North Col and ABC trek team

Above, subjectively Base Camp has fewer tents than previous years.

Some of the team on an acclimatization trip 200m above BC: James, Debbie, Jo (leader), Mike and Jena

 

First some south side thoughts. Alan Arnette (.com) has a good summary with support from blogs. Certainly it is an unusual season, although every season does seem to be in its own way. I also heard of five injuries to the rope fixers and think it is not worth pushing the route up until the rockfall danger has subsided. Perhaps with the coming snows it will suddenly dramatically change; but I hope the avalanche danger doesn’t suddenly increase. It certainly is a game of patience, and perhaps the soundest plan is having everything ready at C2 to pull the trigger. In general Everest is a game of patience and at this stage there is still plenty of time so I see no reason yet to push risk levels.

 

Luckily all our teams and sherpas are safe, and I am thankful for everybody’s good judgment there. Let's keep everyone safe...

 

On the north side, Tom and Bali and Pasang Gyelu are now in ABC, the sherpas have carried a load to North Col (7000m) and Tom is having a rest day in preparation for going to sleep on the Col tomorrow. The plan is to spend a couple of nights there. After he returns to ABC, let's see what the forecast tells us. However more than likely we will return to Base Camp for a quick recovery then only in later May head up for the summit push.

 

It seems most teams are now at ABC and with sherpas pushing loads up. This season’s fixed ropes are still only as far as 7900m (I haven't heard otherwise) and so most teams will push supplies up as far as there. It may be that last year’s ropes are still OK, and some sherpas simply use them to drop oxygen at 8210m, but I feel there is still some small but real risk there. Hopefully the rope fixers will return soon instead.

 

Are we/everybody behind? Certainly we are not ahead of the game, but it is a stretch to say that teams are behind, and North Col is fully loaded by most teams. It is still relatively early days and it just takes one or a couple of good days of hard work and all of a sudden everything is in place. Anyway, myself, Phil Crampton and others prefer to summit later rather than earlier. It is often warmer and therefore just that much less difficult.

 

We now have the North Col and ABC trek group here in ABC, and they are on their third day of acclimatizing here. Tomorrow they (and myself) will head up to Interim for a couple of nights, then ABC. Jo Chaffer might write more soon.