Mt. Everest 2005: Alpine Ascents Everest 2005: Namaste friends and family

Update: Namaste friends and family,

We’re sitting here in the wonderfully cozy and warm dining room of the Ama Dablam Garden Lodge. It’s quite an eclectic scene with conversation, games of Hearts, guitar practicing, chess games, etc. David Liano is practicing his guitar but has a way to go to compete with the “Korean Hank Williams” from the other night.

Today was our first day here in Deboche and the bright and warm sun on the patio was a welcome change from our lives above tree line. Breakfast lasted until lunch and then lunch ran into dinnertime. We kept the shower busy all day as well with our host Mingma running constantly back and forth from the local stream to refill the reservoir. The whole team now understands why we pick this spot for our dropback rest. Deboche is located in a cedar and rhododendron forest with many small fields of grass. Horses walk down the 15 minutes from Tengboche monastery to feast on the leftovers from the lodges here. They’re friendly enough that they’ll walk up the front steps waiting for someone to scratch their mane until the leftovers are ready out back. Many cows graze in the area as well and you can constantly hear the Dudh Khosi River below.

Nigel and Ron as well as Kevin and Tony made their way up to Tengboche monastery today to visit the Gompa as well as hike above it for spectacular views of the entire area. Along with the Tengboche monastery there is a nunnery in Deboche that is the only one in the Khumbu valley. Tomorrow morning Ellie has arranged for us to light butter lamps with the female monks- one for each climbing team member. David Liano actually went up to Tengboche monastery just before dinner and did the same there with the monks- one butter lamp for each climbing team member.

As far as the progress on Mt. Everest and the route we did speak with Lakpa Rita at BC this evening. Our Sherpa are at Camp II readying loads to be carried up to Camp IV or the South Col. The past few days have seen snow tapering off a bit. The first Sherpa went to the South Col today after days of waiting for snow to settle. Our Sherpa will attempt to stock the South Col camp over the next few days if weather permits. The forecast is for increasing winds over the next days. In fact the jet stream was to come in contact with the mountain today and last at least until the 13th. Our Sherpa team will hope to catch the window of the next few days as the winds increase to stock our camp. By the 11th or 12th there is a good chance that no one will be going to the South Col. Many teams are down low at the moment with many also returning to BC after rests below. Our timing at this point seems excellent as the next few days will bring little movement on the route because of the forecasted jet stream hitting the mountain.

We’ll be here in Deboche through tomorrow night at a minimum. We’ll be in touch.

To all of the mothers out there in America (and South Africa) today is mother’s day and we want to wish you a wonderful day today and always and thank you for all you’ve done!

All the best,
Dave

Dispatches

Vern Tejas, Willi Prittie, Dave Morton, Jose Luis Peralvo, and Lakpa Rita Sherpa will lead the Alpine Ascent team on Everest this Spring. They will attempt the standard South East ridge route.

GUIDE STAFF (BIOS)
Lakpa Rita Sherpa Senior Guide & Sirdar	Vern Tejas Senior Guide	Willi Prittie Senior Guide
Dave Morton Senior Guide	Jose Luis Peralvo Senior Guide	Ellie Henke Base Camp Manager
CLIMBERS
Nigel Clark	Esther Colwill	Ron Farb
Kevin Grant	Cathy Groninger	Kent Groninger
Mostafa Mahmoud	Jeanne Stawiecki	Dianette Strange-Wells
Tony Van Marken	David Liano	Danielle Fisher

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