May 9 Preparing for the Summit Push: From Tom: Hello all! 

It is Thursday May 9th. After a great deal of experimentation and a marked increase in sun exposure Scott has been able to get the system to work here at Base Camp off of solar power. I have (along with the rest of the team) now been able to get and read all of the e-mails you have sent. Thanks to you all. I enjoyed them and only wish I could have responded in a more timely fashion!

THE NEXT FEW DAYS ARE VERY BIG DAYS FOR THIS ADVENTURE! Brian, Mike and I are at Base Camp resting. We came down from Camp 2 yesterday after spending three days there acclimatizing to 22,000 feet. Tomorrow Dan and Jerome move to Camp 3 (24,500 ft) to make their summit attempt during the night. We will move to Camp 1, then next day to Camp 2, then next day (passing Dan and Jerome on their way down) we will make our summit attempt. The weather is magnificent!!! I took a bath (sort of ) and will spend the rest of the day sorting the gear I will need to take with me on this final push although I have gear stored at each camp waiting for my return. The German team makes their attempt at the summit tonight. The Japanese will try on the same night as me. The Australians will try the day before us. Thus, as you can imagine, there is a great deal of energy and anxiousness here in base as each of the teams make their attempt.

All the team members are well although we are each showing some signs of what the physical, emotional, and altitudinal demands of this adventure bring. Scott continues to have difficulty adjusting to the altitude. The support staff and Sherpa are doing very well. The are very friendly and helpful. The way they sometimes wait on us has brought us to the conclusion that if we are not careful when we return we could get into some trouble!

I should go now since others are anxious to get their turn. Next time we connect will be after we reach the summit. So think of us these next three days, hope for great weather, know that I will be as safe as I can be, know that I will think of you and many others that brought us here, know also that after touching the top, my momentum will turn to getting home as soon as humanly possible! This shift in focus is the very core of climbing. It happens each time I climb. It may be because in some ways having a dream may be more important than actually accomplishing it. Mostly, however, it is because after being gone so long, there is only one thing you want to do and that is get back to those who sent you! My best to all of you!

More from Tom: The route is well known because we have each traveled the first six thousand feet several times to set our camps, to ferry loads of equipment or supplies, or to put fixed rope lines in places where exposure to one of the many large towering seracs or deep crevasses require it. We have each spent several nights at our camp at 22,000 feet to acclimatize. We have deposited two tiny tents, two little stoves and a few days food at 24,500 feet. This small cache waits there for us. It will serve as desperate shelter and a brief rest spot in our final push to the summit.

Most importantly, each of us has returned to our Base Camp one last time for a few much-needed days rest. Each time down the place has changed greatly from the time before. The incessant sun has melted snow and exposed much rock. The previously frozen cliffs around the Base Camp are now active with water falls, constant small but noisy avalanches of rock and snow and our tents are sinking with the melting snow.

So an adventure that started over a month ago has now come to its ultimate focus. Tomorrow we leave to make our push to the summit. We will first travel over the familiar first 6,000 feet. Then we step into very unfamiliar territory. It is in this space that we must gather all our resolve to touch the top of this mountain called Manaslu. The odds are not with us. In the high thin air focus and concentration are the most important tools we will have.

This summit push will take the next four days. We are all very excited and at the same time worried. Regardless of the outcome, this trip has already filled each of us with a great sense of respect for the mountain we came to climb and the people who live on its shoulders.

We have also, in a very powerful way, come to renew the respect and affection each of us have for those we left behind. It is this affection that we will tap to provide the focus and concentration we will need during the next few days.

And then comes the most important part of the entire trip..... returning to those we left behind!

From Mike: Okay, so this is what we’ve all been working so hard for – tomorrow Tom, Brian, Khan Cha and I leave en route to the summit.  It works like this: we have camps one and two established and camp three cached high on the summit plateau.  Tomorrow (Friday) we head for C1, Saturday we hit C2, Sunday it’s off to C3 and from there it’s off to the summit.  Right now all of our positive thoughts are with Dan, Jerome, Kusang and Ki Kami who are right now climbing through the icefall toward C2.  The icefall is breaking up and there are numerous hungry holes just waiting to gobble up unsuspecting climbers.

It’s a bummer that we’ll be a day behind the Australian team as they would be good accomplices on the summit plateau.  They plan to head straight up to C2 tomorrow – we cannot do the same as we don’t have the tent space at C3.  Getting the logistics down on this expedition has been a full time job, you have to make sure that there is enough food, fuel and sleeping space at each camp without going overboard because what goes up must come down.

What we’ve learned about high mountain climbing is that everything hinges on acclimatization.  For whatever reason Scott has been unable to adjust to the higher altitudes; it is not uncommon for the fittest member of a climbing party to be the one who suffers most at altitude.  The bottom line is that barring an unforeseen incident Scott will not be able to reach the summit.

The weather has been perfect for the past few days; we hope that the pattern holds.  We are fit and ready to go, the only thing that can stop us now is a big storm.  The next four days will be pivotal in the lives of Tom, Brian and I, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

By the way, I washed my hair for the first time in twenty eight days today – you just don’t appreciate the little things until they’re gone. Namaste

Dispatches