Return to Everest 2009

I arrived at Everest Base Camp at around 9:30 am Nepal time this morning (27 April). I have more or less settled in and have started to work. Scott is looking just fine - but tired after several days up on the mountain. He arrived back at the IMG base camp this morning the precise second I came around the last turn in the path toward the IMG tents. What timing! The NASA Trek Team is due here tomorrow morning and we are planning a satellite telephone call to the ISS crew around 7:22 GMT tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Today we had 2 Sherpas carry to Camp 1 and 11 carry to C2. Moving up to Camp 1 this morning were Mike, Louis, Paul, Dasona, Chris, Pemba Dorje (Everest); and Greg, Dave, Phillipe, Pasang Nuru (Lhotse). Karel and Karma Rita moved from C1 to C2. The sherpas set up three tents at C3 and moving to Camp 3 today were Scott, Danuru, Rejean, Dawa, Ed, and Samduk. They are the first residents of C3.

The big news on the mountain was that the route to the Col was established today, with IMG sherpas Chewang Lendu and Karma Serki being the very first to the South Col, finishing the route after three days of fixing. They started below the Yellow Band, which they fixed with 9mm rope, then fixed from over the Geneva Spur and on into the Col. [More at IMG]

IMG sherpas Nima Nuru and Karma Serki joined five sherpas from other teams today to push the ropes to the bottom of the Yellow Band. It was quite windy up high, so that was as far as they got. IMG sherpas Chewang Lendu and Mingma Tenzing (who fixed yesterday all the way to C3) took a rest today but will be heading back up tomorrow. Hopefully if tomorrow is decent, and if some other teams honor their commitments to provide sherpas and rope, we could have the route to the South Col by tomorrow! [More at IMG]

On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, from Nepal, became the first humans to successfully climb to the peak of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. They were part of a British expedition lead by Colonel John Hunt sent specifically to reach what was regarded at the time as the 'third pole.' In decades prior, major British expeditions had attempted to be the first to reach the North and South Poles only to come in second place behind the Americans (Robert Peary's expedition to the North Pole) and the Norwegians (Roald Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole). The British made seven attempts to scale Mt. Everest in the previous decades, usually on the North Face from Tibet. But following the Chinese Revolution in 1949, this route to the mountain was closed and so Mt. Everest expeditions had to explore new routes to reach the peak.

The route to Camp 3 was put in today - up the lower part of the Lhotse Face--two parellel ropes, one for up traffic and one for down. IMG sherpas Chewang Lendu and Mingma Tenzing joined 12 other sherpa from about ten teams to get the route up to camp 3. They also claimed our campsite on the upper ledge of "upper" C3, where we have had it in the past. We hope to get a couple tents up there tomorrow. We also have a fresh team of fixing sherpas scheduled tomorrow to start work on the route from C3 towards the South Col, which will hopefully be put in over the next couple days. Moving up from BC to
Camp 2 today were Kamen, Petya, and Ed, climbing with their personal sherpas. Staying at C1 today were John and Justin. [More at IMG]

The IMG sherpa team had a big day today with 34 sherpas and Scott and Rejean going to Camp 2. We have Kamen, Petya, John, Justin, and Ed moving up tomorrow. Today Greg and the Lhotse team took an acclimatization hike to Pumori Camp 1 and tomorrow they head up into the Icefall for a test run. Jangbu is doing a masterful job getting all the different expeditions to contribute gear, oxygen, and manpower to the fixing effort and tomorrow the Lhotse Face crew starts work on the route to Camp 3. [More at IMG]