Mt. Everest 2005: Waldemar Niclevicz: Camp 3 is settled

04/29/2005

39th day of the 10 Years of Brazil on Everest Expedition

Camp 3 (7,300 m) / Camp 2 (6,400 m)

Dear Friends!

Irivan and I are back to Camp 2, after having the worst moments of the expedition so far.  The arrival to spend the night in Camp 3 was what we usually call "roubada" in Brazilian climbing, the more people climbed, there was more wind, snow and cold.  The last two hours above 7,000 m were hard to describe, we were completely frozen.

Relief was immense when we found our tent around 14h00, by the edge of a precipice at 7,300 m of altitude, which had been already mounted by Pemba, our high altitude porter, before the blizzard started.

Irivan opened the tent and jumped inside with crampons and all.  I kicked the crampons away before I entered and was surprised because it didn't look like there was so much snow inside the tent when I was outside.

We closed the door, but the snow was so fine that it continued to enter through the stitches and the zipper.

We couldn't sleep during the night, the wind blew so hard on our tent, and it was also cold, our thermometer read -18.2șC inside the tent and -27.2șC outside.

When the day broke by 5 in the morning, it looked like we were inside an ice cave, clothes, sleeping bag, everything was covered by a white film.

We waited for the sun to shine on our tent, by 8h10, to exit.  Outside the winter wind continued and even with the sun it was impossible to stand the cold.

Tomorrow we will go down to base camp.  On the next days we will tell you the news with calm and we will show you pictures.

A big hug.

Waldemar Niclevicz

Translated from Portuguese by Jorge Rivera

Altitech2: Digital Altimeter, Barometer, Compass and Thermometer. Time/Date/Alarms. Chronograph with 24 hour working range. Timer with stop, repeat and up function. Rotating Bezel. Leveling bubble. Carabiner latch. E.L. 3 second backlight. Water resistant. 4" x 2-1/4" x 3/4" 2 oz. Requires 1 CR2032 battery. See more here.

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