Everest North Side Expedition:  Adventure Peaks

 Current Tibet Date/Time

Report No 8 - Friday 9th May: After several weeks of quite good weather allowing the team to acclimatise quickly and for the camps to be quickly established on the mountain, Everest finally awoke !!!

We have had 5 days of incredibly strong winds with speed of over 100mph above the North Col at 7000m. We are fortunate to be able to receive very good weather predictions to give us plenty of warning for such events. We were able to complete our final acclimatisation climb up the North Ridge to 7600m and safely descend all the way to Base Camp before the bad weather arrived. The winds proved very destructive over the 5 days with many teams loosing many tents at all camps. One or two teams have had to pull out altogether because of the damage. At Base Camp, we witnesses many tents being seriously damaged. The damage at ABC was reportedly a lot worse.

Adventure Peaks were very lucky ! The only damage at Base Camp was the toilet tent blowing down. Luckily I'd just left it a few minutes earlier !. The damage was only a couple of bent poles and so we quickly dismantled it to prevent further damage. At ABC, the Mess tent had two broken poles which were quickly replaced with spares and a Quasar had a ripped Flysheet so the tent was again dismantled to prevent further damage. Once the winds had eased on Wednesday 7th May, one of our cooks at ABC ascended to the North Col to check on the 4 tents there. The Quasar store tent was destroyed but all it contents were still there and one of the 3 Hyperspace tents received minor damage. This was great news as most of the essential summit gear was stored in these tents !

Credit must go to the Sherpas and the team members who ensured that all tents were securely pitched at these camps and also to Adventure Peaks to the high quality of tents used without which we would be in the same situation as most other teams with a lot more widespread damage. The Sherpas are currently continuing their work in stocking the higher camps with the oxygen and other gear required for our summit bid.

So apart from sheltering from the wind, what has kept us occupied for 6 days resting at Base Camp ?. We soon get tired of playing Poker, especially as Phil always wins as is currently over 600 toothpicks ahead which equals 6 rounds of drinks !. We have tried to help the local Tibetan economy by visiting one of the many bars at the start of Base Camp. Not quite what most of us are used to, the bars are wooden framed shacks, not very structurally sound as most of the pieces of "Drift Wood" are strung together. Covering the whole structure is thin plastic sheeting looking like your Grandmothers Shopping Bag !. We have hired a local Tibetan to collect water and do other chores and we 1st visited a bar he owns and his daughter runs. Unfortunately on the second visit it had become a victim of the storms so we had a small collection to pay for its reconstruction. In the last 2 days, we have been approached by Chinese Television to get involved in there 8 day live Television Broadcast of their teams ascent of the mountain. Patricia has been asked to be our representative on the show on the 11th May. We have also had a 2 hour interview by a Chinese newspaper.

So looking ahead, the original hope was to summit around the 14th - 16th May but the forecast we have received is not looking too promising with summit winds of 40mph so we are waiting for a more favourable forecast before we make a move. This also allows our Sherpas to catch up on the work in stocking the camps after 5 days of bad weather.

So how are the team doing ?

Dave is recovering slowing from his bad Chest Infection and is quite happy about all the coverage Adventure Peaks is getting. This is despite being called "Simple" by the newspaper interviewer !

Phil is quite happy about the extra acclimatisation time. He was very unhappy that the Chinese lady from the Chinese TV company CCTV thought he was 40 years old, despite the fact that if he summits, he will be the youngest Britain to summit from the North Side at 24 years old !.

Patricia is understandably quite apprehensive about talking live to 1.2 Billion Chinese viewers on Sunday !

Walid is getting quite upset that he hasn't been invited to any of the parties by the American team next door. He was quite shocked when our Tibetan water carrier tried to persuade him that he should marry his 17 year old daughter and take her back to the US !. That's the fastest I've seen the 22 year old run since the start of the trip !. He spent every 5 minutes checking on his tent during the 5 day storm.

Peter is becoming quite impatient and headed off to ABC today. Probably worried about the rest of us embarrassing him on Chinese TV !.

Conan is still capturing all the embarrassing moments on his Camcorder and is keeping those finished video tapes well hidden from the rest of the team.

The next report will come when we have received a good forecast and are about set off on our summit bid.

Latest News is that the toilet tent is now back up at Base Camp ! Conan Harrod

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