May 12, 2008 - 11:17am — MountEverest2008
Back to Base
Base Camp
Hi everyone. I missed a day yesterday, so I'll do a quick catch-up on the past two days in this post. First, I am writing from base camp- so the team is down safely to lower elevation. Yesterday we left Camp III and dropped to Camp II, today we started at Camp II and dropped down by Camp I and again through the Khumbu Icefall. In truth, part of the route is becoming quite familiar given all our up and down travel on the mountain. Tomorrow, we do our 'drop back' and retreat to thick air and actual beds to sleep in for a few days. I think an eight hour hike will take us to a little Khumbu village (name to be determined)- this is where we will rest and recover before returning to the mountain for our summit attempt.
A few things of particular interest. First, the night at Camp III was really hard. I slept maybe 45 minutes and spent the rest counting down time till the night was over. My oxygen saturation level was low... ranging from 49 to 61 (btw, if you are in the hospital and your oxy sat drops down to 90, they will put you on oxygen). So, my numbers were really low. And I could feel things were different... I just felt off. This is normal during a night's stay at Camp III, so there was really no reason for alarm. I and the others survived... certainly though, this night would be a contender for worst night of my life.
Dropping from Camp III to Camp II is pretty fun. It's work and risk is present because it is so steep- the energy you exert though is primarily to control your speed of descent and to ensure you have good foot placement. Also, we met a number of climbers like us going up. This made us feel good, as we are a bit ahead of schedule relative to our peers. Most people we meet are friendly, rooting each other on and sharing a quick (be it exhausted) smile.
Then today, during our drop to base camp, it was interesting too as there was a fresh 6" of snowfall. This may not appear to be a big deal, however cracks and crevasses previously exposed were now hidden under a welcoming blanket of white. We had to feel our way a bit (here is another area where guide experience is a real asset).
Finally, I posted one or two more videos today. There may be a 24hr lag before they are live on the website for viewing. I hope you like them.
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Thanks for following along + all the super comments. You all are great. I'm very sleepy now- goodnight...
Jim