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  Everest 2006: Fi and Paul: The ice fall route is in place


Location: Everest Base Camp
Altitude: 5350m
Local Time: 17:25, 13 April
Weather: Overcast, 0C

Hi everyone, its Paul here coming to you from inside our dining tent at Everest base camp, where we have just finished an afternoon snack of popcorn, biscuits, tea and coffee.

The big news today is that the ice fall route is now complete and the first loads have been carried up to Camp 1 by our Sherpas. This is a bit late in the season for establishing Camp 1, but I don’t think it will hold us back. The route to camp 2 is still five days off being in place, however some of our Sherpas are planning to offer assistance to the icefall doctors to speed up the establishment of the route to Camp 2. There are a lot of ladders needed to cross crevases in the Western Cwm and these need to be carried up.

Some of our gear is up in Camp 1
Our Sherpas took two and a half hours to climb to Camp 1 today with tents, food and stoves to establish the camp. They will go up again tomorrow to complete the setup of the camp, so hopefully we could go up the the day after (Saturday). Today there was word that some parts of the icefall route collapsed, so the icefall doctors will have to repair this before they can continue with establishing the route to camp 2.

Do we go up now or wait for Camp 2?
We are a bit undecided as to the best strategy to take. Some people are planning to go up the icefall on Saturday and sleep a few nights in camp 1 and then come back down to base camp. It would be preferable to be able to go from camp 1 to camp 2, but if the route isn't established (no ladders are in place), this won't be an option. We are thinking that if we wait another day or two and then go up, we might be able to time it so that the route to camp 2 is complete. Our plan would then be to go climb to camp 2 and come back to camp 1 and sleep, then the next day go to camp 2 and sleep. We would stay at camp 2 for 3-4 days, climbing a bit higher during the day for acclimatisation, but coming back to camp 2 at night.

It really boils down to how long its going to take to get the route through to camp 2 and then the camp established. Hopefully we can find out more tomorrow.

If we could go to camp 1 & 2 in one trip, we would then have to make just one more trip up through the icefall to get up to camp 3; the highest point on our acclimatisation program.

Till next time,
Paul.

Updates

 

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