...Rotations, Rotations, Rotations...
Hello All,
I'm sure you are all eagerly awaiting news from the hill so here's a quick progress report;
The IFMGA team along with Private Team Fahad & Ossy are at Camp 2 tonight having climbed up the Lhotse Face (they did really well and climbed strongly) to tag Camp 3. They will be coming down to Base Camp tomorrow ready to rest up, recuperate and prepare for their summit bid.
The Western Guided/International Team moved up C2 today and will likely rest tomorrow before tagging C3
Private Group: Mark and Big Tendi trekked to Pumori C1 today and Private Speed Ascent Group: Tendi and Ed will head up tomorrow for their rotation.
All ticking along well and everyone safe and happy and climbing well. Weather is stable and clear but still windy up high. Business as usual.
Cheers
Caroline
...Sunshine & Climb...
Well, the skies have cleared, the sun is out, the new snow is nicely settling and while it's still windy up high with the jet stream sticking around as predicted, it's time to get back on mission and resume our second set of rotations.
Our first wave of climbers (IFMGA Team, Personal Sherpa & some of our Privates) will finish their 2nd rotation with a shorter jaunt up the hill and will be followed (with a day in between) by our Western Guided Team and remaining Privates who will do a slightly longer rotation.
The goal is to tag Camp 3 before returning to Base Camp to fully recuperate and then the Summit bid can begin.
As always we are all eyes on the expert, human-derived forecast for this next rotation and planning the summit bid. Expedition Leader, Mike Hamill has almost 15 years experience on Everest so to say he knows the moods of this mountain well is an understatement. He's spent almost 2 years of his life on her flanks.
For us, it's not about being first, it's about being strategic, safe and well prepared so we are ready to move in a confident manner when the opportunity arises, as it invariably does...
Cheers
Caroline
*Feature Image - Wayne Morris
...The Difference A Day Makes...
When pictures say a thousand words...
This is Base Camp 24 hours ago, and this is Base Camp now... The stark difference a day can make.
The fall out from Cyclone Fani materialized absolutely as expected with large amounts of snowfall and associated high winds. As I write, it's still snowing with 25cm already and counting. Reports from Camp 2 indicate they've had 2ft (60cms) and that at least 100 tents have been either destroyed or blown away from fierce winds, particularly on the night of the 2nd to the 3rd.
We sincerely hope that everyone is ok up there and we are relieved that our team are all safe, that our tents and gear were broken down and cached before the storm hit and that we won't have to resupply food and fuel etc once this weather event has passed.
We know our team are in good spirits when their biggest complaint is that the digestive cookies aren't the chocolate coated ones (looking at you Wayne!) ;P
Enforced rest day today but this weather looks like it should pass in the next 24hours and we'll resume our schedule albeit with a little snow underfoot.
Cheers
Caroline
...Update on Cyclone Fani...Bunkered Down...
As the saying goes... "it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground"
In our case, 'better to be at Base Camp wishing you were on the mountain, than on the mountain, wishing you were at Base Camp' which I'm guessing is what a few climbers are feeling right now up high on the hill as a big storm is rolling through.
While it's easy to feel frustrated when a forecast of 'potential events' puts paid to your plans (especially when you're tromping back down the mountain on what feels like a pretty clear, sunny day yesterday approaching the pointy end of a life long goal, like standing on the roof of the world) but weather and Mt. Everest is a serious thing not to be underestimated.
We made the decision to pull our entire team back to Base Camp yesterday for a few reasons:
1) Firstly, our climbers' (Clients and Sherpa) safety ALWAYS comes first. That is why there is contingency room in the schedule for unexpected weather events like this.
2) Secondly, if the team are going to have to wait out weather anywhere (in this instance, either at Camp 2 or at Base Camp) we're always going to favour Base Camp, for 2 important reasons;
- Waiting at 6,500m (to which they are already acclimatised) could mean their strength deteriorates by spending excessive time there vs resetting with good food, amenities and comfort allowing for better rest at lower altitudes.
- There is a lower objective risk in the relatively protected bowl of Base Camp if you are staying for a few days, and the snowfall and high winds are mainly predicted at altitudes near Camp 2 and above. Being tent bound for days is unpleasant at the best of times and unfortunately we're already hearing reports of other teams' camps being blown away and tents being lost (Our camps will be fine with our CTSS crew having broken them down and safely cached and stored all our equipment to safeguard against losses before the storm)
So what's actually happening?
