Mt. Everest 2005: Valencia keep moving up the hill

Yesterday, the experience of the Hospital in Khoride was very gratifying.  After covering a difference of almost 1,000 meters of altitude round trip, it had to be worth.

A Canadian doctor saw us there.  It is a volunteer, as everybody who works in the Hospital.  Besides treating us nice, for Jorge he was like a shaman,  he said his throat was OK and he would soon feel better.  A saint's hand!  By the evening he had recovered his voice and could eat without swallowing swords as before.

In Khoride's hospital the price for the appointment for foreigners is 40 euros and for Sherpas is 20 cents.  So the first visit can look like a scam but thanks to this system the hospital supports itself and the locals can get medical attention during a year for a symbolic price.  So for this time, although our soul hurts, we were not cheap and we paid.

... so Jorge was still chatting and chatting when an Italian they had met yesterday did not recognized him.  "Are you that mute who sat in a corner to avoid bothering us?"  evidently he didn't know Jorge and his blah, blah, blah.

Today has been a day of surprises.  When we started the trekking the people said cheers because of new year, without giving us time to show our rancid sarcasm and say Merry Christmas, they told us that today is the Nepalese New Year.  We have just started the year 2062.  It looks like the Sherpas are not following this calendar (they use the Buddhist calendar), but the immigration of people from the low lands who come to work as porters introduce the customs of other places.

We continued our trekking and after an hour on the road... we met with Xavi, Mercé and Albert!  3 Catalan friends from Esplugues, with whom we shared base camp in Cho-Oyu in 98.  Looks like they will try to climb Everest by the North Face, but they will do the trekking of the South Face to have a good acclimatization.

Remembering past times and because of Jorge's theory of compensation we spent 2 hours chatting with them.  The poor Sirdar, who was there waiting for us, did not know if he should go or start barking.

After we recovered strength in a lodge on the road we got to Periche, our destination for today, a little village at 4,200 m where because of the altitude there is hardly any vegetation and the lodge is even more minimalist than the others.

From here Ama Dablan looks close and Everest's walls start to be seen, and they are so impressive that we would like to run and don't stop.

This is surely our chance to have the last shower before Base Camp.  When the sun sets it starts to be really cold, so we decided to stay not farther than a meter from the stove while Jorge continues his blah, blah, blah.  Good night.

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera 

Jorge Verdeguer	David Rosa
Juan José Haya	Endika Urtaran

This is their second expedition to Everest, this time via the South Face.  They have already tried the North Face in 2001. They will hire two Sherpas for the expedition.

Previous feats:

·         1996 Bolivian Andes, summit of Illimani, 6490 m and other 6.000 m. peaks.

·         1998 Cho-Oyu.  Jorge and Endika made it to the summit, 8.201 m. and David gave up just 700m. from the summit.

·         2.000 Manaslu (8.163m.), did not make it to the summit due to bad weather, first time in the Himalayas for Haya.

·         2.001 Everest North Face, Jorge reached the summit, 8.848m., David was 200m. down because of a malfunction of the oxygen equipment, and Endika around 500 m. below.

·         2.002 David, Jorge and Endika went to the Geographic North Pole after a trip of more than 20 days over frozen ocean.

·         2003 defeated by Nanga Parbat, just got to Camp II.

All the expeditions have been sponsored by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

Jorge Rivera

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