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Daily News: 4/5/2000 Report
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For Latest
News. For earlier reports:
See the News Index for a list of all the Daily Reports. See the Home Page for Individual Stories. Receiving Reports from over 25 Teams on Everest this Spring 2000.
Most
climbers are now in Base Camp. Sherpas are going into the ice fall.
EverestNews.com is hearing that the ice fall will likely be opened in the next
few days for others. Some concern over oxygen not arriving.
Teams
are still making their way to Base Camp. Some are still in Kathmandu.
- Everest Spring 2000:
Byron Smith at EBC !
Current Status: Here is Byron
Smith's diary entry for Monday April 3: I woke up at 5:30 this morning as nature
was beckoning me to the bathroom, well a bathroom of sorts. The toilet is a
plastic barrel lined with thick plastic and surrounded by rocks on three sides.
A tent 7 ft high and 3 ft square is placed on top and is fastened down with rope
to keep it from flying into Tibet with the winds blowing up the Khumbu Glacier.
Four of our Sherpa went up
into the icefall this morning to carry tents to Camp 1 and Camp 2, they had
taken part in a Puja ceremony down in the valley before arriving at Basecamp.
I watched them ascend the icefall, starting on the left side and traversing over
to the right about half way up before I lost sight of them. They established the
camps and descended back to Basecamp by 2:30 p.m. They said the icefall is in
pretty good shape.
We had a little birthday party
for John Armstrong at dinnertime; some of the members decorated the dinning tent
with balloons and streamers. Today was the test broadcast for the NBC Today Show
which Michelin North America [one of the Expedition sponsors] had set up a few
weeks ago. I will be doing five live interviews from the mountain starting on
Wednesday, April 4. They then told me they want me in their studio in New York
when I return in June. I will certainly be taking Jamie and Zach with me when I
go.
George Gallant our film
director was supposed to leave for home on the 4th of April, having had decided
to fly out on the 7th. Well it seems the flights are all booked from Bangkok to
Los Angeles and I spent some time talking to our Thai Airline contact, Gen
Manager David Yu, back in Canada, to try to sort it out late last night. The
only day George can fly from Kathmandu to Bangkok is on the 6th and then fly
standby on the 7th from Bangkok to Los Angeles and then on to Calgary. It means
George will have to leave early tomorrow morning from Basecamp and trek to
Khumjung in a day. He will have two days (5th, 6th) to catch a helicopter from
the Syangboche Airstrip in the early morning and then catch his 1:40 p.m. flight
to Bangkok.
We will all miss George as he
has added so much to our team not only as a person but as a teacher, helping us
all learn how to edit film, use the film cameras correctly etc.
We continued to sort out all
the supplies for Basecamp as well as the on mountain equipment and food.
Tomorrow we build the shower, and I think we all need it.
See you at the top! Byron
Smith Expedition Leader
For video updates (which
are very good), and daily
dispatches check Byron's Expedition out today: http://cbc.ca/everest2000/
- Annapurna Spring 2000:
4/3/2000
EverestNews.com will
follow the attempt on Annapurna of the "International Annapurna 2000
Expedition": We think
you will find these daily reports very interesting. Go to their site for the
pictures and dispatches in Spanish. Their
web site: www.interofer.es/annapurna2000
with reports in Spanish, Pictures and more !
Title: Civilization
to our Backs
Weather:
Sun, Heat (35 Cs)
Expedition
Location: On the way to Choya
Deurali
Next objective: To
camp at Choya Deurali
Today we will turn our
backs to civilization
and enter into the true kingdom of mountains. With
each step up the valley of the Annapurnas, we are
moving along the historical routes.
There is considerable accumulated snow at 4300
meters. This is the level at which our base camp will be established. Due to
this, we have had many porters leave the expedition. Our Sirdar, Mingma, has had
to hire substitutes. We hope this does not mean delay. After arriving at
our destination, we will take the day to rest and wash ourselves and our clothes
and mainly to contemplate the climb ahead of us. The
French expedition, that had predicted to go to the mountain, postponed
its attempt and now it seems
that they will return to try it in Autumn.
We are going to be the only
representatives of that French expedition that in 1950 conquered the mountain
and in its honor we are going to reach the summit.
Tonight we sleep in our tents, the civilization is
gone and now we live
level with the ground.
If everything goes well,
tonight we will camp in Choya Deurali.
Namaste!
Joaquim " Jake "
Molins i Gil
EverestNews.com has added
a Spring 2000 Annapurna Page where EverestNews.com
will report News on this
expedition and other
Annapurna News.
- NOVA/WGBH ONLINE TEAM
RETURNS TO ANTARCTICA TO FOLLOW THREE WORLD-RENOWNED MOUNTAINEERS AS THEY
RETRACE SHACKLETON'S HISTORIC STEPS ACROSS SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND
On April 7th, You can journey
back to Antarctica to join the latest NOVA Online Adventure as three
world-renowned mountaineers-Reinhold
Messner, Conrad Anker, and
Stephen Venables- retrace Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's historic steps
across the 10,000-foot peaks of South Georgia Island.
