Puja altar with offerings and climbing equipment ready for blessing

Russell Brice, the Lama, and Sirdar Phurba Tashi at the Puja

Lance, me, and Moises after the Puja - faces duly marked

Prayer flags stretch to the edge of Base Camp

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