Mt Everest 2006: Alpine Ascents Everest 2006: Base Camp

Hey hey everybody out there!

It’s tea time at Everest BC and everyone’s in the dining tent drinking milk tea or taking a quick late afternoon nap. I’ve just settled into some Nirvana on my ipod (one of the few still working at this elevation) plus a strong cup of coffee. It’s an ideal way to jump start the quiet afternoon- maybe not for everyone but for me at the moment it’s perfect. It’s a gorgeous afternoon despite some strong winds. We’ve seen extremely high winds at the upper elevations the past couple of days. Weather forecasts have put the jet stream over the mountain during this time and the forecasts appear to be right on.

This morning we headed out for a walk in the icefall. It was our first close look at the upper part of the icefall and got everyone’s pulse going. The past few days have been mainly organizing and resting so the activity was welcome. Some ladder practice filled the early afternoon before heading down to the heli-pad. The work in progress has slowly been taking form over the past 5 days as teams rotate through to flatten an area to serve as a landing pad should there be emergency evacuations. Our Sherpa put in some good heavy lifting while we added what appeared to be pebbles compared to their boulders. There’s not a day that goes by without seeing the hard work they put in for the expedition.

There was an ‘exciting’ incident about an hour ago when one of our kitchen boys came flying out of the cook tent with one of the heavy duty Korean cook stoves in a ball of flames. Our dining tent door looks directly across to the door of the cook tent about 50 feet away- it was quite a site. Luckily neither he or Gopal were burnt and the ensuing 30 minutes of Nepali joking and laughter made it clear that someone did something funny, stupid, or both.

A couple of hot showers capped off the afternoon for many of the team members before tea. Life’s tough in BC but I think the gang is getting used to it.

We’ll talk to you soon.

All the best, Dave

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