Everest 2008- Golf @ 17000ft!!

A few of the team decided to stay up here in Basecamp until the summit push, and this gave us the opportunity to compete against Mark Tucker from International Mountain Guides (IMG) in the Khumbu Classic Golf Competition. Played on the edge of the Icefall with only a 3 and 9 iron, I guess it is probably the highest "course" in the world and definitely the trickiest. After a brief explanation of the course rules, which let's just say were unique!, we set off in a stroke play format under the glare of the History Channel Camera's. The game came down to the last hole, the par 5 "White Monster", with Jagged Globe's Ian Taylor and Tucker tied at level par. Two good drives off the Ice block made it difficult to split the pair until Tucker sliced his second into the rough, well when I say rough I mean a crevasse really!. Having to take a drop shot Tucker finished with a 6, which allowed Taylor's par 5 to bring him the title. Thanks to Mark for a real fun day out on the "course".

Anyway back on the climbing news, we have a proposed schedule for our summit bid, which of course is very dependent on the weather and getting logistics in place. Here it is;
19th May- Basecamp - Camp 2
20th May- Rest Camp 2
21st May- Camp 2- Camp 3
22nd May- Camp 3- Camp 4
22nd May/23rd May- Camp 4 -Summit-Camp 4 (Climb through night)
24th May - Camp 4 - Camp 2
25th May - Camp 2 - Basecamp

As I said this is all very provisional at this stage and so I will confirm nearer the time. Other than that all's good here.

Martin

Everest 2008- Camp 3 (7150m)

A 2 am start on the 9th of May , saw the team move up through the icefall with the aim of reaching Camp 2. Half way up the icefall a thunderous crack indicated a huge collapse/avalanche. Since it was dark all we could do was stay where we were and hope that we were not in the firing line. Fortunately we were not but frightening all the same. The ladders across the crevasses don't bother me, but as we approach the monsoon and the temperatures increase more and more serac collapses are likely and that is what is slightly unnerving each time we venture through the icefall. The good news is that, hopefully, we only have to venture through twice more.
After a brief stop at camp 1 to pick up some kit, we moved up the Western Cwn to Camp 2 and got caught in some real heat. Most people would imagine Everest to be a very cold place and it is but when the sun is out the Western Cwn is like a solar oven with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.

We had 2 nights in Camp 2 before setting off at 2 am on the 11th May for our climb to Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face. With very little precipitation this year so far the face was a very steep blue icey place, which required lots of front pointing on our crampons and jummaring all the way. With the ice so brittle people climbing above would shower ice down onto you, I took a few lumps onto my well justified helmet but unfortunately Ian took some ice in the eye and is seeking medical attention as I write this.

After a semi comfortable night in Camp 3 we descended to camp 2 in windy conditions where we had another night before making our way down here to basecamp this morning. James, Ian and myself were first down and were met by the film crew at the edge of the icefall where we shot off a bit of footage.

So that's us finished our acclimatisation cycles and are hopefully ready for our summit bid. We will now rest up here at basecamp or drop down the valley for a few days. The fixed lines have been fixed to camp 4 but the tents and oxygen have still to be moved up. So we wait for that to happen and keep studying the weather forecasts before deciding on a summit date. I will let you know as soon as we decide.

p.s.
1. A birthday shout out to Davey Boy out in Cairns Australia. All the best Amigo.
2. Good luck to Glasgow Rangers for tomorrow Night.

Everest 2008- Lucky Number 8- Olympic torch

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Hey,

I was awoken by the now familiar sound of the small jet aircraft circling the Summit. Over the last week, the aircraft had been capturing the progress of the Olympic torch team as they made their way up the other side of the mountain. Making my way to the mess tent at 7 am news reached me that the Torch had in fact reached the top. Reports were that over 20 climbers had summitted by 6 am Nepal time. I guess it was always going to be the 8th that the Chinese summitted, being that it is their lucky number and the Olympics start on 08/08/2008!!.


The news of the summit was met with great cheer here on the South side basecamp; the army cheer because they can now go back home and the climbers can now climb without any of the restrictions that were in place. With that in mind we leave at 2 am tomorrow morning for Camp 2 and onward to Camp 3 in the next couple of days to finish our acclimatisation. The team will be back down in BC on the 13th May where we will be resting up and planning our summit bid.


Other news is that we have the film crew from the History Channel arriving today to document the build up to, and our summit bid from a basecamp viewpoint.

Everest 2008- Day 43!

Hey,

Most teams have retreated down the valley in search of a more comfortable oxygen rich environment, but we have decided to stay here in what has become a very snowy Basecamp. Our hope is that things conclude elsewhere on the mountain in the next couple of days and we are in a position to get an early push up to Camp 3 to finish our acclimatisation.

We managed to freshen up our DVD collection with an exchange of films with the lads from the Adventure Peaks team. This has gone some way to relieve the boredom that is rapidly setting in around here. It is now 43 days since I left the UK, this amount of time saw me summit Cho Oyu and be back in sunny Kathmandu on my last expedition. Everest, especially from the South is a very long expedition and staying focused, with all this downtime, can be difficult at times so thanks for your comments they have been excellent for morale. On a plus point, after all the years of planning and waiting for this expedition, we hope to only have 3 weeks left on the mountain..so nearly there.

