Mt. Everest 2005: Valencia Totally installed in Base Camp

Yesterday was a good day, and today can't envy anything to yesterday.  We could setup a lot of gadgets that make our life easier at BC, and to finish the day the best way possible, after sending the chronicle we saw the messages you leave on the web...  What a joy!  Really, you can't imagine how it lifts our spirits to see that people follows the web day by day...  although they use it just for a dinner date next weekend... of course, how can you leave us out!   But at least we hope that when the days of the summit get closer you can ask a little about us.

Today has also been good, now we are in the mess tent, David working with the data we have taken so far, me writing this chronicle, and listening to "Vaya con Dios".  I have just taken a shower which I really needed, and now we are going to check the installation of the solar energy.

As we said yesterday, this year we plan to work with solar energy, which is not scarce here precisely, because even in cloudy days the batteries are charged perfectly.

Since we got here there has not been a totally sunny day, it always ends getting cloudy, and that is a shame, because it is OK to be under the sun, but has anybody heard the expression "to be good under a cloud"?  But no, really, here is just the same.  We have also a lot of wind, not here in BC, but the Brazilians say that in Camp I it is really strong, and also from there upwards.  This year has been really dry and windy, so there is not much snow, but that can't be bad, being dry can be good, and we have to wait for a day with not much wind to get to the summit... But let's not think ahead...

Back to the topic of solar energy, this year we asked Héctor if it could be possible to provide the high altitude camps with solar energy with some light system... And well, most of you know Héctor.  When we returned from Nanga we asked him to write a song for the DVD's soundtrack and he wrote is partially.  And that's it: he looked for options, he contacted Toni from Fadisel, in Barcelona, and the two of them updated us about solar energy, and really, we are glad so far.

Let me explain roughly how it works. 

We have solar panels of fifty centimeters by fifty centimeters, connected in parallel to a solar station, "the crown jewel".  To this station we also connected in parallel a few gel batteries, which will be used as energy accumulators, and finally from the solar station some 12 V car lighter outlets and a regular 220 V outlet, so we have all our needs covered...  well, not really, only the energy needs, there are certain needs that will take some time to be covered, but that's another story...

Well, back to the topic of the mountain, let's not forget that that's why we are here, we have been infected by the irreverent optimism of our Brazilian friends (they were not girls, but at least they are optimistic, they have something good), who have climbed to Camp II, and they want to summit as soon as possible.  We also think that it could be a good strategy, especially knowing that there are more than 200 climbers who want to go to the summit, and that could be a problem in Hillary's Step's bottleneck.

So this morning our Sherpas have carried some materials to Camp I, and tomorrow we will probably spend the night there.  It's been said that most of the people don't use Camp I, there are just 3 hours to Camp II, and Camp II is roomier, has melted water and little wind...!  Heck, even a fool can see it, there are a lot of advantages!  And this month, if you stay in Camp II the installation if for free!!!

Well, it was explained to us like that and it looked nice and everything, and tomorrow we are going up, to finally start climbing Everest finally, who has been waiting for us for a long time...

We will try to record the key passages of the Khumbu Icefall, to shoot pictures, even to comment the most interesting plays, but you will have to wait for the pictures until we come back down, because we will not take the data phone up there.

Well expeadictos, we are going to bed.  Right now it is snowing heavily outside the tent.  Let's hope that at 4 in the morning it has stopped and it lets us leave to Camp I...

You will know tomorrow,

Bona nit 

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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