Everest 2010 Weekend Update April 18

Another good week on Everest with teams settling into base camp on both sides of the mountain. Alpine Ascents was the last large team to arrive at south BC on Wednesday. They spent their time adjusting to the high altitudes of over 17, s 000′. Teams conducted their Pujas and even practiced some ladder walking skills before the real thing.

The Sherpas were extremely busy ferrying supplies  as high as camp 2 in the Western Cwm on the south.

A few teams are now at camp 1 or camp 2.

The Icefall seems to be in normal shape for this time of year however with some movement with is to be expected. There are a reported 30 ladders with the longest being only two lashed together to span a crevasse. Usually there are 40 or more and some that are much longer, sometimes up to five tied together!

Teams are in the early stages of the acclimatization process. By climbing high and returning to sleep low, they are forcing their bodies to produce additional red blood cells. These cells carry oxygen to their muscles. Without these additional cells, climbers would not have the energy to survive at the highest altitudes. Of course this process takes time and cannot be rushed. I put together the following animation of the South Col route shows the overall process of climbing Everest. It may take few moments to load.

One dispatch this week caught my eye. For as much as we hear about the beauty of the trek to BC, there is always a concern with staying healthy. Alison Levine with the AAI team made this comment:

Almost everyone on the climbing team has battled severe respiratory infections or GI problems (aka “the runs and the barfs”) at some point during the trek in to BC. Some members are still quite ill. Up until two days ago, there were three out of nine of us who had remained healthy the entire time, but yesterday Vanessa (a college student and our youngest teammember) contracted a horrible cold or some kind of flu. It wasn’t much of a surprise to the rest of us as she had been hiking at 17,000′ in 20-degree weather wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt while the rest of us were in warm jackets and hats. If anyone reading this has access to the administration at Princeton, please urge them to add a Common Sense 101 class to the curriculum. And make it mandatory.

This is another reason climbers take few days upon their arrival at BC – to rest and recover from the trek.

Finally, a look at the numbers. The north has 32 teams and the south has 22 expeditions with 224 climbing permits issued. This is slightly lower on the south than the last two years when China effectively closed Everest. There were 29 teams in 2009 and 36 in 2008. This according to the Nepal Industrial Department, Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

This next week will be quite busy with climbers going to camp 2 for as much as three nights. This is when they really feel like they are far away since there is limited communications. But the views are incredible.

Climb On!

Alan