APRIL 25 2002 Camp 1 (7,000m) Everest North Ridge.

AUDIO Click below to listen to Gav's latest message

Real version (250kb) (3 min report)

Gavin has called in this afternoon - he and Will are currently snug in their sleeping bags dreaming of hot showers and cheese on toast (if I know Gav!)... They are sending their first night at Camp 1 - a significant milestone on the expedition. What follows is pretty much a verbatim version of the audio file above:

"Hello everyone this is Gavin and Will calling from 7,000m on the north ridge of Everest Our first attempt at staying the night here. We climbed up in record time today and we've been sitting here in the tent with all our gear and we have been boiling water for three to four hours and we've had tomato soup and asparagus soup and we've just been tucking into some meatballs in tomato sauce and Lancashire hotpot. Will is just heating some more ice on the stove so we can make some tea.

The sun's still up - it's evening here, about 6.30pm - there are great blustery showers of spindrift coming round and so on and we are quite well sheltered. We're feeling good - we've got loads of kit up here. Tomorrow is a very big day for us. We are going to try to go to 7,600m and do a drop for camp 2. It's quite important as although there have been some Sherpas up there putting in ropes, no Westerners have been up there so far this season.

We are going with two Russians - Sergei and Alexi - who have become really good friends of ours. They are as strong as oxes!

So wish us luck... We should have a good night sleep. Tomorrow we are going to go up and see what happens then come back down here and we may well spend a second night here and then go up again the next day and do another carry and then we will return to Advanced Base Camp and rest ourselves.

We are doing very well and feeling very happy... 

Thanks for all your interest,

Bye from Gavin and Will!