Wednesday April 9. Everest Base Camp 5350m.
I am now at Everest base camp. Our walk this morning took almost two hours over mixed terrain. Some of it was flat and sandy, some of it was on gravel on top of the glacial moraine, and some of it was through huge boulder fields.
I am feeling much better today. I had a difficult night last night but today the Cipro seems to be doing its thing.
It is amazing the difference in base camp from when Susan and I were here almost two weeks ago. When Susan and I trekked in there were only a few Sherpas here starting to hack tent platforms out of the ice and rock. It looked like a pretty cold and bleak place to spend two months.
Today as we walked in it was amazing to see the transformation. Tents are everywhere and there are hundreds of people. It looks like a small city. Our camp is in the suburbs. Each of us has our own North Face VE25 tent with a foam pad floor a thick sleeping pad and even a pillow. In our camp we have two storage tents that are used mostly for food and equipment, a beautiful dining tent, a stone walled kitchen tent, a shower with on-demand hot water,and a toilet tent.
When we first arrived we had lunch in the dining tent. This tent is actually two tents put together end to end. It is about 10 feet wide by 24 feet long. It has an insulated, carpeted floor, is made of a double wall construction for insulation, has compact fluorescent lighting, a propane heater, a long table full of snacks, drinks, and condiments, and plastic patio chairs. It is quite plush.
Our cook is Babaron and our server/assistant cook is Sam (a good Sherpa name). For lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches, fried Spam, potato salad, cucumber carrot and turnip salad and bananas for desert. I think we will eat well on this trip.
We also met Lhakpa who will be our camp 2 cook. We will spend a lot of time at camp 2 and will use it as an advanced base camp. Whenever we are there Lhakpa will also be there to make sure we eat well.
We are sharing our camp with a few other people as well. We have three other climbers from High Altitude Dreams and three researchers from Brown's University and NASA.
The climbers are Sylvie from Quebec, Mustafa from Jordan (he is a personal friend of the King of Jordan and has been Knighted by the King), and the third climber is Ron from North Carolina. I will tell you more about these climbers as I get to know them.
The two Brown researchers are working on a project that began in 1993. They are examining the affects of altitude on specific parts of the brain linked to speech, memory and cognition. They are hoping to use this research to help them better understand and treat Parkinson's disease. I may join their study. The NASA researcher is also here to help the Brown team, but he is also doing a study on group dynamics based on his work with Astronauts. It will be great to talk with him since we both work in a similar field. Once again I will tell you more as I learn it.
Right now I am sitting in my tent relaxing. I have unpacked most of my stuff and arranged my tent, but one bag is yet to arrive. This bag has mostly climbing gear so I don't really need it right now. I am sitting here with no shirt, no socks and shorts and I am way too hot. The radiation from the sun is extreme, but when the sun goes behind a cloud the temperature drops dramatically. I tried to turn on my iPod but due to the extreme altitude it crashed. I will not be able to use it for the remainder of the expedition (I was almost at the end of a great audio book and will now need to wait two months to hear the end). If anyone reading this works for a company that makes an mp3 player with a flash drive and wants to test it on Everest just send it up (just kidding, sort of).
It appears that our communications system is working and I should be able to get your messages via myeverest and from Susan.
I have a quick story to tell to end this lengthy dispatch. All of the lodges we have stayed in have a wood/dung fire that is lit every night. This small and inefficient fire is all the heat there is in the common room. Every night the Sherpas stream in to get out of the cold. The funny thing is that every Sherpa who comes in out of the cold leaves the door wide open so all the heat escapes. When one of the climbers or trekkers gets up to close the door they all watch with interest. Then the next Sherpa comes in and leaves the door open once again. This must be a cultural norm as it has happened at every single lodge we have been in. It seems that I do more walking to close the door every night than I do on our trek during the day.
That's all for now.
Big hugs to Susan, Amy and Colin.
Scott. (SS)