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  Everest 2006: Fi and Paul: Heavy Snows at Base Camp


Location: Everest Base Camp
Altitude: 5350m
Local Time: Tues, 18th April 8pm
Weather: Snowing all day, -5C

Hi everyone, Fiona here.

We woke this morning to find that it had been snowing for much of the night and there was about 30cm of new snow on the ground.

A good time to sit tight at base camp
It has continued to snow all day, leaving over 60cm of fresh snow. We've all had to go and keep the tents clear but so far they are all holding up fine. People are saying its the most they have seen in ten years.

Although we hadn't planned to go anywhere today, other members of our group had planned to move up to Camp 1 so they have had to postpone their trips - probably at least until Thursday so that all this fresh snow can melt down a bit. Other members are already at Camp 1 so they are just hunkering down in their tents up there (we have radio contact with them and they are all fine).

It's obviously been a very quiet day here with most of us hibernating in our tents for large chunks of time - thank goodness for the Ipod and the piles of books we have here.

Slowly recovering
Paul's throat seems to be gradually getting better - kind of a two steps forward, 1 step backwards pattern. I am not getting worse so that's a good sign and otherwise I feel OK, perhaps a bit more out of breath than usual. We're seeing the doctors here every day or so and also have a doctor on our team - so are pretty confident that we're doing everything we can to get better quickly. The forced rest caused by the snowfall certainly won't do us any harm.

We are reluctant to go any higher until we feel better because going higher is likely to further aggravate the problem. If Paul's condition was a lot worse, we'd consider going down lower for a while but he seems to be improving here, so we'll wait it out here for a bit longer.

(As a side note, some hospitals have hyperbaric chambers which deliver extra oxygen to patients to help them heal. Although I understand that this is not widely regarded as conventional medicine, having seen the opposite effect of a lack of oxygen, it makes good sense to me. Paul and I received treatment in the Alfred Hospital's hyperbaric chamber after getting some frostbite when climbing a mountain in Kazakhstan a couple of years ago.)

Good vibes
Thanks for everyone's messages and "good vibes" - we're getting them all loud and clear! It's great hearing the news from back home and all the other amazing places where we have readers. It's quite bizarre thinking about your locations and then to look out the tent here and see pretty much nothing but snow today.

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter break.

Bye for now, Fiona

Updates

 

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