Camp 3
Sorry for the huge delay in getting an update to you all but it's been a hectic time here. Almost a week was spent above BC first going to camp 1 and then onto camp 2. Here we sat for a day resting and also letting Tori catch up. (She spent an extra day at BC after feeling unwell).
Our first walk out of camp 2 saw us all climb a little way up the fixed ropes on the Lhotse face towards camp 3. This was great day out and all the members did a great job. It was also nice to get some good views of Cho Oyu (6 th highest mountain), a mountain that some of us climbed only last autumn. The following day Greg and I went back to the face with Tori letting her get slowly used to the extra height out of camp 2. Again it was a beautiful day and it was a joy to stretch the legs again.
The day we decided to go to sleep at camp 3 was a mixed one. We all left camp at 7am after breakfast, the trip to the bottom of the face was quick and all was well, we were all enjoying ourselves. The first sign of problems was after we put on crampons. I saw our Sherpa waving, and I thought at once something was wrong. I won't go into details here but the next hour was one of the worst I have had in the hills. There was a Sherpa (Dawa) who had been hit by (I think) falling ice hanging on the ropes. By the time I got to him with an Italian climber he was dead. We has a nasty time getting his body down a little way and making it all look dignified. It's a memory that if possible I would remove.
After a long delay and much sole searching we decided to climb to camp 3. For some of us it was a hard climb up the face, for me it was a climb of emotion (and a few tears) after the mornings moving events.
Camp 3 was great, the site is a little low on past years but I think its fine, it sits around 7100m. All of us had a pretty good night there, despite the efforts of the weather early in the morning (snow and wind) and the altitude. There is little to do in the morning apart from a quick tea and to zip down the ropes to camp 2. This is exactly what we did, it was all pretty uneventful and all were in camp 2 for a late brekkie. We spent the rest of the day reading and playing cards, it was too late to venture into the icefall as the sun was already bearing down with more than a little force, so we waited till the next morning.
Some of my best memories of Everest are of walking down the western Cwm in the early morning and again this was one of them. There was a stiff cold wind but the walk was majestic. I passed my friend Willy who was coming up with a Sherpa crew to bring Dawa's body down, this brought back the emotion of a few days past. I channeled this emotion into a quick trip down to BC. Without crampons on I slipped and ran down at breakneck spend, looking back I think I was trying to distance myself with what had happened on the Lhotse face.
Returning to BC was great, better food and thicker air. I at once felt better. The team came in behind me and by late afternoon we were all together again. It had been a great trip up the mountain and we all had done what I had hoped to do, sleep at camp 3.
So what next???? Well the team is down valley resting. I'm staying at BC sorting out some lose ends and making sure all is well with the Sherpas on the hill. The Sherpas carried the first loads to the South Col today, and this will open the way for a summit push in the not to distant future. Having said all this we are in the hands of the weather gods, as ever. So plans?… well as ever there are lots of them but I'm not going to tell the devil as that is to risk their loss.
Thanks for reading and I'll post more in a day or so.
Stay cool
Kenton
Ps it's freezing here today
