Mt. Everest 2005: Valencia WE HAVE REACHED CAMP I 

We got up at 4 in the morning and saw a clear sky, so we decided to go sleep in Camp I (CI).

Since Diego, the Italian, is alone, he has decided to join us in this first ascent to CI.

When we left Base Camp (BC) the thermometer read -10ºC outdoors.

Since our tents are at the end of the moraine, we have to put our crampons quickly and we entered the Khumbu Icefall, a completely broken glacier, where you have to sort big seracs or blocks of ice in dire equilibrium and deep crevasses equipped with up to three ladders joined together.

It's been a few years since it is not necessary for every expedition to individually install equipment on the Khumbu Icefall.

To make this possible, included in the climbing fee is the service of some common Sherpas for every expedition, hired by the Nepalese government to install metal ladders on the glacier and do maintenance on them.  It should be said that this cascade is a glacier in movement which crevasses get wider or narrower by the moment, so the ladders move and fall almost daily.

During our trek through this "ice forest", we could hear some seracs fall, although, sincerely, we have found the cascade safer and more accessible than what we expected.  We don't know of it is because of its good conditions or if we compare it with the last expedition we did to Nanga Parbat, where dealing with the falling stones from the Kinshoffer wall was our daily fight.

Some crevasses in the cascade did not have a ladder and we have had to jump to cross them.  We shot some cute pictures and we hope to be able to send them tomorrow when we go down to BC.

On the last part of the ascent to CI it started snowing, but luckily we only had three joined ladders on a great crevasse to reach our destiny.

To be the first ascent, we have had a good time, 5'45 h. and when we got there we realized that CI is a well sheltered place from the rest of the cascade.

As the principles of a good expeditioneer say, the first thing we did when we got to CI was to melt water, a lot of water.  In theory, in these conditions, we should drink some 7 liters of water per person.  Here everything is frozen, so our only alternative is to melt the fresh snow that surrounds our tent.

Then we fixed diner and here we is everybody chatting, well not everybody, David felt asleep after he filled his belly.

Right now it has stopped snowing, and it looks like the sky is getting clear.  If everything goes well tomorrow we will go back down to Base Camp.

Well, we are going to our sleeping bags, the day has given us enough.  See you tomorrow.

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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