|
Dispatch
14: Arrival
at Advanced Basecamp
Top
of the East Rongbuk Glacier September 10, 2001
The
entire team is up here now and will stay here for the
next two or three days.
Although
the 13-mile walk up from basecamp had its scenic
moments, none of us found it to be our favorite
stroll. Almost the entire distance was loose glacial
rubble — stones of all shapes and sizes that were
laid down by the glacier. It almost always means loose
footing.
Most
of the team spent two days coming up here; some made
it in a long single day. I took three days to do it.
You see, walking with prosthetic legs is a bit like
walking on stilts at times. Go for 13 miles over a
glacial moraine and it gets really interesting.
I’m
here to attempt Everest, not to see how fast I can get
to ABC. So, I’m pacing myself and saving my main
effort and energy expenditure for the mountain.
Once
you arrive here, and just prior, the view is
breathtaking. It’s a challenge to accept its
proportion of size. It isn’t just Everest. It’s
also the last couple of miles or so walking between
rows of ice pinnacles, some well over 100 feet high.
We
are about 700 feet (a mile and a half in distance)
below the base of the North Col. After hauling our
load today, we decided to camp and start pushing the
route tomorrow (September 11). If all goes well, we
should have a stocked camp at the top (23,300 feet) on
September 14. Once that is complete, it’s time to
haul load after load of gear to the top of the North
Col. We’ll continue to build the route and an
additional three camps up to the northeast ridge.
Ideally we want to be in position for a summit attempt
on October 1.
It
all sounds great on paper, but we all know there will
be adventure entwined within this series of tasks. The
weather pattern has remained much the same: the
mornings are great but clouds roll in each afternoon.
However, the snowfall has been light during the day.
When the sun is out it’s actually almost too hot to
stay in our tents.
All
of us are looking forward to getting some actual work
done the next few days, even if it’s just hauling
loads to the base of the col.
So,
what’s life like at 21,000 feet above sea level? Not
so great! The first couple of days your appetite is
off, you might have minor headaches and you’re
breathing a little harder after doing things. The
landscape we’re camped upon is more of the glacial
rubble. The views of Everest, however, are stupendous.
We
are just a little more than 8,000 feet below the
summit and less than two miles from its soaring
flanks. When the skies are clear at night, the
countless bright stars across the coal black sky
mesmerize us. We’ll close for now and we look
forward to sending an update in a few days on how our
work has progressed to the top of the North Col.
--Ed
Hommer
<<<<
Dispatches >>>>
The
American-Canadian
Expedition: The
Team
Dispatch
Index
About
Ed's Prostheses
Background
on the Expedition
|
