Still Waiting for Camp 3 Rotation

Well, we were supposed to leave for our camp 3 rotation at 2am on Saturday the 29th.  High winds above camp 2 have delayed our departure so we wait, rest and go a little crazy.  It's hard to remain focused on the hard work ahead when schedules are dependent on weather, but that's mountaineering and we've all experienced similar situations on other climbs.

With lots of time on our hands, a few of us went exploring on Saturday.  Some time ago, Everest base camp was located east of the current location closer to Nuptse and on the other side of the Khumbu glacier.  We decided to go treasure hunting along the old route and camp to see what we could find.  It took some creative orienteering to find a suitable path through the glacier since we didn't bring our climbing gear with us.

Once on the other side, we were completely separated from the noise and activity of base camp.  We headed north towards the icefall, walking spread out in search of ancient climbing relics.  Mostly what we found was junk and beat up camping equipment.  I did come across an old Sherpa porter's pack basket sitting on the medial moraine of the glacier.

The real treasures were the ice sculptures formed by the weather and sun.  As the glacier travels downhill driven by the persistent forces of gravity, it scours the mountains and picks up rocks, gravel, etc.  This material can travel within the glacial ice for thousands of years until it becomes exposed by the weather.  While walking along the east side of the glacier, we saw some really interesting formations of rock and ice.  It was fun to think about how old the ice was and how far it carried those rocks along its journey from Mt. Everest and the Western Cwm.

We also found a beautiful section of overhanging ice within the main body of the glacier.  For obvious reasons, ice rarely exists in naturally overhanging formations.  This feature appears to have been created by melting action of the morning sun on the lower and middle portion of the glacier.  What an amazing opportunity if only I had my ice climbing gear and of course the skills required to successfully top out on this ridiculously difficult test piece.

After a couple hours of exploring, we found a break in the glacial ice towers which offered a view of the northern part of base camp.  Cutting through brought us to the main trail which leads from the icefall still to our north back to our base camp further safe.  While we didn't find any priceless treasures during this adventure, it helped us forget about the boredom of hanging around waiting for the wind to die down at camp 3.

While resting after our earlier explorations, I was awakened by my Sherpa partner Fura.  What a great surprise!  My friend Kelly from Colorado just arrived at base camp after trekking up the Khumbu valley.  He remembered I was climbing with IMG and found our camp right away.  We had hoped to connect here in Nepal but knew the chances were 50-50 depending on his schedule and our climbing rotations.  It was a real treat to spend an hour catching up with a friend from home.

The monotony of waiting was broken again on Sunday by a work assignment.  The nearby helipad was of course built on part of the same glacier we're camping on and over the past month has been melting.  About 40 Sherpa and 30 westerners worked together moving large & small rocks and gravel to build up and even out the helipad.  It was an hour or so of hard work but we really had a good time.  The Sherpa guys are so fun and their energy is contagious. 

IMG has some better photos of this effort and our group photo after we finished.  just go to mountainguides.com and look for their Everest blog.

Today is Monday and we were encouraged to rest for most of the day.  If all goes according to plan, we will be leaving at 2am Tuesday for our camp 2 & 3 rotation.  Keep your fingers crossed that our plan holds and that we have a safe and successful climb up the Lhotse face to camp 3 at over 24,000 ft.

Namaste