Everest: A Day in the Life at Base Camp
Today was a bittersweet day, starting with an early flight to the base camp helipad by a shiny deep green, precisely flown Nepal army helicopter. We sadly watched as Sergio Martini and his team loaded the body of the deceased Sherpa Dawa onto the helicopter. We said our prayers for the fallen Sherpa.
After the helicopter left, Sergio came by and we reminisced about old times climbing together on Gasherbrum 1 in 1994 with Sergio and Fausto Destefani and Jon Pratt and Andy Collins and friends. The conversation brushed on many topics, Rheinhold Messner, the Duke of Abruzzi, John F Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Ricardo Cassin, Renato Cassaroto, Ardito Desio, Vittorio Sella, Jerzy Kukuscka, and ended with Sergio asking if we would provide a Sherpa to his team, as they have now tragically lost theirs. We said “of course we would” and discussed how best to go about this with our Sherpas. The Sherpas were currently restocking Camp 2, after a big wind storm destroyed our Camp 2 kitchen tent two nights ago.
Mark Luscher and his Sherpa Lakpa Chirri came down from Camp 3 before lunch, looking exhausted and happy. During the meal, Mark related stories of how Sherpa Lakpa had motivated him to keep going, the wind storm where Lakpa saved the almost blown away cook tent, the other team's destroyed tents in Camp 2, and the difficult march back down through the icefall to Base Camp.
Mark said the icefall is ok as of now. Thank God for that, as it was looking very scary and unstable when we came through the other day. I know our Sherpas were really worried about it, so this should soothe their fears a bit.
We are all very glad that Mark and Lakpa seem to be on our same schedule now, and that after a few more rest days; we will be able to climb together in one big group of 8 members and 7 Sherpas like a team working and climbing together.
After lunch, Bruce and Dan went over to meet our base camp neighbor Ted, who makes a new kind of oxygen mask that everyone is raving about. We returned to our own team’s dining tent to try out Bruce’s new mask and then Dan got out our current masks and regulators and oxygen bottles and also produced another type of new mask and regulator made by his friend Neil.
Just then, Tom Bell from the Daily Telegraph in London and his friend, Nilesh, wandered in. Next we were joined by Kaji, our loyal Sirdar, and we proceeded to sit around the dining table and try out all three oxygen systems. It was quite a session of oxygenology, as it were, with everyone participating in their own unique way.
After the oxygen tryouts, Tom proceeded to ask a thousand questions about Everest Base Camp. he also wanted to know about what’s going on over on the Tibet side, so we called up Arnold Coster, the Tibet side leader, on the phone and amazingly Arnold answered. Tom was able to conduct an interview of Arnold on the spot.
During the interview, Tom was particularly interested in what’s going on with the Chinese Olympic torch team that is practicing for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, when they are going to light the torch on the summit of Everest and carry it all the way to Beijing.
A few minutes later, our members Daniel Kim and Philip Ling joined in. Daniel talked about the amazingly busy eye hospital in Katmandu, and Philip, when prompted for some gossip about the racier side of life in base camp, said there weren’t a lot of sexy stories to tell as he had not seen many women in base camp of late.
Tom decided he wants to do a story on the famous Khumbu icefall doctors, so we
corralled our super-famous lead Sherpa, Mark's personal Sherpa Lakpa Chirri, who knows everyone in base camp, if not the entire Khumbu valley, to take Tom over to the Icefall doctor's tent compound in base camp.
Just as tom was preparing to go, our own six Sherpas came into the Dining tent (which also serves as a storage and communication tent)under Sirdar Kaji's supervision, started packing up for tonight's 4am trip up the icefall to Camp 2. The whole base camp had an air of hustle and bustle about it. I hope Tom did not get the wrong impression, as it’s usually a really sleepy and dull place.
Now its evening time and our loyal cooks Jay Bahadur,Temba and Gyelzen are preparing another massive multi-course meal. Last nights nine courses included soup, salad, popcorn, 3 vegetables, potatoes, rice, duck, and evena delicious freshly baked cake. I have no idea how our dynamo cooks do it,but they seem to be able to keep it up, producing sumptuous repasts night after night from their tiny glacier bound canvas cook tent lit by candles. I had mistakenly thought we were having a slimming diet expedition and going to lose weight. Was I ever wrong on that score.
Thanks to those of you who have made it to the bottom of this missive. Thanks for watching our progress and please pray for everyone's health, safety, and success here on Everest, for all the teams and Sherpas and members (not only ours), that we all have safe and successful expeditions.
