Dan Mazur's Kangchenjunga Spring 2002

27 April Dispatch: The weather was decent in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon. Chris and Stuart returned late the previous night, and took a rest day in basecamp. Malte, Paul, Ivan, Julio, and Mike walked across the 6000 meter plateau, through the ice building, traversed the 6400 meter ice terrace, and deposited a cache of tents, stoves, and rope and ice screws at 6450 meters, behind a protective ice terrace serac. Ian, Dan, Felix and Steve rested in basecamp. Mark returned to basecamp late in the afternoon with Tek.

PS. We are presently in east Nepal, climbing the world's third highest peak, "Kangchenjunga". The name means "The Five Treasures of the Snow God" and the mountain is indeed a treasure in itself. 

28 April Dispatch: Chris, Stuart, Ian, Felix, Steve, Dan, Dorje Tamang,  Galu Sherpa and Dorje Sherpa all  walked to Camp 1. The weather was fine in the morning, and crap in the afternoon. The only member left in basecamp was Mark, together with Tek. Ivan, Julio, Malte, Paul and Mike rested in camp 1, tired from the previous day's efforts. It was nearly our entire team in camp 1.

29 April Dispatch: A massive storm blew in. It started very early in the morning slowly, with grey skies and flurries and a few puffs of wind, and by 11:00 am, it was raging. Mike, Ivan, Julio, Malte, Paul, Dorje Tamang,  Galu Sherpa and Dorje Sherpa decided to bail out, and descended to basecamp. They took a rope with them. It was a very hard walk, through the increasing gale, and they became more and more chilled to the bone as they advanced to basecamp. In fact, only a few meters from basecamp, as they topped the moraine, the weather was the worst, with hurricane strength winds roaring up the valley from Ghunsa, crashing through basecamp, and plastering their faces with ice. Everyone felt extremely relived, but shattered, to have arrived safely. Blessedly, the roomy Chinese imitation "North Face VE-24" tents (one for each member in basecamp) survived intact. Up in camp 1, Stuart, Chris, Ian, Felix and Dan had decided to stay put, and ride out the storm. It blew hot and heavy up there until the evening. During the worst part of the blast, the old Mountain equipment Coop tent with a Nepalese rain-fly, which Ivan and Julio had been sleeping in, suffered a broken pole (a second one in five expeditions) and the ripped pole end tore a hole through the nylon tent fabric. Chris and Stuart and Dan rushed out during the storm to quickly pack up Ivan and Julio's belongings, and pack them into the storage tent.

30 April Dispatch: The morning was sunny and beautiful, if a little windy and chilly. Ian, Stuart, Chris and Steve took a rest day in camp 1. Ivan, Julio, Mike, Mark, Malte and Paul took a rest day in basecamp, after being so thrashed by yesterday's blizzard-trek. Felix and Dan walked down to ABC and on their way they explored a new route on the other side of the glacier, in order to move the existing route out from under some overhanging seracs which had already deposited some 100 kilo ice chunks onto our fixed lines at 5400 meters. The new route turned out to be very straight forward, only involving hiking on a glacier and scree. On their way back up to camp 1, Felix and Dan carried loads of equipment food and gas, and placed thirty bamboo marker flags, to indicate where to the others where the route went exactly.

1 May Dispatch: The morning was sunny and perfect, with no wind and not a cloud in sight. Chris and Stuart took off early, at 5:30 am, into the freezing cold morning. They carried a load: tent, stove and gas, up to 4800 meters, and deposited it on the ice terrace above the ice building, not quite out of range of serac fall, but tied it into a rope and two ice screws. Ian, Felix and Dan, walked out into the 5900 meter plateau, with very heavy rucksacks, preparing to siege camp 2 and sleep there for an extended period of time. They only made it as far as the middle of the plateau, and set up a temporary camp, not sure they would be able to surmount the ice building and find a good place for camp 2 before dark and the inevitable afternoon storm, which rolled in as expected, at 14:00
pm. Steve, who had accompanied them, intending to do an acclimatization hike, hitched a ride back to camp 1 on Chris and Stuarts rope, as they came down, looking quite knackered. Ivan, Julio, Mike, Malte and Paul rested in the basecamp, all too shattered to contemplate doing anything, after the drubbing they had received two days before on the trek down to basecamp. 

Thank you very much. Cheers for now. Yours
Sincerely, Daniel Mazur from http://www.SummitClimb.com

Please join us in watching the "live-update" status of 2002 climbing expeditions to Nepal and Tibet on: http://www.everestnews.com/kang2002.htm