IMG Mount Everest Expedition 2003
North Side (Tibet) Dispatch

IMG Everest - Tibet Update 10

Thursday, May 1, 2003: Here's the status of the whole team: 

ABC trek and N.Col climb: Eric Simonson arrived home in Tacoma, WA yesterday after leading IMG's 2003 Everest - Tibet ABC trek and North Col climb teams, with the assistance of IMG guides Mark Tucker, Chris Booher and Mike Hamill. Everyone except Chris should be home now unless they planned on extended travel (for example, Mark Tucker was last seen heading for the Thai surfing beaches.) Eric mentioned some special events in Kathmandu before departure, including a chance encounter with climbing legends Jim Whittaker and Gombu Sherpa at the Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu. Jim, his family, and Gombu were preparing for a trek up to BC on the Nepal side to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Jim's success as the first American to summit Everest. Eric, Chris, Mark and Mike now have their hats off to the entire IMG group. Before falling into a jet-lagged heap on the couch, Eric said: "This group was one of the best ever for me. Everyone was prepared for the trip, had the right mental attitude about the journey, and all were pleasant to spend a month with. As an added bonus, by and large the team did quite well, with everyone reaching Base Camp, and many reaching their objectives at ABC or the Col. It was a good, fun, strong team!" Congrats and many thanks to Barry Baker, Morgan Batt, Gail Bredis, David Ferriera, Thom Gerst, Terry Holt, Garry Phillips, Ralph Quade, John Steffa, Nancy Steffa, Margaret Watkins, Laura Dozier, Jay Leppanen, Seiji Ohashi, Matt Sant, and Lisa Trotter!

8000m climb: IMG leader Craig John phoned from Base Camp on Tuesday, April 29th. Nacho Piedra was leaving Kathmandu that day. He had been up at ABC with Craig and Chris and made an attempt on the Col but turned around before reaching the top, and they returned to ABC for another possible try the next day. Next day, "OK, ready to go home now!" Craig said Nacho did a great job on the trip. Eric saw Nacho in Kathmandu and said he was in good spirits and happy for the experience but tired and ready to go home and eat some good Spanish food! Sounds like Dal Baht (the traditional lentils and rice meal preferred by the Sherpa cooks) wasn't Nacho's favorite ethnic meal. I'll recommend Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to Nacho for next time. I was able to gobble those down at 21,000ft. when everything else tasted like cardboard.

Summit climb: So now it's just Ted, Jay and Pete in the hunt for the summit, with Craig and Chris looking on. Everyone is down at BC resting. Jay, Ted and Pete spent 2 nights sleeping on the Col and then made a day-climb foray up toward Camp 5 to what we call "the top of the snow" which is at about 25,000ft. Ted was moving well and had made it up and back down to the camp at the Col, but some rough weather moved in on Jay and Pete in the afternoon and they hadn't quite made it back down to the Col when conditions eroded. They all finally got settled into the tents at the Col and learned that the North ridge above the Col gets awfully blown when the wind picks up. Chris had spent one night sleeping on the Col and then descended to ABC to wait for the others to descend. They are all ready for another acclimatization cycle, but with extremely high winds predicted for the Everest region this weekend, it is unlikely the team will attempt to move up from ABC for awhile. In fact, Everest above ABC may turn into a ghost town this weekend as everyone takes shelter from the predicted storm. When it passes, the climbers will have to see what the upper camps look like (if the tents are still there!) and how much of a setback the winds created. The timing on this is bad (actually, it's never good) since many teams already have quite a bit of gear and tents into Camps 4, 5 and 6, where the wind really hammers things and damage is most likely. We'll see in a few days, may not hear from Craig again until early next week! 

Erin Simonson International Mountain Guides

The expedition is organized by Eric Simonson IMG Expeditions Dispatches

Eric Simonson, veteran expedition leader, Everest Summiter, author and motivational speaker. To book Eric