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Friday April 18-Saturday April 10. Base Camp to Camp 1 Overnight.
On Friday we made our first trip to camp 1.
The night before an early morning climb I spllep in my Action Suit. This is all the clothing that I will wear for the climb the next day. I was sleeping in and would climb in my expedition long underwear, my climbing pants, my grey base layer top and my windstopper vest. In the pockets of my vest and pants I had sunscreen, candies and toilet paper. The idea is to sleep in what you will wear for a quick departure in the morning. It also saves getting dressed in the cold dark of early morning. I would also take with me my sleeping pads, my high altitude gloves, my beleclava, my Gore-Tex jacket, my warm hat, my sun hat, my buff, my cup and spoon and all my climbing gear. Much of this would be left at camp one ready to be moved higher up the mountain.
We had breakfast at 5:15am and were on the trail by 6:15. There were already many people on the trail ahead of us. This was the first day that the ice fall had been fully opened to camp 1 and many people were anxious to get up high for acclimatization and out of boredom.
We reached our previous high point 30 minutes faster than last time, but this is where the speedy ascent ended. We were then met by a barrage of Sherpa descending the route. At some of the tehnical sections we would wait 15-20 minutes for our turn. We also ran into exceptionally slow climbers. Some of these climbers appeared to have little to no climbing experience. One guide was clipping and unclipping every rope for his client. The client would just stand there with his hands out of the way and the guide would do all the work. When they got to technical sections it was almost unbearable to watch as the guide explained what the jumar was, hooked it onto the rope for the client and then showed him how to use it. The client then moved upwards at a snails pace. They did let us pass eventually. Then we got stuck behind another slow climber who appeared to have no system at all. Every time he got to a vertical section, he had to search his harness for the gear he needed, decide how to use it and then move forward. As a climber, you develop a system. There is a place for everything on your harness and you know exactly where to find it and where to put it back. This makes all transitions faster.
We did eventually pass this group as well. It is unbelievable the lack of skill, experience and fitness on this mountain.
The route was, however, spectacular. The scenery is staggeringly beautiful, and the climbing it unlike anything else. The ladder crossings were exhilarating, and the multi ladder ascents were literally breathtaking. I wandered in and around huge seracs, and stepped over bottomless crevasses.
The popcorn is a mass jumble of broken ice. Some of the ice is a brilliant turquoise blue. It is a wonder that the Sherpa can find a route through this maze. It does appear, however, that the route does not change too much from year to year as we could see old ropes and anchors not too far off the trail we were on.
Above the popcorn are a series of huge ladder assents (4-5 ladders tied end to end) and several large flat areas.
After a final huge vertical ladder climb, we emerged onto the Western Cum. This massive valley that leads to camp 1, camp 2 and the Lotse face.
It was quite hot in the Cum, but over all the weather for the day had treated us quite well. It was rarely too hot or too cold. We walked to another 20 minutes over slightly rising ground until we spotted the tents of camp 1. We stopped at the first set of tents hoping they were ours, but they were not. We had to drop into a big valley and climb out the other side to get to our tents. Overall, the trip to camp 1 took seven hours. Without the slowdowns we encountered I think our time could have been closer to 5-6 hours.
Our camp was made of four North Face tents lashed to the snow and ice with ropes. When we arrived, the two Lamas (Babu and Tame) were there to greet us with hot juice. We drank, ate some food and moved into our tents.
Angus and I shared a tent and spend the first bit of time unpacking and getting settled. We did not have much, but it would do. For the rest of the afternoon we ate and drank and talked. At 5:00pm Lama brought us a dinner of noodles and soup and that was it for the night. We took some Diamox and settled in for a very long night.
At first the tent was quite hot due to the sun, but once the sun dropped the temperature went down fast. I still found it quite warm and laid in my sleeping bag with the zipped undone and my jacked un done as well. I had brought a lighter sleeping bag with the intention of sleeping in my down suite inside my sleeping bag, but it just seemed too warm.
Neither of us had carried up a book or cards so we talked and dozed until it was 8pm and we felt it was late enough to try to go to sleep for the night.
I woke at midnight to find that it was cold enough in the tent to require me to zip up my sleeping bag. I also zipped up my vest which I was sleeping in.
Due to the huge amount of liquid I had consumed I quickly filled my pee bottle. At 4am I woke and needed to dump my bottle out the back of my tent before re-filling it. It was at this point that the deep cold of the night struck. It was extremely windy, but my ear plugs had enabled me to sleep over the freight train noise.
It was so cold that I pulled my down suit into my sleeping bag with me (I should have just put it on, but that seemed like too much work), put on another hat and down jacket and settled down for the rest of a cold night. I did not sleep much after this probably due to the cold and the the fact that I had already slept for 8-10 hours.

We started to move at 7:30am on Saturday morning. The wind was still howling, but once the sun hit the tent at 8:05am it warmed quickly. I had some tea and a Mars bar for breakfast and got dressed for the descent. I packed a bag which I would leave in the tent and hope it did not get blown off the mountain, or stolen.
At 8:30am I was outside and ready to go. No one else was ready however. I stood in the wind outside the tents for a while and then moved into the adjacent valley hoping to get out of the wind. No such luck. It was a wind tunnel. I climbed to the other side to wait. Fortunately it was not too cold by this time. I estimate -15c with the wind chill. Eventually, the rest of the team joined me and we started down.
Immediately we ran into a ton of Sherpa coming up which impeded our progress. We then ran into a ton of climbers also coming up. Some people are not very patient and bud in line for a rap, or push past on small trails. It is all kind of silly. Some get so mad at each other and start yelling back and forth. It is what it is. It is Everest. If you don't like it go somewhere else.
The trip down was slow, but not too bad. Once we passed half way we met very little traffic up or down. It did, however, get very hot which sapped my energy. We made it back to our base camp just in time for lunch.
That's all for today.
Love to Susan, Amy and Colin.
Scott.