In August 1914, Sir Ernest
Shackleton and his 27-man crew found themselves stranded in the Antarctic when
their ship, the Endurance, became crushed in pack ice. After a winter on the sea
ice, he and his men set sail in three tiny boats, reaching the uninhabited Elephant
Island. From there, Shackleton and a few men set off in a 23-foot boat on an
epic 800-mile journey through the world's worst seas to South Georgia Island.
Their last hope for survival was to cross 26 miles of mountains and glaciers,
long considered impassable, to reach a whaling station on the opposite side.
Starved, frostbitten, and wearing rags, the three weary men-Shackleton, Frank
Worsley and Tom Crean-made the journey, and returned to rescue the men on
Elephant Island, twenty months after their initial departure. Not a soul on the
Endurance was lost.
In October and November 1999,
a NOVA/PBS Online Adventure-Shackleton's Antarctic Odyssey -revisited the scenes
of Shackleton's epic story of survival in the Antarctic during filming for both
a NOVA television program and a NOVA large-format film for IMAXฎ theaters, with
dispatches live from the Antarctic from Online producer, Kelly Tyler. Now NOVA
Online returns to the Antarctic with three world-renowned mountaineers-Reinhold
Messner, Conrad Anker, and Stephen Venables-as they follow in Shackleton's
footsteps and retrace his historic climb across South Georgia Island, now known
as the "Shackleton Traverse."
CLIMBER BIOGRAPHIES: Reinhold
Messner is well known for his unquenchable thirst for adventure and some one
hundred first ascents. With nearly three thousand trips in to the mountains, he
was first to climb all the world's 8,000-meter peaks, first to summit Mount
Everest without supplemental oxygen, and the first to undertake what Shackleton
had set out to do back in 1914, cross the Antarctic continent on foot.
Accomplished climber Conrad Anker-who discovered the body of climber George
Mallory on a NOVA-sponsored expedition to Everest in 1999- also teamed up with
climbers Alex Lowe and Jon Krakauer in 1997 and traveled to Antarctica to climb
Rakekniven in Queen Maud Land and the Vinson Massif via two new routes, and
currently holds the speed record for the regular route (9 hours, 11 minutes).
Veteran climber Stephen Venables joined a small group to tackle the daunting
task of pioneering a new route up Everest's Kangshung Face-the biggest wall on
the world's highest peak-ultimately reaching the summit alone and without
supplemental oxygen. Venables' most memorable expedition to South Georgia in
1990 became the subject of his third book, Island at the Edge of the World.
NOVA ONLINE ADVENTURE: The
NOVA Online Web site will follow this modern expedition with dispatches
featuring audio with the climbers themselves and digital imagery, a map updated
daily with the team's current location, and if conditions allow, 360-degree
panoramic photos (QTVRs). The existing site also chronicles Shackleton's
breathtaking journey with a narrated "slide show" of stunning
photographs shot by expedition photographer Frank Hurley; shows how our
understanding of Antarctic geography altered through time with a changing map;
offers brief biographies of Shackleton's extraordinary team; lets you try your
hand at navigating to South Georgia with a Shockwave game, and tells the untold
tragedy of Shackleton's unsung support crew stationed in the Ross Sea. Lauren
Aguirre is senior producer, and Kelly Tyler is producer for NOVA Online.
EverestNews.com will carry
weekly short reports from the trek and remind you of this interesting trek !
Check them out at: www.pbs.org/nova/shackleton
Death
on the way to Everest
EverestNews.com
has learned a 14 year boy
plans to attempt the Summit of Everest in Spring 2000
Juan
Oiarzabal, "To
the Edge of The Impossible"
or AL FILO DE LO IMPOSIBLE in Spanish: Expedition
to recreate the ascent of 1924 of Mallory and Irvine of
Everest. This
expedition is already
underway.
Summary
of Canadian Expeditions on Everest in Spring 2000
Graham
Hoyland's Lecture "Unraveling the Mystery of George Mallory" in the
Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History.
Alan
Hinkes Q&A
EverestNews.com
will feature full dispatches from Adventure Consultants for Everest Spring 2000
Close
Does Not Count for Records
ALAN
HINKES TARGETS THIRD HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN THE WORLD, KANGCHENJUNGA AS TWELFTH
MOUNTAIN ON HIS CHALLENGE TO ACHIEVE BRITISH RECORD
EverestNews.com
will feature full dispatches from Jagged Globe for Everest Spring 2000
Spanish
Climber to attempt the Messner route on Everest
Change
of Guard at the Khumbu Ice Fall
Graham
Hoyland and the BBC returns to Everest in Spring 2000 in search of the camera and
Irvine.
Climbers
headed to Everest Base Camp
Jochen
Hemmleb Q&A Part 7
India
climber plans to spend the night on the Summit
Dutch
Climbers prepare for Everest
For
all the April 2000 News
For
all the March 2000 News
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