A severe tropical cyclone (Cyclone Fani - which at the time of writing is in the territory of a category 4 storm) is present in the Bay of Bengal and is looking to make landfall today along the coastline of Odisha, with gale force winds up to 200km/s an hour. Nearly a million people have been evacuated (India's largest evacuation operation). While the immediate threat to the people of India and Bangladesh need to be the world's focus right now and they are centre in our thoughts and hearts, this event does have implications for our teams climbing on Everest because of something called 'orographic' lift - where mountains lift moisture-laden air rapidly, cooling the air quickly and causing cloud and precipitation.
In other words, likely high winds and heavy snowfall over the next few days for us. The ultimate track of the storm will determine how much we see of this. Currently, the latest model output shows the cyclone moving Northwards along the Southeastern flank of India arriving in Bangladesh on the 4th of May. As it tracks overland, it will decay and push that moist, relatively warm air towards the Southern slopes of the Himalayas. We can already see this weather pattern developing for us today (the 3rd May) and it should last approximately 24-36 hours before the moisture moves off to the East and the sun pops out almost as fast as it disappeared.
Unfortunately, the hangover could leave some strong winds above 7,000m for about a week which could delay the rope fixers (who have fixed up to the South Col) but following that the air mass looks relatively stable and dry.
We absolutely made the right call and if the forecasts ring true, our teams should be able to resume climbing in a few days when it is safe to do so.
Remember, we still have almost a month of time to play with, and patience is apparently a virtue. (An annoying one to practice, but a virtue nonetheless)
Cheers
Caroline
*Featured photo: Marisha McDowell
...Snow On the Horizon...
Hello Everyone,
With eagle eyes on the expert forecast, we've made the decision to pull the whole team down to Base Camp today. Our 1st wave (Being IFMGA, Personal Sherpa and Private Team Fahad & Ossy) are on their way back down as I type and will be rolling in shortly.
As you may know, there is a significant cyclonic storm about 450km from the Odisha Coast in East India called Cyclone Fani (pronounced Foni) which has been moving North. While it's meant to weaken, the effects of that storm mean we are likely to see significant snowfall and high winds on the mountain. We are erring on the conservative side and will have the entire team wait it out for few days in the safety of Base Camp until that storm has passed and things have settled.
This also means the fixing of the ropes (which are currently up past the Yellow Band approaching the South Col) is likely to be delayed too.
Not to worry - there's room in the schedule for events like this and it's quite normal to be pushed back a little during the course of an Everest expedition.
Once we have seen that weather pattern move on, we'll reassess and move teams up when it is safe to do so on a short 2nd rotation before their summit bids. Remember patience is very much a part of this Everest game...
Plus, extra time creating precious red blood cells and watching the snow fall through the windows of the Big Dome whilst kicking back on the lounges with hot chocolate/or cappuccino in hand doesn't sound too bad does it?
Cheers
Caroline
...Mini Pujas...
Hi Everyone,
Hope your week is treating you well. A short one today with our news from up high. (Always a good sign)
We had a nice mini Puja for our Speed Ascent climber Ed who has been pre-acclimatizing in a hypoxico tent at home and just a few days ago arrived into Base Camp having summited Lobuche. He is climbing with Guide Tendi Sherpa who is arguably one of the most sought after Guides in the world and an all-around lovely person. They will head up in the next few days for one long acclimatization rotation and if all goes to plan he should be door-to-door with an Everest summit in his pocket in only a month!
Our IFMGA and Personal Sherpa climbers (being our first wave) is well into their second and final acclimatization rotation and are heading to Camp 2 tonight.
The Western Guided/International Team are enjoying their chill time at BC creating all those red blood cells that will serve them so well in the coming weeks. They did some more technical training today and will head out alongside our Private Teams as a second wave in a few days.
Business as usual from a logistics point of view, there is a constant stream of chatter on the radios, lots of time spent pouring over every detail of the weather reports and endless planning. Exciting times ahead.
Cheers
Caroline
PS I am told that the Argentinian team - Nacho and Tommi made a great meal and are still in the running for Himalayan Masterchef!
...The World's Highest Yoga Class...
Welcome to the world's highest yoga class! Does anyone know anyone at the Guinness Book of Records? We have a new entry for them. Tenji Sherpa took the team through some poses in the Big House today, complete with 6inch yoga matt mattresses! I wonder how Shavasana at the end went? Do you think they all just went to sleep?
