Entries from Everest
Lots of Puja smoke in the air this morning at basecamp, lots of banging pots and cheering. Lots of people walking around with radio antennae held high. Lots of people smiling but bleary-eyed at having monitored climbers through a long night. I guess it was an exciting day for everyone in basecamp...the estimate being that at least a hundred climbers from perhaps 10 teams had gone for the summit overnight, but of course I know for certain that it was an exciting day for those of us on the RMI team.
Not only were we ecstatic to hear each of our climbers check in from the South Summit, the Hillary Step and the Summit in good time and in good strength, we are now more fired up than ever for our own attempt on the top. It was a day of meeting with the Sherpa climbers that will accompany us; taking a final close look at the extended forecasts and a day of getting packs rigged for climbing once again. In between all of that, my team kept listening in to make sure the summit gang was descending safely. Before lunch, we managed to put everybody through the shower one more time and got a little fluff back in the hairdos. I scraped off my fourth beard of the trip...not sure which number Seth and Kent were scraping off, but they were looking sharp and clean...and ready to go. Melissa and Erica are also eager, healthy and packed for an early morning Icefall transit.
The entire summit team is safely tucked away back at high camp now. They'll spend the night there before resuming the descent. We'll meet them at ABC tomorrow at mid-day. Ours is the normal up-at-3-breakfast-at-3:30-walk-at-4 plan...climbing straight through to Camp II with only a pause for rest at Camp I. I expect we'll get some good stories out of the summit team as we share ABC for the night. The following day, they will undoubtedly be down in BC while we take our single rest day at ABC. Then we move to CIII and on the 23rd of May up to CIV...making us ready for a shot at the top on May 24th.
We discussed our priorities today, along with our perceived strengths and weaknesses. We each know the points in the next week at which we'll need nothing but good luck to achieve our goals. We know who is guiding, who is filming and who is climbing and we all are aware that this climb will push of us to our limits. But we are ready. We want to try to climb the highest mountain in the world.
All Team Members Safely Back at Camp 4 After Successful Summit
Voicemail 12:48 a.m. PDT -
Hi RMI, it's Linden calling. It is 12:42 a.m. your time - here in Basecamp. We just got the radio call that our entire team is back in Camp 4. They are settling in for the evening and are going to descend to Camp 2 tomorrow. Everyone made it back safe and sound. It sounds like they are happy to be back and in fine spirits. We will give you another update tomorrow when they get closer to Basecamp.
Group on Top at 8:00 a.m. - Nepal Time
All Five First Ascent Team Members and their Sherpa team were on the summit May 19, 2009 at the following times (Nepal Time):
Peter Whittaker - 8:00 a.m.
Jake Norton - 8:00 a.m.
John Griber - 8:00 a.m.
Ed Viesturs - 8:50 a.m.
Gerry Moffatt - 9:15 a.m.
They are descending to Camp IV now. More video, audio, and pictures to be posted in the morning.
Congratulations!
Update as team descends from Everest summit.
Team safely back at Camp 4.
Peter Whittaker and Ed Viesturs reach the summit of Everest.
Peter and Ed left for the summit at 10:45 p.m. Nepal Time / 10:00 a.m. PST.
Peter Whittaker checking in from 26900 ft. 12AM
Peter Whittaker from 27600 ft. 2AM
Jake Norton from the South Summit. 6AM
Peter updates from the Hillary Step, very close to the summit.
Peter updates from the South Summit.
Ed Viesturs details the trip from the Balcony to the South Summit and Linden gives us an update from Basecamp
Wind found its way right down into Everest Basecamp today, flapping tents, tarps and prayer flags indiscriminately. The upside to this was that the air stayed quite clear and sparkly throughout the day, without any haze or smoke creeping up-valley from Nepal's inhabited regions.
Those of us down for rest knew by breakfast that the team at the South Col had not left their camp the night before on a summit bid. Peter Whittaker reported that the winds had actually decreased as the team approached their "go-no-go" decision point in the night, but that clouds had enveloped the peak of Everest and that snow had fallen in the night. Ultimately, Peter said that the poor visibility had torpedoed any attempt last night and that his team would put their hopes into a new bid this evening.
The Col team is spending the day at rest close to 26,000 feet above sea level. This shouldn't hurt their chances for climbing well: in fact, an opportunity to catch up on hydration, rest and feeding will probably make them stronger-provided that they are availing themselves of the bottled oxygen supply from time to time. But that supply isn't unlimited, by any means, and "kicking back" at 8000 meters isn't simple or easy. We are all hoping that tonight will be the night for the team to break free of the tents and go for a climb. Wind and weather need to cooperate, and the game may get a bit more complicated in terms of timing and traffic flow. Our climbers will not have the route to themselves, as several other teams will have made it up from Camp III to the Col today. But I'm certain our team has anticipated that and will make whatever adjustments are needed to avoid bottlenecks and jams.
