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Everest
2001 Expedition: Polytechnic University of Valencia
Three
climbers from Valencia, Spain will attempt Everest
from the Standard North Col Route. This group has
participated in three expeditions together and has
worked to become a close-knit team. In the Himalayas, two of the three
summited Cho Oyu (8,201) and, most recently, they had
an unsuccessful expedition to Manaslu. This
was caused by bad weather. Of note is
that they were accosted by terrorists during the trek
to Manaslu!
May
9th: Although
today's plans were to leave for the Yak Camp, along
the route to Advanced Base Camp, we are awoken
very early by a snowstorm which suggests that we may
have to delay our departure. A little while later, we
receive the weather report from Barrabes and decide to
wait a few days, as the forecast for the next few days
is generally snowstorms and bad weather, in this part
of the Himalaya. During the day, we talk to other
expeditions who had also thought of setting off today,
and like us, they have decided to stay at Base Camp
and wait for the weather to improve.
To avoid
boredom we challenge some of the group "Al Filo
de lo Imposible" (On the Edge of the Impossible)
to the first golf championship at Everest Base Camp.
As they are very professional, they even have a proper
golf club with them and the championship has all the
ingredients to be a Grand Slam Tournament. Anyway, it
was Dimitri, the leader of a Siberian expedition, who
demonstrated his qualities as a golfer and he beat us
all hands down.
Naturally
across the course we had to avoid the many obstacles:
rocks, yak herder's tents, yaks and other typical
objects.
In
the afternoon the climbers from "Al Filo..."
arrive at Base Camp and tell us the situation at
Advanced Base Camp. You can see in their faces the
days that they have spent at altitude, particularly
Jacinto, the reporter from Marca, who has been above
6400m for more than 20 days, following the events of
Juanito Oiarzabal.
10th
May: We
wake up expecting the storm, but that won't come until
the afternoon. What does arrive are the bosses of the
"Al Filo..." programme and they bring us
news from Spain. We spend a while in "El
Pepe", the nearest thing that we have to a
road-side bar. Here, you can get anything from a
Coca-Cola to a toilet roll. We talk to Pepe, the owner
of the place, a typical Tibetan, who, it seems, after
working for many years as a yak herder, decided that
building a "hut" at the foot of Everest
would be good business. He tells us that this year the
climate is pretty much the same as last year, but that
perhaps in a few days we will once again have the sun
on our faces... Come on, how's that for reliable
information!?!
In
the afternoon the snow keeps us stuck in the kitchen
from where we write this diary, but we're hoping it
will ease off a little so we can get out for a walk
about. Anyway, the most exciting thing about this
afternoon is that the whole of the Siberian expedition
is challenging for a second round of the Grand Slam
Golf and they don't seem to care that there is a lot
of fresh snow falling. Typical Siberians!
After
a few days at Base Camp, we believe that the time has
come to pay homage to "El Pepe", a very
special hut where we usually have very good times. The
hut in question was built using four boards and a multicolored
canvas, but seems resistant enough to the inclement
weather at our Base Camp. Inside "El Pepe"
you can buy Coca-Cola, water (from China) and a huge
variety of different alcoholic drinks of
suspicious quality. Fortunately for us, we are not
keen on much alcohol and Coke is the same everywhere:
at home, in Tibet or on the moon.
On
the snowy days we spend the hours in "El
Pepe" where it is warm, making concrete our plans
for the ascent.
9th
& 10th May translated by Allison Macaulay.
"May
5th & 6th:
The hours pass slowly here, the weather is not
on our side, the hours pass and we comment
that it doesn't matter, that the snowfall
will only last a few hours and that with a
short sunny spell, the snow will stop and we
will be able to leave for Advanced Base Camp. The
wind, for its part, is also unwilling to side with
us and blows fiercely, making it clear that we
will also need the wind's permission to leave
here, and that above all, if it doesn't want
us to, we can't plan on ascending to the final
ridge.
We
wake up early but keep quiet, as if we didn't
know that our companions are also awake. We
don't want to get up. We don't have anything
special to do today either. We know that on
leaving the tent, all that there is to do is
to have breakfast and go into one of the other
tents to talk about the snowfall, the wind or
about what other group's weather forecasts
say...
We
discuss the fact that within two days we will
have a good weather window. It will possibly
be the moment to leave Base Camp and head for
Advance Base Camp to wait for another good
weather window, and then continue with the
ascent.
Today,
we met with a member of the Brazilian
Expedition, they were going in the Land Rover
to see the Rongbuk Monastery. We didn't have
to think about it and we got in the car with
them. Fifteen minutes later we were there.
It's not a particularly spectacular place,
there are very few people, and we looked
around on our own, as if it was there just for
us. Only the wind, which keeps taut the
strings of the prayer flags, reminds us that
the place isn't motionless, and
that although small, there is movement here.
Some buildings that surround the monastery,
seem to have been left unused for a long time,
but suddenly, one of the doors open and two
women come out, quickly disappearing who knows
where. Today has been a different day, we only
hope that within a few moments of connecting
to the e-mail to send these words, we will
have news from Spain, something that we will
find more encouraging than what we have at the
moment. Here, we are all hoping for the
weather to improve with the changing of the
moon so that we can leave Base Camp."
7th
May: We
are quite lively when we get up. Its a lovely
day, the second in a row It seems that the
change in the moon phase has had a favorable
affect on the weather and Base Camp is quite
warm.We
are able to walk around in t-shirts asking each
other
when are we going to head up?. The sherpas
have just equipped Camp III, and the commercial
expeditions are trying hard to fix ropes beyond
Camp III [Note Camp 5 or 6 to them].
The
Colombians have offered us beans and it seems
that even after cooking them for two days they
may well have not been cooked sufficiently.Base Camp this afternoon resembled a war
hospital with people lying around accompanied
with the noise of bombs!
During
the day we speak to Tiling , the sirdar, we tell
him about our plans for the next few days..
Everything seems to point to heading to the Yak
camp on the 9th, arriving at ABC on
the 10th.There we intend to rest for a few days
and then we will start to ascend to the higher
camps. We will possibly split into two teams,
due to space in the tents, one being two of us,
the other being with Sergi, the Catalan. In
either case we will be accompanied by the
sherpas.
In
the afternoon we visited the Rongbuk Monastery
as the nerves prevent us from staying still at
BC. After an hour of the trip and of fright,
after hearing explosions due to the widening of
the access road to Base Camp, we decided to turn
back and spend the rest of the day organizing
the kit that we will take to ABC.