Our IFMGA & Personal Sherpa Teams head back up the hill early tomorrow morning so they spent their day packing and prepping. This is their 2nd rotation which will be significantly longer with 5x nights on the mountain. The overall goal is to touch camp 3 and get familiar with the Lhotse Face.
Private Team Fahad and Guide Ossy will leave for their 2nd rotation the day after tomorrow.
Coming off the mountain were Private Team Mark W and Big Tendi who came back down to EBC today from Camp 2 for a well earned hot shower and a little R&R.
Meanwhile, Ed our Speed Ascent Climber, having summited Lobuche, also reached Base Camp today.
Our Western Guided/International Team, led by Casey & Tommi will continue to enjoy a few more days of recovery and Kumar's incredible cooking (the whole camp had fresh pomegranate and vanilla pudding for dessert and some French potato dish that I can't pronounce, let alone spell, but it sounded phenomenal!)
Speaking of food, it seems our Argentine contingent wants in on the Masterchef action, Nacho is in the kitchen making a special meal tonight. He owns a cookware company called LaFont in Argentina so knows his way around a kitchen but I wonder what he will think about the nuances of high altitude cooking? - for instance, did you know that at high altitude the preparation of food requires significant changes in time, temperature and often recipe? The lower atmospheric pressure plays havoc, gases (for instance in bread and cakes) expand more quickly and water will boil at lower temperatures and evaporate faster - the result, much longer cooking times and the risk of everything getting really dried out. No quick fix either - you can't exactly just turn up the heat as it will only exacerbate the problem, causing water to boil away faster leaving your dinner extra dry and your elimination from Himalayan Masterchef a surety. It's a fine art indeed. How Kumar makes his cakes so moist and fluffy is beyond me. Depending on the results, Nacho the Climber/Cook extraordinaire, may win himself a position as CTSS Sous Chef for next year?
It's gearing up to be a nice night ahead and we have extra cause for celebration - for the first time, all our Everest climbing teams are together in one spot. Movie night in the Big House perhaps? (We'll throw in the fresh popcorn)
Everyone doing well and while we know climbing Everest is tough, it could be argued that doing Downward Dog at 17,400ft or cooking a superb meal for the whole crew is tougher!?
Cheers
Caroline
...Bruce's First Brew...
Not a bad day up high in the Himalaya, not bad at all. Summit stories aside for a minute, let's first address the most pressing bit of news... regarding CTSS climber Bruce...
Bruce, I am told, had never had a cup of coffee in his life. Yes, that's right, never in his life had coffee passed his lips... until today at 17,600ft. His innocence lost to a frothy cup of perfectly brewed Himalayan Java beans (naturally) Who could resist with barista Mike on the tools!? (I can personally attest that he does make a strong brew! I'm a tea girl myself - Earl Grey all the way, anyway I digress) I'm told the result was wild smiles and some jitters. I wonder how many hot laps of camp he made? Any guesses? Maybe it will be the secret sauce that propels him to the summit?!
Sarcasm aside, we had a stunning day today. Speed Ascent Climber Ed stood on top of Lobuche with Tendi today and took some stunning pics (below) As Tendi said; he may have climbed the peak 26x but the view never gets old.
Speaking of views, some of the team enjoyed a chilled hike about Base Camp and up to Pumori Camp 1 today and were well rewarded with some spectacular vistas of Everest. The mighty Himalaya are certainly something to behold.
Private Team Mark and Big Tendi had a gentle foray up the Lhotse face a little way to acclimatize and get a feel, and are now back at Camp 2 for the night.
Our Western/International Guided and Personal Sherpa climbers descended are all safely resting and recuperating in the Big House, (and probably enjoying hot showers and the opportunity to do a little laundry.)
On the business end, there was a rope fixing meeting today and plenty of planning for the weeks that lie ahead. With the first rotations complete, the next step is to do a second rotation and spend 5-6 days on the mountain which will have the climbers well positioned for their summit bids.
Cheers
Caroline
...Climbing & Chill...
Hi All,
Just a quick update from me again today. Our teams are all either climbing or chilling! (or a bit of both)
IFMGA & Personal Sherpa climbers in that first wave alongside Private Group Fahad and Ossy are unwinding from their rotation at Base Camp and got the cinema in the Big House up and running for a bit of a movie night which is always fun. Today they did a nice hike up to Pumori Camp 1 to keep those muscles stretched out and the blood pumping.
