Khumbu Mountaineering Trilogy (page 3)

Oct 16

Al split the team into two groups. The fit group (Bob, Dan S., Dave, Nick) would go to camp 1 tonight, and the sick group (Me, Stuart, and Chris) would follow one day behind them. Taz elected to move up with us, but not go for the summit.

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(l-r): Mera central summit, north

summit, northwest summit

Dan Bergin and Mil (who was not acclimatizing at all) would take a porter and backtrack to Lukla. We'd meet up with them at the end of the month. Dan wanted to give the ankle a try, but Al talked him out of it. Crossing the Amphu Labtsa on a bum ankle was just too risky. Dan was disappointed; he was probably the fittest person in the group. Al and Brad took half of the Sherpa staff and the first summit group up to camp 1.

Oct 17

Dan and Mil headed down. I spoke with a woman in Khare named Margo Chisolm, who'd written a book about her climbing exploits. (I think it's called "To the Summit".) She'd been on Everest with Rob Hall a few years before, and was now trying to climb Mera for her 50th birthday. I found out later that Wally Berg, who'd just climbed Everest the previous spring, was also in camp with a group. Chris and I left at noon and climbed up to camp 1 slowly. We set up camp at the foot of the glacier, on the rocks. We were met with a surprise... Al was sick with a nasty flu. He came out of his tent to check up on us, but then he crawled back in and we didn't see him again that night. Taz and Stuart arrived, and we spent the early evening taking in the beautiful twilight colors and taking pictures of Mera and the surrounding glaciers.

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Pema and Pemba, serving	Mera, from camp 1. Climbers near
Sherpa tea	the central summit (top center)

Oct 18

A clear morning. We could see, at 7:00 a.m. or so, a group way up on the mountain, moving away from the central summit. We found out later that it was our first group. They'd gotten an early start, and were on the summit before we had breakfast. I didn't get a picture of them, though I did get one of another group that we saw heading towards the central summit at about 7:30. We packed up camp and started up the glacier. Al was still sick, so he took his time. We stopped at the Mera La for a drink. Al outfitted Pema with boots and crampons. Al wouldn't be accompanying us to the summit, so he gave Pema the chance to climb his first big mountain.

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Our first view of Everest	Everest at twilight

Al and Taz headed down the Mera La to the Hongu valley, while John Lama, Pema, Chris, Stuart and I trudged up to high camp. With no recent snowfalls, and with a bit of recent traffic on Mera, the trail was well-packed, so there was no need to rope up. It took three-and-a-half hours to get to high camp. We ran into Dave just below the high camp, and he told us about their summit day. It was so cold when they began climbing (just after midnight), that Brad started feeling the onset of frostbite in his feet. He pulled his boots off and warmed his feet on one of the other guys' stomach. Brad told us that he didn't feel that the climb was trivial. Hearing him say this made me a bit nervous.

We got to camp, at 19,000 ft., in the late afternoon. The Sherpas had set up two of the Ferrino tents on the glacier, along with the kitchen tent and their sleeping tent.

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Makalu, right of center, in clouds	The view from inside my tent

Behind us, to the north, should have been a spectacular panorama of Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu, but the clouds were low, and we couldn't see a thing. Then, about thirty minutes before sunset, the clouds began to lift, and we got our first view of Everest, in the red glow of twilight. By the time the sun set, we could see Makalu in the distance. I nearly froze my fingers taking pictures. It was ungodly cold, and I lay in my bag, awake and shivering, from 7:00 p.m. until John Lama woke us early the next morning.

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