Sunday 11 May 2014

Days 45 - 52 - Reminder of Rest Days at BC

Most days follow a similar pattern. We get up for breakfast at about 8 then sit in the mess tent chatting and reading until lunch at about 1 then the same in the afternoon until about 5 when it starts to get cold and we put on warm clothes for supper which is at about 6 after which we watch a film before bed. Variations are playing cards and making / receiving visits to / from other groups at base camp.

Relaxing at BC

Gus relaxing at BC

In general the weather is very windy down at camp as we feel the repercussions from the storms up top. The mountain is sometimes clear and then we can see the snow being stripped off the top.

13th May

14th May

15th May

16th May

As mentioned above, we haven't got the best spots for our tents at the North Col and there is quite a bit of concern as to what has happened to our camp and more importantly the equipment that we have left up there. There are a couple of Sherpas who have remained up at ABC and we are waiting for the winds to die a bit so that they along with Sherpas from other groups can go and assess the damage. Broken tents are ok as we have spares but the real concern for all groups is tents being blown away in the winds. After a few nervous days of waiting (and discussing how to compensate for lost equipment) we get the good news that whilst there is some damage to the tents it doesn't appear that any equipment has gone.

We have dinner with a couple of the other groups and are again impressed by the infrastructure that they have in place - both these groups, it turns out, fly their cook teams out to Europe to learn how to cook properly and also provide quality ingredients for them to use. As a result, they have plenty of good food and no occurrences of the stomach bugs that go round our group every now and then.

We go for a couple of walks to keep moving / allay boredom etc. We head up the other side of the valley this time but this means crossing the river coming down the glacier:

Looking for a way across the river


Is this one?

We meet some of the local fauna



Good view back to a much changed BC

Then all of a sudden there is talk that a number of groups are heading up the mountain in a day or two. The forecasts show a drop in the wind but at 35kph these are still levels which most people were saying was too high a couple of days ago. But I suppose we are now approaching the end of the season and the thinking is that we might as well be in place up the mountain in case the wind drops further on those days and secondly this is probably the only chance there may be and so we may have to climb in conditions that are far from ideal - probably the worst that there have been since the disaster of 1996!

There is a renewed buzz about the camp as everyone starts to get ready to head up although people are also starting to think through the implications of a summit attempt in such tough conditions.

We go for a walk to see the memorial to Irving and Mallory and the general one to climbers who have paid the ultimate price attempting to summit Everest - this is a very stark counterbalance to euphoria of finally heading up the mountain after 10 days waiting at base camp.



These memorials are at the limit of where non-climbers can come up the Rombuk valley and so some Chinese tourists are very excited to meet some climbers whilst they are there:

One of many photos I am asked for with the young Chinese tourists

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