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May
6th: After the hard days at camp 2 with a 180 km
wind, knocking at my tent; looking at the roof of my
tent for 10 hours in below 17 degrees Celsius, I
decided to head up to base camp. What a surprise to
see in the Swiss tent, my friend from Dubai, Farzane
having a cup of tea with Philippe the Doctor. She
spent a night in my tent because poor Farzane was
gasping for air. She couldn't sleep. The next day
her condition did not ameliorate and we decided to
go down to the valley as soon as possible. We spend
a night at Gorak Shep and the next day stop at
Dingboche where we met Stephan, the leader of the Swiss
expedition, Jean Troillet, and Yves Lambert.
We had a great time all together. The next day
Farzane decided to go back down, the Swiss back to
base camp and I decided to spend more time in the
village called Pheriche, get some more thick air,
more food, good rest and a great shower. Sean,
Randy, and Bruno were resting in the same lodge.
Sean, a two time cancer survivor, is also climbing
on his own with two Sherpas with one and half lungs.
I met Sean at camp 2 and was amazed how strong he
is. We decided to follow each other on summit day in
order to help each other in case of... Randy,
which is part of the expedition with Henry Todd, is
trying to recover his finger from the frostbite he
received at Camp 3. Bruno, the French-Canadian, with
the best sense of humor of everyone at base camp,
accompanied me back to base camp. He is trying to
summit with his son Jason. Back at base camp the
weather is badly snowing. My Sherpas are between
camp 3 and 4 preparing camps; we just need now to be
patient and wait for the window for the summit.
Sometimes the wait is so long and we tend to get
really bored and depressed. It is during these
moments that we need to be the strongest.
May
8th: Martine just called to say that her plans
are to attempt the full climb by tomorrow. She will
leave base Camp to Camp 2, spend a night or two
there, and carry on to Camp 3, Camp 4...to the
summit, hoping to make it around May 13th. Let's not
forget that this depends on the weather which is
fine so far but very windy as the climbers go higher
and higher. Martine is fully prepared for the
ascent, her moral is great.
 Dispatches
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Martine
Larroque and American
Sean Swarner |
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