Thank you very much and may God bless you and all, from our entire team. Thank you very much, I wish you were here!
Yours
Sincerely, Dan
After the helicopter left, Sergio came by and we reminisced about old times climbing together on Gasherbrum 1 in 1994 with Sergio and Fausto Destefani and Jon Pratt and Andy Collins and friends. The conversation brushed on many topics, Rheinhold Messner, the Duke of Abruzzi, John F Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Ricardo Cassin, Renato Cassaroto, Ardito Desio, Vittorio Sella, Jerzy Kukuscka, and ended with Sergio asking if we would provide a Sherpa to his team, as they have now tragically lost theirs. We said “of course we would” and discussed how best to go about this with our Sherpas. The Sherpas were currently restocking Camp 2, after a big wind storm destroyed our Camp 2 kitchen tent two nights ago.
Mark Luscher and his Sherpa Lakpa Chirri came down from Camp 3 before lunch, looking exhausted and happy. During the meal, Mark related stories of how Sherpa Lakpa had motivated him to keep going, the wind storm where Lakpa saved the almost blown away cook tent, the other team's destroyed tents in Camp 2, and the difficult march back down through the icefall to Base Camp.
Mark said the icefall is ok as of now. Thank God for that, as it was looking very scary and unstable when we came through the other day. I know our Sherpas were really worried about it, so this should soothe their fears a bit.
We are all very glad that Mark and Lakpa seem to be on our same schedule now, and that after a few more rest days; we will be able to climb together in one big group of 8 members and 7 Sherpas like a team working and climbing together.
After lunch, Bruce and Dan went over to meet our base camp neighbor Ted, who makes a new kind of oxygen mask that everyone is raving about. We returned to our own team’s dining tent to try out Bruce’s new mask and then Dan got out our current masks and regulators and oxygen bottles and also produced another type of new mask and regulator made by his friend Neil.
Just then, Tom Bell from the Daily Telegraph in London and his friend, Nilesh, wandered in. Next we were joined by Kaji, our loyal Sirdar, and we proceeded to sit around the dining table and try out all three oxygen systems. It was quite a session of oxygenology, as it were, with everyone participating in their own unique way.
After the oxygen tryouts, Tom proceeded to ask a thousand questions about Everest Base Camp. he also wanted to know about what’s going on over on the Tibet side, so we called up Arnold Coster, the Tibet side leader, on the phone and amazingly Arnold answered. Tom was able to conduct an interview of Arnold on the spot.
During the interview, Tom was particularly interested in what’s going on with the Chinese Olympic torch team that is practicing for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, when they are going to light the torch on the summit of Everest and carry it all the way to Beijing.
A few minutes later, our members Daniel Kim and Philip Ling joined in. Daniel talked about the amazingly busy eye hospital in Katmandu, and Philip, when prompted for some gossip about the racier side of life in base camp, said there weren’t a lot of sexy stories to tell as he had not seen many women in base camp of late.
Tom decided he wants to do a story on the famous Khumbu icefall doctors, so we
corralled our super-famous lead Sherpa, Mark's personal Sherpa Lakpa Chirri, who knows everyone in base camp, if not the entire Khumbu valley, to take Tom over to the Icefall doctor's tent compound in base camp.
Just as tom was preparing to go, our own six Sherpas came into the Dining tent (which also serves as a storage and communication tent)under Sirdar Kaji's supervision, started packing up for tonight's 4am trip up the icefall to Camp 2. The whole base camp had an air of hustle and bustle about it. I hope Tom did not get the wrong impression, as it’s usually a really sleepy and dull place.
Now its evening time and our loyal cooks Jay Bahadur,Temba and Gyelzen are preparing another massive multi-course meal. Last nights nine courses included soup, salad, popcorn, 3 vegetables, potatoes, rice, duck, and evena delicious freshly baked cake. I have no idea how our dynamo cooks do it,but they seem to be able to keep it up, producing sumptuous repasts night after night from their tiny glacier bound canvas cook tent lit by candles. I had mistakenly thought we were having a slimming diet expedition and going to lose weight. Was I ever wrong on that score.
Thanks to those of you who have made it to the bottom of this missive. Thanks for watching our progress and please pray for everyone's health, safety, and success here on Everest, for all the teams and Sherpas and members (not only ours), that we all have safe and successful expeditions.
Thank you very much and may God bless you and all, from our entire team. Thank you very much, I wish you were here!
Yours
Sincerely, Dan
posted by Laurel Barrett | 5:50 PM
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