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Hi,
EverestNews.com, This email is brought to
you by the world's smallest and lightest
satellite telephone courtesy of Asian
Cellular Satellite (ACeS). The weather's
turned somewhat. Very windy last night and
this morning. A bitterly cold breeze is
cutting through basecamp. The setting is
spectacular with full-on views of
Shishapangma. |
| My
tent at ABC- Shisha covered in clouds with
high winds |
What
happens now is that we rest here for 2 days and
then do a big push; establishing intermediate camp
at 5800m, Camp 1 at 6400 meters and then make a
push to Camp 2 at 6800m in one single outing
taking six days. We'll try sleeping as much as
possible at C1; building on the great
acclimatisation we already have.
It's
really quiet here. The international European team
of 6-7 climbers and 2 sherpas are returning from
C1 today. They are part of the Amical Alpin group,
a commercial operation. The three Singapore
climbers from the other Shisha team left today for
a 10 day push to Camp 2 . Their sherpas are
working with the Amical ones to fix some rope up
higher.
Conditions
up high are windy and slopes loaded with snow. It
will take a while to clear. So at the moment there
are about 12 climbers based here. A large Austrian
group of 14 are due in a few days. By comparison,
I hear there are about 300 on Everest's north side
and about 150 on the south side of Everest. So
it's really quiet here.
All
well here and all the ASCENT 8000 team in good
health. The ankle tendon pressure bruise is much
better but we'll see once I don my big climbing
boots. An interesting dry blister on my left
middle finger is slowly sloughing off - the result
of some frostnip from the Mera summit day. Today,
I'll be fixing my busted ankle brace with some
chicken coop wire and duct tape. As a small
celebration, we ate some bak kwa for breakfast (
honey roasted pork from Singapore ) and some
preserved eggs ( " pei tan " ).
Email
contact remains erratic but voice updates will
continue if data reception is bad. My Apple
Macintosh Powerbook G3 is holding up well though
the hard disk is beginning to squeal and whine.
The thinner air here provides a lesser cushion for
the spinning forces of the harddisk. In any case,
at 5600m, it's performing way beyond the
maunfacturer's specs.
Special
greetings to all at Woodlands, Marsiling and
Canberra schools. Yesterday, I sent a special
answer list to some questions related to their
projects under the Ministry of Education's
EduQuest programme. And for those interested - yes
some interesting wildlife here. In the past week,
I've seen wild mules roaming the Tibetan plains,
game hens and (yesterday) a snow rabbit.
Dave
signing off.
David Lim
ASCENT 8000
Singapore Disabled Ascents of Shishapangma and Cho
Oyu 2002
Other
Shishapangma 2002
Expeditions and News
 Dispatches
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