|
23rd
April climb to Camp 2: This season the
fluctuations between hot and cold weather are
considerable. For a few days, due to the heat
the icefall was like a sleeping dragon, waking
occasionally to inflict great damage. One
section of the icefall fell onto a ladder.
Everyone complains that the icefall isn’t
fixed well enough, but they never stop to try
and fix it up and those who can are doing
everything possible to fix it as well as
possible. A long line of climbers is trying to
make their way through this section.
When
I arrived, it was just a question of fixing an
ice-screw and a rope to pass the crevasse. It
took me a while to do, but in the end it was
safe. Nobody stopped for a moment to fix
anything and it seems that the easiest way to
fix it is to get back to base and complain
that the icefall is not safe enough.
Another
small problem is that due to heat, before
entering the Khumbu, I decided to clean some
of the clothes I was wearing. The cleanest
clothes I then had were some old trousers that
unfortunately had a 2-inch hole in the seat.
If you only knew what burns I have got on my
right buttock right now!
24th
April – resting at Camp 3: Maria has
persevered and succeeded in reaching Camp 3.
It is fantastic to have the group together. It
is very hot and impossible to rest inside the
tent, because it is like an oven at 6,400
meters. One of the problems we have at the
moment is that we still don’t have Camp 3
stocked. (Luckily, because the next day the
‘Dragon’ [the wind on Everest] woke up
with a great fury!)
25th
April – after 6 days at high altitude,
Robert has decided to go back to BC. Maria is
resting. With Jumbi, one of the sherpas, I
went up towards Camp 3.
I
did it in 2hrs 45 minutes – not bad for an
old man like me. People who think that bad
weather doesn’t exist on Everest have got
too much faith. After looking for an
appropriate place for our camp, we came across
a problem. Because the Lhotse face has a
35-degree incline, we need to make tent
platforms. Considering there is ice instead of
snow on the face, it is a Herculean task to
make platforms for 3 North Face Evolution 3
tents. The only feasible site was on the site
of the old Russian Camp from the Lhotse
expedition from last year. With great sadness,
when we started to excavate the site, we found
many remnants of their expedition. It appears
that they abandoned the whole camp, including
food, oxygen cylinders, rubbish, human waste,
tents etc. It took us nearly 4 hrs to clean
just half the camp and trust me when I tell
you that at 7400 meters, that’s not easy.
It
was a complete disgrace, especially when you
consider that if you respect the mountain, the
mountain respects you back. The first thing
Jumbi said was that we should throw it all
down a crevasse, but I explained my idea to
him and together we took down 40 kilos of
Russian rubbish. What I would really like is
for the whole community, climbers and
non-climbers, to know that the Russian Spring
2001 expedition members are pigs and they
should be forbidden from taking part in any
other expedition to Nepal or any other
country, until they take responsibility for
their rubbish.
At
12.30pm, back at Camp 2 I had a premonition
that the fine weather would change. I told the
Sherpas that it would be a good idea to secure
the tents, given that bad weather was just
around the corner. That night, the dragon
began to stir and by morning it was awake with
a strong wind blowing and destroying what was
in its path. The sherpas only got as far as
the foot of the Lhotse face. I suggested to
Maria that now was a good time to return to
Camp 2. It was 9.30am. We had some liquid and
some of Dorje’s marvelous pancakes. We told
ourselves that there was a tasty Yak steak at
BC and we began our trek there. At 10.15 the
dragon [the wind on Everest] attacked in
earnest. I asked myself if it was due to the
Russian’s rubbish. The wind broke
everything. We got to Camp 1 in an hour, of
course with the wind behind us!
Many
expeditions suffered great damage at Camp 2.
As far as we were concerned the kitchen and
mess tent were partially destroyed. 5 sherpas
stayed at Camp 2, Phended, Nimgma, Dorje,
Jumbi and Pasang. They valiantly succeeded in
ensuring that our camp wasn’t completely
destroyed. When
we arrived at BC the news wasn’t very
cheerful. It was lucky that Camp 3 wasn’t
stocked, given that many of the tents were
destroyed. It snowed and snowed and snowed.
27th
April: Everest is like a great conflicting
love affair. When things are good, you fall in
love with her more. Today the morning dawned
with an incredible sun over a BC covered in a
white blanket. Beautiful. Of course, when
things go badly, you want a divorce as quickly
as possible. Yesterday the wind and snow was
unforgiving. Willie
 Dispatches
|
