Under par at Basecamp!
One of my favorite sayings is "life is like an NBA basketball game, all the action happens in the last 2 minutes of the game." Well the recent dispatches may have me modifying my saying to include mountaineering. Teams continue to move up and down the Hill on both sides. Thankfully there is little negative news to note as the teams execute their acclimization schedules. The weather has turned a little ugly withhigh winds reported on the south side causing the AAI team to retreat to BC early in the Icefall.
You may wonder what climbers do when they have an unscheduled rest day at basecamp.
Over the past few years, our creative and talented explorers have put on concerts
with the musical instruments they brought, played the world's highest football (soccer)
match and this year had the 1st annual Khumbu Klassic Golf Tournament - compete
with color commentary. For a laugh, visit the video on the Mountain Link site.
On a couple of more serious notes, Mark Inglis is attempting to be the first double amputee to summit Everest. He is on the north side and had a "slight" mishap a few days ago - he broke his leg! Normally this would be an utter tragedy resulting in a massive rescue effort or worse. But in Mark's case, a new leg was sent up! He notes on his site "...just below half way down while arm-rapping (sort of sliding down the rope) one of the fixed line anchors pulled out of the ice/snow meaning a brief acceleration for me (some of it upside down, very interesting), I managed to arrest the slide only to find that the beautiful carbon leg on the right was now in two pieces! We all have radios so I ordered up a new leg from Wayne and Bob..." Amazing!
Finally, Basecamp MD has a nice summary of the teamwork that occurs when a climber needs help. It makes for some interesting reading as well as emphasizing how the teams on Everest pull together in a crisis. Luanne discusses the climber injured in the Icefall and, apparently, suffered a concussion "...we were notified that an injured climber was confused, vomiting and complaining of severe headache after being struck by a falling object mid-way through the icefall..." The Icefall continues to earn it's reputation as the most dangerous feature on the south side.
I have been through the Icefall more than 10 times and never wore a helmet but this year I see some pictures of climbers who have them on. Paul and Fi stand out in my mind. Helmets are not normally on the gear list but that may change for future expeditions.
So the climbing continues: on the north, teams have spent several nights at the North Col and are climbing higher. Teams on the south are at C2 and trying to spend a night a C3.
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