Everest South Side Expedition
Tarragona Everest 2003

05/20/2003: The "residences" of the expedition.

When the expedition was organized, its extension was considered in order to have the maximum comfort possible.  Each member has one tent for himself or herself, so that they can have some privacy while they rest. There is also a big tent that is used as a mess, office and movie theater. It is semicircular, with five windows and three doors, and we can state that it is one of the most comfortable tents at base camp. We have a big table with ten chairs and two little tables where we put the computers and that are used as an office. For the high altitude camps we have tents with room for 2-3 people and two tents for 5-6 people. Unfortunately, the strong winds of the last days left us without the two big tents that were used as mess and meeting place in the advanced camps. To improve our conditions we have fine mattresses to avoid sleeping on the rocks, and there are even some people who have brought a pillow.

05/20/2003: Energy at Base Camp:

Being 5,300 meters high, as you can imagine, there are no electricity poles, so we had to think of some alternatives.  Our principal energy resources were three.  We wanted the resources to be the most ecological as possible.  Based on the statistics we had, the wind blew often at base camp, so we decided to bring an eolic generator which at the end has not generated even a watt.  In second place and a better choice, we have three solar panels.  These give us enough energy to work until after dinner.  It is clean energy, ecologic and cheap and is the most used by all the expeditions.  Our last resource was a gasoline motor.  It is the most reliable and never fails but it is also the most expensive and noisy and at night you can not have it working until late.  It has been our savior more than once and has become our principal source of energy.  These resources give us energy for two computers, one satellite modem, a telephone, to charge the camera's batteries and to have electric light by night.  We also have a gas stove which was bought in Katmandu that we have not managed to make it work.

05/20/2003: Food at Base Camp

They say that when you are living in the heights, because of the lack of oxygen, the human body deteriorates and begins to lose weight.  It starts with the muscle mass and continues with the layers of grease.  To avoid it, or at least to counteract, the "Tarragona al sostre del món" expedition has carried to Everest base camp some 600 Kg of food.  Among this food is a lot of chocolate, cold meats of all kind, power food like Santiveri, soups, olive oil... in other words, the necessary food to counteract the effects of altitude.  Everything was supervised by Lluís Ráfols, in charge of the expedition diet, who has participated in other high altitude expeditions in Nepal and knows the culinary customs of the Sherpa people.  The expedition nurtures daily with the food made by our Sherpa cook, which has a lot of carbon hydrates and proteins.  There are also some fruits and vegetables, it is good feeding in general but we are always thankful when we eat food from back home.  As for the water, it all seems to indicate that the highest mountain of the world would have the purest water of the world, well no!  Here the water has to be boiled in order to melt the ice.  So we always drink hot water and it doesn't have a nice taste. 

05/20/2003: The other Catalan expedition

We are not alone at Everest base camp!  Besides us, there are some 29 more expeditions, among them two from Euskal Herria and another Catalan.  This other Catalan expedition is Sergi Mingote's and the one of TV3, who live in the same "street" and share the cook, kitchen and work together.  Their expedition has just one climber (Sergi Mingote), and two technicians and camera operators, among them Albert Barceló, Pepus, Miguel Ángel, Lluis Palahí, Xavier Valls.  Sergi, just like us, wants to climb to the summit of the Mother Godess, Sagarmatha, and the people of TV3 want to film his climb and have ours live.  We have a very nice and friendly relationship, and we help in everything we can.  They spend the day looking for news to send to Cataluña and we do the best we can to help.

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

Pictures later....

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