Yesterday we made our first trip into the much-feared Khumbu Icefall and all came out again to tell the tale.
The icefall is the head of the Khumbu glacier and from basecamp looks like an impenetrable jumble of ice and crevasses rising 600m and blocking the access to the Western Cym. However, every year a team of Sherpas called the Icefall Doctors go in and mark out a safe route.
So at 6.00am yesterday we headed in... Actually, it was a lot less scary than I had expected. Although we clipped in to the fixed rope that the doctors had set up, there were very few places where the route was at all exposed and it was mostly straightforward, if sometimes steep, walking. We did have to cross 8 or 9 ladders over crevasses, and this was daunting the first 2 or 3 times, but even this became fairly routine.
As pre-agreed, we went up to around 5,700m, just over half way, and then turned around. On the way back however the sun had hit the icefall, and combined with the lack of wind and reflection from the ice, turned it into a furnace. The fact that I was wearing boots designed to keep my feet warm at -40 degrees didn't help, and I got back to camp quite exhausted and dehydrated. However, an afternoon of resting and drinking tea soon revived me.
Today was a semi-rest day so this morning I took a shower and a shave, and this afternoon we have been sorting out rations for the high camps. Tomorrow is a full rest day, then Friday we will be up at 2.00am for a 3.00am start to climb the complete icefall, 'touch' camp 1 and then return to basecamp.
Before I go, a huge thank you to everyone who has commented on the blog and sent emails. Time in the comms tent is always in great demand, so I can't reply individually, but please please please keep them coming because you can't imagine how great it is to receive messages from home. In case you have forgotten, my email address at basecamp is pbrowne@jaggedglobe.uuplus.net - please don't be shy in emailing me.
Bye for now,
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Looking good Pete. I'm not following your progress on a map. Instead I'm reading 'The Ascent of Rum Doodle' in your honour. Don't get tent lassitude!
ReplyDeleteSorry Pete, it's me that's reading R. Doodle. Not you. (Technical cock up)
ReplyDeleteHey well done, although I can't get my head round the fact that it can be anything other than bloody freezing up Everest!!
ReplyDeleteI'll be going quiet on you for a few days starting Sunday (assuming they've got a bed for me) but will get Ben to email you an update on how the surgery went. Please don't let this stop you complaining about backache at all :-)
I'm lovin the Icefall Doctors. Why, oh why, have channel 4 not done a eight episode documentary on the Icefall Doctors? It would be the perfect follow up to Ice Road Truckers.
ReplyDeleteLeaving it to Brick to fill ya in on the football - but i did watch Chelsea beat Arsenal in the semifinal of something. Big excitement mid game as some dude tried to nick our bikes from outside the pub. Can you believe he'd pulled someone's fence pole outta their garden and was using it to prise the D-Locks open in broad daylight. Their plot was cunningly foiled by the smoking crowd, who between puffs noticed what was going on - woohoo I love em all at this moment. My lovely bicycle is now safely back at home.
I've given up asking ya who else in on the trip, so i'm just gonna start making em up along with associated tales of sex, drugs n rock n roll. How do ya feel about having Lady Gaga up there with you? Just found a nice pic of her in OK, thinking if i cut it out i can update my map properly with little characters. Thoughts?????
Call me blonde, but if the wind doesn't come back and the sun continues to shine and its all a furnace, wont everest shrink? If so will your certificate have the correct height on it? This surely must be a continual worry for the I.F. Docs! I'm off to write to Channel 4 right now about that documentary, it's just got so much drama attached to it ......
Speak soon, hope you n Lady G have fun completing the icefall and touching camp 1!
Hels x