Meanwhile, our Western Guided/International team are up at Camp 2 enjoying arguably the highest dining facilities in the world with a fully equipped dining tent complete with tables and chairs!
Our Private Group Mark W and Big Tendi are doing an acclimatization hike up to the base of the Lhotse Face and will spend the night at Camp 2 and our Lhotse Climber Robert is at Camp 1.
They'll all start heading back downhill tomorrow after all Kumar's cooking is calling!
*Featured Image by Wayne Morris
...The 'ins and outs' of Acclimatization...
Hello everyone,
Sometimes a short update from the hill is the best kind of update. When there's not too much to report, it means all is going smoothly, easily and well, which indeed it is.
Our first & second wave of climbers (so the IFMGA Team, Personal Sherpa climbers and Privates) are back to Base Camp and no doubt plugging into the excruciatingly slow Everest wifi (bear with them if their audio calls drop or Facetime calls are a thing of fantasy) and rolling into the Big House to chill out, after well deserved steaming hot showers and a feast.
Meanwhile, our final wave (being our Western Guided, Private Group Kent and Fred and Lhotse climber Robert) have headed up to Camp 1 to begin their first rotation. They'll follow a similar schedule with a sleep at Camp 1, an acclimatization hike up the CWM to Camp 2 (tomorrow) returning for a second night sleep at Camp 1 before moving up to Camp 2 to sleep the following day and then dropping back down to EBC.
As I'm sure many of you know, the purpose of all the 'up and down' 'up and down' climbing rotations is to give the body a chance to acclimatize and this is a fascinating process. I'm about to go all biology geek on you so beware (but also a quick disclaimer, I'm not a physician so if this process is a little generalised, forgive me) ...
The higher our climbers go the less dense the atmosphere, simply meaning the oxygen molecules in the air are further apart which is why we say 'thin air'. At sea level, the atmospheric pressure is about 1.04kg per square cm. That's a nice heavy level of pressure that helps give the oxygen an extra push to pass through the selectively permeable lung membranes and into the blood. However, the higher you go, the lower that pressure becomes and therefore the less likely it is that the oxygen molecules actually pierce through the lung membranes and get themselves into the haemoglobin of the red blood cells where they get transported to the rest of the body.
Think of atmospheric pressure as a giant 'press' pushing down on the oxygen molecule and 'stamping' it into its seat inside the red blood cell. At higher altitude, that extra assistance isn't there. On top of that, the oxygen molecules are also further apart so you are less likely to come across as many of them in each breath as you would at sea level. So how does the body make up for it?
At first, there are superficial changes, the body increases breathing rate (to increase the chance of taking in the same level of oxygen but from much sparser air) and your heart rate and blood pressure also increase dramatically (even at rest) to help move more blood (hopefully oxygenated) around your system. The theory is the more you breathe & the more blood your heart pumps, the more chance an oxygen molecule gets to where it's got to go. Following?
BUT (and here's where it gets very cool) over time your body realizes it needs to make some more significant adaptations if it's going to live up here successfully on Mt. Everest so it makes some longer-term adaptations to its efficiency. It increases the number of red blood cells as well as increases your capillaries and even your lung capacity and size. All of this change is to 'up' the probability of coming in contact with those precious (but flighty) little oxygen molecules. Understandably, these longer-term changes take time, (it's tough work for the body) hence why Everest is a patience game. By doing rotations and increasing their high point a little more each time, the climbers put manageable stress on their bodies, bringing them up to a new threshold and then by taking time to rest, they give their bodies a chance to play catch up and adapt to this new normal.
When they get seriously high, they'll go on oxygen which puts more oxygen molecules into their lungs on each breath, (but it still can't increase the atmospheric pressure of it getting stamped through and into the red blood cells) so climbing Everest is a remarkable feat indeed, not just from a mental strength perspective but also from a physiological one. To put it in perspective, if I were to take you off your chair right now and whisk you away from to the summit of Everest you would pass out within a few minutes and die shortly after. The best example I can think of for how it might feel for our climbers is going to the gym and doing a high-intensity cardio workout whilst breathing through a straw. Tough right?
So while they kick back in the 'Big House' and watch movies and eat Kumar's sensational food, be assured this is very much a vital part of their climb and their bodies are hard at work priming for the goal ahead.
To snap us out of our impromptu science lesson, here are some sensational pics from climber and talented photographer Wayne Morris - thanks Wayne!
Cheers
Caroline
