Featured Expedition: 2003 American Ski Everest Expedition
Dispatch Nine

Copyright©Jim Gile American Ski Everest 2003

Dispatch Nine: We were delayed an additional day due to a mix up with the load hauling and yak drivers. As a team we were allotted 1600 kgs for 15 yaks while the cook would need 35 yaks for the ABC setup. As a team we hit our number, but for some reason the cook came up 10 yaks too heavy. So while everyone planned for 40, there was a need for 50, we need an additional ten yaks. The additional ten was not readily available. There was a bit of finger pointing, but after we did the reweigh all parties settled on the additional money and everyone was happy.

One more day was no big deal and probably a good thing in that BC is at 17000 and a cold front was coming in to base camp...

We then proceeded to head up to ABC, that is 5 hours and 2000 feet vertical gain to get us to 19000 feet. The trail is dry glacier and slow going for the yaks at this stage, but it was very beneficial for everyone.

Yesterday, April 16th we made the final push to ABC. It was a 2000 ft, 4 hour day, and while that does not sounds like much, at the end of that day, we found ourselves at 21000 feet with 4 hours more required setting up ABC.

The effort to level ten tent platforms in solid ice and rock, combined with setting up the mesh and cook tent, along with organizing all of the gear really takes a ton of effort. To give you an idea what the altitude does to the human body, when we were training in Colorado for the expedition on a 14000 feet peak, we tried to comfortably maintain a 45-50 foot/minute elevation gain as calculated by our Sunfield watches. Acclimating at 21000 feet, we almost always found ourselves at around 5-10 feet/minute. Once we are fully acclimatized above 17000, I know we will be healthy and ready to go, when we are moving at 20-30 feet/minute with full acclimatization with light loads. The idea is always be comfortable and let the natural acclimatization work at our pace for us. So far everyone seems to be doing well, with the exception of the a really rough night we endured last night. It was really difficult to sleep, ringing ears, headaches...

But now everyone if fine, just hanging out, doing much much better...  Mike

Dispatches