Down here in Basecamp, it has been a day for reading, reviewing weather reports, playing games and mostly sitting inside, out of the wind. Linden Mallory (our Basecamp manager) went for one of his traditional fast hikes at midday. Tom (the video dispatch editor) experimented today with various odd beard configurations before scrapping the whole thing in favor of the clean-cut look. Erica and Seth went for the post-lunch-leg-stretcher-walk down along the glacial moraine toward Gorak Shep. Melissa is once again enjoying good health and a day to chat with her friend Amber (up to volunteer for several days with the HRA clinic next door). Cherie worked her normal morning magic with sat-phones, emails and BGANs in order to keep the team connected with Eddie Bauer/First Ascent headquarters back in Bellevue, WA. Kent Harvey tinkered with his cameras and heeded my monotonous advice to rest, rest, and rest a little more. Any day now, we'll spring back into action and put in one heck of a hard week of climbing... promise.
This was the third day of rest for my team. We began it in the usual way, by collecting outside the dining tent for coffee in the sun. Except this morning we sat in light fog until the sun finally burned it all away. Even in fog, sitting on a few thousand feet of ice, it wasn't uncomfortable as now we are past mid-May and temperatures are relatively mild. Kent Harvey, Seth Waterfall and I are by now on pretty much the same internal clock... Erica, being a teenager and therefore presumably in need of more sleep, sometimes still needs a morning yell when the breakfast gets served. With the fog gone, we watched Melissa Arnot work her way safely down through the lowest part of the icefall. She is feeling better and we figure a couple of days BC rest will make her a strong addition to our upcoming summit bid. We could hear Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker from time to time on the morning radio, working their way up through the Yellow Band and ultimately the Geneva Spur, the final barrier guarding the approach to the South Col. They, along with Jake Norton, Gerry Moffatt, and John Griber, reported calm and easy conditions on the Lhotse Face and it was obvious they were making fine progress on their way into high camp. Tendi and Lama Babu spent last night at the South Col, building up the camp for the rest of our team and even scouting the first few hours of the route to the summit to make sure that the fixed ropes were still useable after last week's snowstorms.
Erica Dohring and I went for a light hike toward civilization after breakfast. We didn't go all the way to Gorak Shep as neither of us wanted that much (or that little) civilization at this stage of the game, having gotten quite used to basecamp living and not requiring too much more than that before the summit. But the trail toward Gorak Shep is still useful. Basecamp is in a dead-end valley... there really aren't any exits, save some very burly climbing routes that might take one up Pumori, Lingtren, Khumbutse or Nuptse... or of course, one could wander up the Khumbu Icefall, but we only intend to do that one more time. The trail down-valley toward Gorak Shep was the next best thing for us on this morning. We still need to rest and recuperate from our pushes to high altitude, but then we also need to stretch our legs for this final push to the highest of altitudes. We were relieved to note that the trekker traffic had greatly diminished on the trail, along with the yak trains and porters... not that we don't like yaks, trekkers and porters, just that it is easier walking on an empty track now that the season has moved along. Erica and I got just far enough down the trail to enjoy an unobstructed view of Everest's rocky summit pyramid. Before heading back to Base, we sat watching the mountain for a time, not picking up any of the usual signs of wind... no cloud plume spawned by the summit, no streamers of snow. It all looked pretty serene and contrary to the forecasts, which still call for winds of 40 and 50 knots on these days. It gave us hope that our first summit team will luck out with calm conditions tonight so as to launch their final push. Most of the other teams are in the camps behind and below them now, lining up for what could be a busy four or five days of Everest summiting. We hope they all succeed and that the Jet Stream drifts far to the North in our next days of rest.
We are torn between fully imagining the challenges and discomforts that our first team faces, now that they are safely tucked in the tents at Camp IV, and giving our imaginations a break (since we'll face all of those same challenges ourselves soon enough). Tonight will be an interesting time. Linden Mallory will do the important work of staying up through the night, here at basecamp, so as to monitor the first team's progress. They don't have to go for it tonight. Winds may build up on the Col and prevent an attempt, but our gang would still have the ability to hunker down and wait a day for better conditions. But of course, the clock is now ticking... the team is now breathing bottled Oxygen (with the exception of Ed Viesturs) and using up resources -to say nothing of brain and brawn cells... We hope they get their break soon and jump all over the opportunity.
Peter Whittaker on the radio with Linden Mallory.
Peter Whittaker explains choice to stop climbing for the night.
Today is our fortieth day in Base Camp. Everyone is still hanging in there, mentally. Mostly due to our huge store of snacks and games. I won't lie though, living in a tent for this long is a tough prospect, even for seasoned mountain guides.
Soon enough we'll be heading back up on the mountain for our summit bid. Erica, Dave and I are getting pretty excited for it. Our last rotation on the mountain presented some challenges but we're all healthy and in good spirits. After a few more days of rest we should be all set to go for it.
For now it's all about resting, hydrating and eating here at BC. The trick is to get a good rest without letting the legs stiffen-up too much. We do this by going for little hikes around camp. It always ends up as a tea-fest though as whenever you go by a friend's camp they invariably invite you in for a cup and a snack.
Today camp has finally started to thin out. The weather is starting to look good for summit bids and every morning a few more teams have headed up. This works to our strategy as we are trying to summit after the main push of climbers. This is so that we avoid big traffic jams on summit day. It's all a timing game for us now.
So until we leave for the summit it's going to be an endless stream of candy bars, Scrabble, card games, potato chips, iPods and sleeping. Not necessarily in that order. Soon enough we'll be heading back up, leaving the luxuries of Base Camp behind. It won't be too tough for me. I really can't wait to get a shot at the summit. All we need is a bit of good luck and some nice weather.
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