I can't believe of all the years to come here that my team, Glasgow Rangers, gets into the UEFA cup final, and I am going to miss the final down in Manchester. Can someone from home, who hasn't switched to Sky +, record the game (DVD/VHS) for me, I will be truly thankful. Staying on the football theme, myself and Ian Taylor (Fellow Team Member) are trying to assemble a team to play the Nepali army back in Kathmandu on our return. Major Rana, our Liaison Officer and top scorer for the army, has assembled the Nepali team and it looks like it could be and entertaining conclusion to our expedition. That said playing the Nepalese in their own back yard at 3000ft above sea level might not be the most sensible idea but will be fun all the same.

Martin

Everest 2008- Latest News

Hey All,

Sorry for the lack of updates, but communications have been difficult lately. Everything is cool here, I have been busy with my acclimatisation cycles, with three nights spent at Camp 1 (6060m) and one trip to Camp 2 (6400m). The trip up to Camp 2, up the Western Cwn or Valley of Silence as it is sometimes known, was truelly awsome, with the huge walls of Nuptse and Everest's West face flanking us on both sides and the Lhotse face and Lhotse (World's 4th Highest Mountain) at the head of the valley providing an awsome background for our climb.

Acclimatisation is going well and my time to Camp 1 is now down to just under 5 hours. Not bad by normal standards until you get passed by Pem Chheri, one of our Super Strong Sherpas, carrying a 30kg load. He makes Basecamp to Camp 1 in 2 hours! and onward to camp 2 in a total of 3 hours. I spoke to Pem in Camp 1, the other day, as he was making his way back from Camp 2 to Basecamp.

"Rest day tomorrow Pem?"
"No, back to work on Camp 2" replied Pem
"Why don't you just stay up there tonight then?" I asked

His simple answer typified the incredible physical ability of the Sherpas

"Not necessary"!!

In between our acclimatisation cycles we have a fair amount of time here at Basecamp. Our 12" DVD player has been working overtime of late with a typical example being watching the complete season 2 of the excellent US series "Entourage" in just 2 sittings!. Also to releave a bit of boredom we took part in a research programme for NASA. Ok Ok I'm bigging it up a little ..in truth, it was for NASA research, but was little more than a 400 question Physchometric test, which from what I could gather was analysing our perception of risk and how much of a nutter you must be to climb Everest.

We have got 2 more cycles to do on the mountain with the main aim of these to sleep at Camp 3 which we hope to have completed by early May. It will then be a case of watching the weather forecasts and planning summit bids.

Hope this finds you all well.
Martin

Everest 2008- Into the Icefall

With our team's Puja completed we have made some tentative climbs through the icefall in the last few days, with this mornings climb reaching a couple of hundred vertical metres from Camp1. Politics have re-emerged and we are being prevented from moving to Camp 1 until the Nepali army arrive in Basecamp!!.

The icefall was always the part of the route that I had slight worries about, but in reality I enjoyed my first 2 forays. Pemba Tshering (1 of our Sherpas), who accompanied us through the icefall this morning told us that the route is longer this year but safer..good news. That said, crossing a couple of aluminium ladders strapped together, with a bottomless crevasse beneath your crampons, making sure your spikes straddle the rungs and trying to ignore the towering ice serac above your head ensures that this is still not a place to get complacent or for anyone of a nervous disposition!.

On the health news a few team mates have gone down with the cold, but I have avoided it thus far and despite living with only 50% of the oxygen that you are enjoying I have no symptoms to report...well apart peeing like a racehorse as my body excretes all the bi-carbonates it needs to balance the pH for this altitude!..a minor inconvenience!.
Our plans are to head up to Camp 1 early in the week unless more Everest 2008 politics emerge..what a year!.

Everest 2008- Basecamp

Hello from Everest Base Camp. I swung into basecamp, fit, well and acclimatised, on Sunday after completing the trek with nights in Chukung, Loboche and Gorak Shep. We have only just got the Comms Tent up and running hence the delay between dispatches. It's great to finally get here and get into my individual spacious 4 man tent after the nomadic existence of the last 2 weeks. Its quite a change from the tea houses we have been staying in with -15 degrees Celsius temperatures measured on the last few nights and avalanches going off like jet aircraft flying over the tents during the night. I've also managed to enjoy my first shower in 2 weeks!..yeah I know what what your thinking..and your right..tad smelly..but that's expedition life.!!.


That's pretty much chapter 1 closed and I now focus on climbing on the mountain proper with the first leg climbing to camp 1. This involves negotiating the Khumbu Icefall, which is the most dangerous place on the whole mountain. A mass jumble of ice with gaping crevasses and overhanging seracs as big as houses. The ice fall is constantly moving which makes this place so dangerous. In order to forge a safe passageway through, each team, pays a group of sherpas called the Icefall Doctors a fee, to set aluminium ladders across the crevasses (sometimes 3 in length), fix ropes and anchors and maintain all these safety features throughout the climbing season. At this time only half of the icefall has been fixed so we are on rest days for a while.


The other thing we must do before going on the mountain is have our Puja. The Puja is a sherpa tradition where prayers and offerings are given to the mountain in order to ask for safe passage. The ceremony is led by a Local Lama, goes on for a couple of hours and will see our climbing equipment, crampons, ice axes, harnesses etc also being blessed as well as a few cheeky wee beers and a chang chaser. It all cumilates in the central flag pole resplendent in prayer flags being raised on our Puja stone where it will fly till the end of the expedition.


So not much climbing to report at this stage but hopefully by the weekend we will be into the icefall. Sorry for the lack of pics but is just prooving too costly and difficult at this time.