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Alpine
Ascents International Cho-Oyu Cybercast, Tibet
(26,906ft/8,201m)
10/2/01
8:30am, Cho-Oyu Advanced Base Camp, Tibet
This
is Ruth continuing the report from Advanced Base
Camp. Flying overhead are large black birds
called Goraks, they look like very large ravens.
When they swoop down over your tents, their wings
make a sound like a jet airplane without an engine
and you have this constant sound of the birds
overhead. I had a fight with one yesterday
as he tried to steal my only bar of soap and fly
off with it.
There's
a Chinese bar up here that serves beer and
cokes, it almost reminds you of M*A*S*H, it's a
big tent that I think if you spent any real time
in there you would surely come up with
Tuberculosis or possibly any kind of serious
lung infection. Tomorrow, I will describe
to you what a typical night is in camp.
But that's pretty much all for now, sorry to be
so verbose, but it's very lonely up here and it
helps to talk to you back home.
I
will also say that it is very hard here to stay
here when our country has been hit with such a
very tragic event, it's hard being so far from
home at this time. None of us feel it's
real, all we know is what we hear on the BBC,
and we have our own mental pictures but we feel
so far removed from this tragedy and from the
confusion and pain that is associated with it,
that we know we will have to experience this
when we get home. We have also heard that
Todd and Lhakpa have lost one of their friends,
Jim Roux who was on one of the Boston flights.
It seems like a small thing but we did carve a
stone with his name and the date September 11th,
and will leave it on the summit of Cho-Oyu in
his honor, Todd is carrying that in his backpack
right now. We also decided to dedicate
this climb to all those who have been touched by
this tragedy. It seems like again a small
thing, but it's all we can do at this time.
I'm
going to talk to you tomorrow, and goodbye for
now from Tibet, this is Ruth signing off from
Alpine Ascents' Advanced Base Camp, goodbye.
