Everest 2002 Expedition Report May 6th, 2002

Whew! We’re back in Basecamp after a long trip up high. Jason, Jack and I just returned from Camp 3 at almost 24,000 ft. after spending 2 nights there. It was great trip up, with good weather and everyone moving well. We all feel tired, but well acclimatized. Now we’re ready to focus on the summit!

Bruno is back at Basecamp now also after some rest down low and feels good to go up for some acclimatization. So he and I will go direct to Camp 2 tomorrow morning where he will spend a few days, then go up to Camp 3 for a night and hopefully be ready to join us for our summit bid next week.

The rest of our team plans to take some R and R down in one of the lower villages before starting back up for the top. We need to recharge our batteries as spending so much time up extremely high takes a lot out of everyone. All the teams on the mountain are either completing their final acclimatization trips or have already done so. Now it’s a matter of waiting for a good forecast to put together a summit push. This requires a lot of coordination to carry all the supplies to Camp 4 at the South Col and fix lines above, then allow time for all the summit team Sherpas to rest up. Finally we’ll plan the schedule to reach Camp 2, where we’ll remain for a couple days, before moving up to Camps 3, 4 and the top! Our strategy calls for us to start using oxygen for sleeping as soon as we arrive back at Camp 3. The following day we’ll climb to the South Col where we’ll meet our Sherpa summit support team. We will try to get some rest there and hydrate with hot drinks; then we’ll leave that night for the summit.

Right now all the teams are trying to get equipment, food and O2 to the South Col. With some intermittent bad weather it’s not an easy task. Today almost 60 Sherpas started for the S. Col, although the weather changed for the worse mid day, everyone is ok. Now we’re trying to coordinate efforts to get some fixed lines in to the summit. We need to have lines fixed up to the balcony, and onto the south summit. We plan to have 2 or 3 Sherpas up a day or two before we will arrive at the S Col, to fix line as far as possible. It seems a lot of groups are starting to look towards the middle of May for summit attempts. We are planning to first get all loads to the S Col, then allow some rest for all. At that point we will be looking towards weather forecasts for an idea when will be best.

At present our priority is R and R (rest and rehydration), good food, showers, laundry and preparing ourselves for the summit! Things are winding up, so we'll see what happens as next week draws closer.

Scott Woolums
Adventures International Inc.

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