Featured Expedition: 2003 American Ski Everest Expedition
Dispatch 13

Copyright©Jim Gile American Ski Everest 2003

Dispatch 13: (Transcribed from satellite phone voice message)

American Ski Everest Expedition: Dispatch 13, this is Mike. Phase 2 began with a 6 1/2 hour 4000 feet 14 mile trek from base camp to ABC. At this point, all teams are still using the intermediate camp for this leg of the journey. However, it presents a problem in that the yaks are too expensive and too hard to organize, so the job falls on the backs of the Sherpas. Because we don't have Sherpas, we decided we would just eliminate that camp. As we become better acclimated, this trek will become easier. But to go that 4000 vertical feet to that 21000 feet camp in one push for the first time was a real smoker. We were glad we already had 2 nights at 21000, without that in would not have been safe, or it might not have been  even possible.

But here we are, April 21st, and the group with the exception of Tim Carlson and Roger Gocking are ready to start making hauls up to the North Col. Carlson has been plagued with a cold and now a stomach bug, so he stayed back at base camp to try to get better. Roger should be up today, as he did not want to make the trek in cold weather that we had yesterday. We opted for cold trekking rather than hot. Plus most of us just wanted to get out of base camp. The camp is very windy, plus we just wanted to get going.

ABC is at the foot of the [inaudible....] and the north ridge of Mt. Everest and has seen its share of wind. But we are now in our own tents and although 2100 feet is high, it is nice to be in position to get to work.

Most of the other teams stay at ABC for the duration, because most teams are scared of that trek from base camp to ABC. That trek from base camp to ABC is a very difficult trek. We will definitely head down to base camp a few times. It is a long trek, but it is low altitude relative to ABC, and it is good training to prepare us for the long days ahead on the mountain.

Today is April 26th, and I will give another dispatch (14) soon. You can expect dispatch 14 in 12 to 24 hours.

Update 4/25/2003: Mike called! We are headed down to BC. We had a great 4 days up on the mountain. There is a storm brewing...

We will get you caught up tomorrow when we get down to BC!

Dispatches