Back out to Pumori

Local time: 20 April, 17:30
Location: Base Camp
Altitude: 5300m
Weather: Warm, light wind, no snow. -6C overnight.

Hi It’s Paul at base camp. After the excitement of yesterday’s puja, today was a much more subdued day.

Atilla and I decided to do a walk, so we climbed up to Pumori Camp 1 again. We climbed pretty slowly as we don’t want to unnecessarily tire ourselves out. As Dan Griffiths (Canada, climbed with us last year) used to say to people who did too much walking when at base camp, “The training is over guys”. It took us a couple of hours from base camp to reach camp 1. When we did the weather was lovely and warm, so we sat at 5760m for nearly an hour in just travel pants and a light polar fleece and admired the view, contemplating the task ahead of us.

Reading
This afternoon I have been reading some books sent to me by Liane at QECVI. Her students are reading a 3 part Everest novel by Gordon Korman, while following along real live expeditions. Book 1 has been about a group of kids that compete for some places on an Everest expedition.

Plans
Tomorrow we will go for a short walk up the lower part of the icefall to test our gear out. Not sure about when we will go up to C1, but possibly the next day. I am in no hurry, as I don’t want to be one of the first people to make a summit attempt and this means not finishing my last C3 acclimatization too early.

Your Messages
Hi veronicamc, When we got our Everest Expedition permit we were told by the Minister that there were 19 teams on the South side of Everest. He said this was the same as last year. Not sure how many are on the North. If each team has an average of 7 climbers, that makes 133 members, and if you assumed a 1:1.3 member to Sherpa ratio you would get 173 climbing Sherpas or 306 climbers. By the time you add cooks, BC managers and other support staff, plus member supporters, I reckon it’s close to 500 people. The success rate is about 40-50%

Hi Michele, Pat Hickey’s camp is really close to mine, so he is a regular visitor. The blue that you can see in Google Earth are tents, but they are not from last year and not this year, so it must be from an earlier year. (Google Earth satellite pictures are not live.)

Hi Rose, Fiona and her party are due here on May 10, by which time I plan to have just completed my second acclimatization rotation.

Hi Carol, I am glad that Pat is making good use of the technology. I saw Pat the other day, and he said several times how much fun he having hearing from everyone and writing back.

Hi Mark, I am using the ex psolar version. I think it would be good to have a lightweight version as well, as it can get hot while you are climbing.

Hi Meals – Happy Birthday to Lou for yesterday.

Hi to the SRO students at Lara Lake
PS in Geelong. Here are some answers to you questions.

How do we carry all the gear? Yes is is a lot, but we carry it up in small stages. You’ll see that we go up and down the mountain several times to acclimatize and we also use this to bring up our gear to higher camps. There are 4 camps in total.
Am I on schedule? Yes, I am. This is an interesting question and you have given me an idea, so maybe I’ll write a bit more about my schedule plans in a upcoming post.
What do I eat? At base camp we eat food just like you would eat at home, plus some others – see if you can spot them! Pasta, Tibetan bread, chicken, lots of vegetables, rice, bread, buffalo, soup, Sherpa tea, oat porridge & rice porridge, muesli, chapati, pancake, omelet – it’s all healthy stuff!
How long to get to the summit from Camp 4? Between 8-12 hours and then 4 hours to come back to Camp 4. It takes 2 days to get back to base camp from camp 4.

Hi Mira, I’ll ask Mingma about your question. Thanks for your postcards Amazing to receive a postcard in base camp that has come all the way from Hungary!

Hi Connor & Kieran, Thanks for your messages and I hope I can make it this time too!

These replies are to messages from the previous day. I couldn’t reply to them in the audio post.

Hi Jill, Thanks a lot for your message and I am glad you like the site. It’s something new, and I hope it works out. It’s certainly generating a bit of interest at base camp. I’ll give a bit of thought to the other part of your message.

Hi Mc, Hope you like this picture better – more clearer.

Hi Dan, I was really chuffed when I got your message. It’s great to know you are following along. I am trying to be like you were last year – let your experience guide your plans, stick to them and don’t get distracted by what’s going on around you. Oh, and as you said, the most important thing is your health. So far so good – haven’t used any antibiotics at all. I wore a dust mask the whole way from Lukla to base camp and it helped.

Hi Mark, If I see your friend with summit climb (what is his name), I’ll let him know you are thinking of him. I don’t go to other people’s camps unless I can’t avoid it, as there is a risk of getting infections from other people outside your group.

Hi SurferBill, Yes the icefall changes every year. In fact the icefall doctors (a small group of Sherpas paid for by all the expeditions to manage the route up to camp 2) go up the icefall every day to check the ladders and fix any parts of the route that have suffered a collapse.

Hi Beck, Yes, it’s amazing that the cheese made it here. Must be the appetite loss with altitude.

Hi Tina and James, Great to hear from you and I hope things are going well with your plans.

Regards,
Paul.