Being Home
It was our last night in Kathmandu. Todd had jumped on a flight the day before and Daniel and I were out with Brett Jones, Director of Disaster Risk Reduction in Kathmandu for the US embassy. We had met her, her mother, and other embassy trekkers at Lobouche on our way back up to base camp after resting down low before our final summit push. Living in Kathmandu she knew places to go and had taken us to a little 2nd story patio bar in Thamel near the Kathmandu Guest House where we were staying. The space was tight and lively but the roof retracted giving an open feeling to the confined space. The bar was full of western trekkers, climbers, and expats – the usual scene we had been immersed in since flying back from Lukla. At one point in the evening...
Camp II
Just below the Lhotse face on a tortured jumbled moraine, at around 21,500 feet, sits a collection of tents that climbers in the Western Cwm refer to as Camp II. To get there you march up the valley of silence 2000 feet from Camp I, crossing several crevasses bridged by narrow aluminum ladders. If you do not leave early in the morning by 9:00 am you are marching through a reflector oven of high altitude rays. To combat the sun we slathered on SPF 110, but my nose still burnt. Our team is on the front end of the climb so we had the Western Cwm to ourselves. The entire morning we saw no Western Climbers and only two groups of Sherpa’s coming down after carrying to Camp II. We were carrying as well. My 50 liter pack has never been so abused. The...
Camp I
On April 15th we got up at 2:45 am to get ready to climb by gearing up and eating. We were moving in the icefall by a little after 4:00 am. Sometimes it is better to climb in the dark as you can only see what your headlamp allows you to see; you just keep moving, blissfully unaware of the enormous challenge ahead of you. By first light we arrived at our first ladder. I love climbing, but climbing rickety aluminum ladders over crevasses that are up to 150 feet deep is not my idea of fun. The vertical ladders or nearly vertical ladders are pretty easy to rip up and down on. The horizontal ladders spanning the deep crevasses are crossings that I curse and become religious about. Just before Camp I there is one last horizontal crevasse to cross. This...