Mt. Everest 2005: Carlos Pauner FROM BASE CAMP

FROM BASE CAMP By José Manuel Herraiz

It is 9 and I am about to spend my first night at Everest's base camp.  We came this afternoon and the rest of the expedition will come tomorrow.  Outside the tent there is an overwhelming landscape, with the Khumbu glacier's icefall just some hundred meters away, illuminated by the moonlight, in a clear night.  It is cold.  We are at 5,350 m. and our tents sit on the moraine, on a bed of ice and rocks.  I can't help my spirit to shrink a little.  I have left behind the merry journeys in Katmandu and the seven days of acclimatization trekking, when we carelessly crossed the beautiful landscapes of Nepal.  Now the decisive part of the adventure begins and all the elements in the game are present.  The altitude, the cold temperatures and the mountain.  For a newbie like me, everything seems ready to make me feel little and inexperienced.  "Easy Josema, just 45 days left!"  Pauner is happy of having finally come to base camp.  You can tell just by looking at him.  I suppose that after living more than a year and a half in base camps in the Himalayas and the Karakorum, it's easy to see things different.  Pérez is also an experienced man and gives me advice about how should I move around the glacier.  He doesn't want to see me fall in a frozen lake in the beginning.  The Thamserku men in charge of installing the camp have made a nice job.  Among the poverty of the environment in which we will live, we will enjoy all kind of comforts: individual tents, latrine, dinner, competent cooks, communication tents...  The filming of the documentary is going along well.  We have a few hours of good material and the lines of work which we had planed are taking form.  I am very happy and ready to continue in this new phase from base.  Pauner tells me that I am living inside a picture that I have seen before.  He is partly right.  A lot of images from the documentaries about the expeditions to Makalu, Kangchen and Gasherbrum, come to mind when a cross these landscapes.  These years of work with Pauner have made me a perfect indoors Himalayan... but here things look completely different!  The sensations multiply their intensity by ten: the admiration to a porter that drags 50 kilos of cargo by impossible paths or the beauty of the sunset on the gigantic mountains of the Himalaya.  All of this to understand the difficulty and the greatness of this job of climbing mountains.  I know that I am privileged.  I am going to be witness, in front row, of a sports challenge of first category.  I see Pérez and Pauner serene and wanting to fight hard on the mountain.  Here below we will wait, Tafalla and yours truly, working to tell you with images all what happens.  A hug for everybody who follows us and a special memory for Charo, my family and my friends in Spain.  J.M.H.

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

Dispatches

A cold weather, high altitude double boot for extreme conditions The Olympus Mons is the perfect choice for 8000-meter peaks. This super lightweight double boot has a PE thermal insulating inner boot that is coupled with a thermo-reflective outer boot with an integrated gaiter. We used a super insulating lightweight PE outsole to keep the weight down and the TPU midsole is excellent for crampon compatibility and stability on steep terrain. WEIGHT: 39.86 oz • 1130 g LAST: Olympus Mons CONSTRUCTION: Inner: Slip lasted Outer: Board Lasted OUTER BOOT: Cordura® upper lined with dual-density PE micro-cellular thermal insulating closed cell foam and thermo-reflective aluminium facing/ Insulated removable footbed/ Vibram® rubber rand See more here.

Millet One Sport Everest Boot  has made some minor changes by adding more Kevlar. USES Expeditions / High altitude / Mountaineering in extremely cold conditions / Isothermal to -75°F Gore-Tex® Top dry / Evazote Reinforcements with aramid threads. Avg. Weight: 5 lbs 13 oz Sizes: 5 - 14 DESCRIPTION Boot with semi-rigid shell and built-in Gore-Tex® gaiter reinforced by aramid threads, and removable inner slipper Automatic crampon attachment Non-compressive fastening Double zip, so easier to put on Microcellular midsole to increase insulation Removable inner slipper in aluminized alveolate Fiberglass and carbon footbed Cordura + Evazote upper Elasticated collar. Expedition footwear for mountaineering in conditions of extreme cold.  NOTE US SIZES LISTED. See more here.

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