Progress update - Climb High
South-East Ridge 2007 Expedition in aid of Motor Neurone Disease
28th April -
News from Base Camp. David and his team were climbing up to Camp 3 as planned
last week - when they heard that one of the porters on the Italian team had
fallen off the Lhotse face (between camps 2 and 3) and been killed. They all
felt they wanted to turn round, and I gather that teams are going up today to
recover the body for the family; terribly sad.
They now
have 4 - 5 days rest at Base Camp; David is thinking of going down the valley to
one of the lodges (in desperate need of a shave, wash, and clean socks). They
will then go back up to Camp 3 (around 3-4th May) - going up to the yellow band
of rocks. It takes about 8 hours of walking to Camp 2, and a further 5 hours to
Camp 3 - and is, in David's work '*!£* hard' Then it is back down again...I
asked why they couldn't go to the summit now, apparently 200km winds are getting
in the way - even blowing down the loot and shower tents at base camp.
Everyone is
fine, apart from the dry, Khumde cough he has (I think our dog, Mocha has come
out in sympathy). Apart from the winds, weather is fine, still varying between
+30 and -10 on the Lhotse face (-2 at base camp).
Progress update - Monday 22nd April- News from
Everest Base Camp
Climb High South-East Ridge 2007
Expedition in aid of Motor Neurone Disease
22nd April - David rang from base
camp and told me about his team. There are only 4 of them in his
expedition: Ishan, a Bangladeshi-American who is an Immigration Lawyer;
Thomas, a Physics Professor and Christina who is an Italian research
scientist from the Pyramid research station in the valley. Thomas and
Christina are climbing Lhotse, so only David and Ishan are taking on
Everest. David is delighted with his Expedition group, one of the others
has 40 clients!
As I said last week, they have been
taking kit up to Camp 2, had 2 days of rest in Phereche (6-7 hours down
the valley - mainly so David could recover from a cold he caught from the
Canadians!) and are now back at base camp for a couple of days. They will
then go to Camp 2 with a view to climbing to Camp 3 around the 24th April.
The weather is rather amazing. It
was +35 going to the Western Cwym and then dropped to -15 overnight.
He is well, only having the dry cough
which is typical of that altitude - and for which he has an inhaler.
Otherwise, there is quite a lot of
hanging around and he says he spends his time making lists of what he (we)
are going to do when he gets back! Oh dear! ...I think this is the bit
that we at home - and the surgery, won't look forward to so much!
All of his kit is working brilliantly
- apart from his ipod which is a source of great frustration, especially
during the rest days; all the hours before downloading his favourite
tracks.....He is going to ring next weekend with the next update. I told
him that he has now raised over £14,000 for Motor Neurone Disease and he
nearly fell off the mountain! |