Well its 16:15 as we write this and it’s been another sunny day at base camp. We got through the night without any headaches at all, which is really good considering we are at 4000m and have came straight up from 2200m.
The photo shows a few of the larger tents at base camp where they cook and serve us our meals. Meals are served at precise times and they ring a bell to tell you when its ready. Breakfast is at 8:30, lunch at 14:00 & dinner at 20:00. The smaller tents (in the background) each sleep 2 people.
There are a number of teams here; all told about 50 people . There are lots of Russians & Kazakhs, a large Korean team, 10 people from the Uk, and then some from Canada, Israel, Latvia, Spain, Basque & Japan. Apparently there is a Tasmanian here, but he is on the mountain. We are camped right next to the UK team.
This morning we decided to climb part of the way to camp 1, as we very feeling very good. After breakfast we were given our radios by the climbing manager told that we have to radio back to bsse camp every 2 hours (10am, midday etc). We never got to hear what actually happens on these calls, because we didn’t hear anything when we listened. Turns out they gave us a radio set to the wrong frequency.
We set off across the glacier and started up the snow slope t camp 1. We were roped up for glacier travel so that if one us falls into a crevase the other will prevent you from going too far. As it was, everything was fine. We travelled well up the slope, and got to within 200m of camp 1, where we turned around and headed back to base camp for lunch. We got to some steeper sections which were fixed with rope, and this was a good opportunity to practice using these.
We have heard that the missing backpack will arrive in Almaty tonight and then taken by car to Karkara tomorrow, then next helicopter to base camp. So it’s at least 2 more days away. We only have one sleeping bag between us, and it got down to -10 degrees last night!
Plan for tomorrow weather permitting is to carry a load to camp 1 (tent, food & fuel) and return to base camp on the same day, with a rest the next day. This will be good for acclimatisation.
Paul & Fiona at Khan Tengri base camp.