Thursday 25 April ABC 6400 meters: Wilco: Woke up at 9.30 AM. We had breakfast together. Toast with egg, not really good cooked. It does remind me of my time in college, always short of money and eating breakfast like this. It is a sunny day, but the wind makes it cold. After this good night of sleep (we were really tired) we decided on our strategy: Another carry to North Col with the two of us to bring the remaining supplies for the high camps. Today is a rest day, tomorrow we go up with the load. The load is a tent for Camp 3 on 7900 m., my paraglide, our summit-climbing-suit, extra sleeping-bags and mattresses, some extra gas-cartridges, food, etc. After this carry we will descend to BC to recover. The next time up to North Col (7000m) will be with less weight. We will sleep there and the following day we go up to Camp 2 to establish Camp 3. We are on schedule. None of the other expeditions are really ahead of us. Every other day we work really hard and you have to keep up with it. And we need luck with the weather. You easily loose a week if bad weather comes in. The mountain sets the timeframe, not the climbers. After breakfast (egg and awful tea) I walk to my tent, look up to the mountain and suddenly I think about the first Dutch Everest Expedition in 1982. This expedition, lead by Professor Alexander Verrijn-Stuart, also from the Tibetan site, had a lot of internal arguments because the group climbers didn't know each-other very well. Professor Verrijn-Stuart had just picked all the best climbers in Holland to become a team. The climbers didn't operate as a team, though they had a good leader and the arguments were never solved during the expedition. As a boy a read all the books about this expedition with great interest. They had a serious incident in the Changse face (the same face Hans and I will climb on tomorrow for the 3rd time) when an avalanche caught Eelco Dijk, one of the climbers. He was brought down in a critical shape. They even thought he was paralyzed because he couldn't move his legs anymore. Luckily he wasn't , but for him the expedition was over. I tell this because this climber, Eelco Dijk, I only knew him from the books, was one of the first to send me a large fruit-dish and a heart-warming letter after my dramatic accident on K2 in 1995. I had trained very hard for 1.5 year and this almost fatal accident let my dream explode. When I was released from the hospital I really appreciated a lot to hear from this climber in the letter he wrote that he recognized the drama, but it was not wasted. Expeditions will never be successful without him or me. Of course it is very sad when you are the one to pay this price for the team
to have success.  But that's part of the game. He was one of the few I took advice from at that time.

Friday 26 April North Col 7000 meters, Wilco: Hans and I have breakfast together again. Afterwards we pack our gear for the last carry up to North Col.  A tent, anchors, my paraglide, sleeping-bag, mattress, down-suit, down-mitts, extra clothes, powerbar, food, gas-cartridges, etc. I m not really enthusiastic, though I slept good , for this altitude. It is very cold and there is a strong wind. When we are going it makes me very tired, but I  am glad to be on the move again. I don't like to hang around in ABC. The food is very bad, partly because of the altitude but also because of what the cook is preparing. And the site, in a hole, of  tent is awful. It is always cold weather. We could not enjoy laying in front of the tent. The tent is to small to rest for several hours. I have decided to improve that situation, by flattening the surface under my  tent, after I have returned from my rest periods in BC, but only if the weather conditions allow it. We start moving and, for a change, I am leading. I will show Hans how it feels to have to close the gap between the first and the second every time. If you lead you try to go with a fast pace. Until the end of the moraine ridge it goes well. There I put on my crampons, wait for Hans and continue. I am the first on the glacier and the first at the fixed ropes. We are followed close by two very well trained Swiss climbers. We let them go first on the fixed ropes. When we go on the fixed ropes we stay very close to each other. After a couple of hours Hans calls for a break at the now usual spot. After the break we climb on to the Swiss.. Just under the North Col they have a break, so we overtake them. The last steps are very heavy and I get annoyed by Hans, because I think he pulls the fixed rope to the wrong side every  time. It uses my strength a lot. 

The wind is blowing hard on the North Col. Our tent is located on the right spot, sheltered for the wind.  We jump in the tent and empty our backpacks. I shoot some film footage and have a rest. We left at 10.30, this morning, and arrived on the North Col at 14.15. Not bad and we feel better than the previous two times. The wind is hauling over the ridge to Camp 2 (7400 m.) You would be blown off now.

After two hours of rest we descend to ABC. The weather is really bad, almost no visibility, it is snowing and I am glad I just have to follow the fixed ropes. While descending it this bad weather still some climbers come up. We thinks this means they either left to late or they are to slow. Luckily the descend trough the huge glacier well and we arrive safe at the bottom. We look like two snowmen. The job is done and that gives
confidence to each other. Especially because we noticed we are have the almost the same speed, endurance, strength, vision etc. Almost a Siamese twin, like me and Cas van de Gevel, my climbing partner. 

Saturday 27 April Everest BC 5200 meters, Wilco: Our standard wake up time is 9.30 AM. I have a cup of thee, but leave my egg toast untouched. It doesn't look attractive, as usual. I almost have to throw up only thinking about it. I can skip breakfast today because we only go to BC, where I will eat extra. It is cold and nasty weather. After breakfast we put the laptops, empty battery-packs, a sleeping-bag (I want to swap it in BC) and other things in our backpacks. I have hardly slept. When I was awake I was watching the ceiling of my tent. Maybe I was not tired enough to sleep. I walk down in North Face fleece under-trousers and the cold wind blows trough it. And I only wear a North Face thermo jacket. I hope it will be warmer when we descend. But the first hour my body feels cold, I have cold fingers in wet gloves and cold legs. There is a lot of snow , and we have to descend in sneakers. But there was snow all the way, even beyond BC. The cold layer of air fills the entire valley. Luckily I have ski-poles and use them to prevent me for slipping. But with my weak ankles I have to be careful. Hans and I don't talk much and go fast. I listen to music from my minidisk-player. I use a couple of penlight batteries and a minidisk with real good Dutch music and another with the Red Hot Chilly Peppers in the
hours to go down. I descend in trance. Our pace is so high you have to concentrate very well and then this wonderful music. It is a game of skills and technique.

We have appointed break spots. One at the interim camp and one on a flat part where you cross the valley. Just before Interim Camp we meet our German climbers Hartmut Ulrich Bielefeldt and Claudia Baumler. They have spent the night at Interim Camp. Hartmut doesn't come across rested at all to me. On top of it he tells he has serious doubts of going to BC to rest. They had to walk trough the snow for a couple of hours yesterday and I think they still feel rotten about it. Hans and I think it is better and we noticed also our recovery on 5200 m. and not on 6400 m. But anyway, it is up to them. We warned them for the bad weather forecast the coming week, the one we heard from the Dutch weather institute.

An hour before BC we meet George Dijmarescu again. In the same blue Gore-Tex coat, black Adidas sneakers, shawl around the neck, cap on his
head. He walks alone to Interim Camp. He said: " hi guys, if you hurry you have steak today ". We arrive at 16.00 in BC.

In BC we are welcomed by the young aspirant cook, Jorge Egocheaga Rodriquez and Daniel Perler. Nice company. It feels good to be back in BC. I open my mothers birthday present, delicious Rittersport chocolate and three small bottles of Unterberg herbal gin, 44 %. It reminded me for a moment on the South pole expedition with Marc Cornelissen. It was my birthday on November 25th, when we were two days, 50 km. from the South pole. We had not much food left and I got delicious chocolate and small bottles of Unterberg herbal Gin. Under those conditions you really appreciate small gestures.

Dispatches