Sunday, April 29, 2012

First Trip through the ice fall completed

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting updates out, the internet via the cell network is touchy at best. Right now I have hiked about an hour out of base camp to get a strong enough signal to be able to send this update.

We spent 5 days above Base Camp working on acclimatization. With two nights  spent at Camp 1 and and 3 at Camp 2. We also took a little time to hike to the base of the Lhotse face. As of two days ago the route was fixed through to  Camp 3 It is expected that the route to Camp 4 (South Col) will be fixed in the next few days. The weather remains cyclonic in that mornings are nice and bright, almost warm enough to wear short sleeves and by 1 pm the clouds have come in the winds have picked up and you are headed into the dinning tent.

Right now we are planning to  go up for our second rotation on the mountain on May 2nd. The plan will be to head directly to Camp 2 and spend two nights there, ascend to Camp 3 for 1 or two nights, return to to Camp 2, then descend to BC after that. We tend to travel in the middle of the night through the ice fall because that is when it is most stable. 

I hope everyone is having a great spring. 

Chris Klinke
Everest BC

PS. I apologize for any typos but I am  sitting on rock typing this….

1 comment:

Ben said...

Sounds like your expedition is going great and acclimatization is coming along nicely! Enjoy some well deserved rest at BC! (assume that's what you're doing until the 2nd?)

Out of curiosity: do you plan to descend to the forest zone before summit push?

Good luck and climb safe!