Everest Camp 2
May 5, 2007
Namaste,
The move from Camp 1 to Camp 2 up the Western Cwm wasn’t too bad except for the unbearable heat. At one point I was moving out from a heavy cloud cover and snow and I felt like I was going to faint from heat stroke, but we all made it fine. Daniel Kim, one of our climbers, got sick at Camp 1 and moved back to Base Camp to try to rest and recover.
I had some personal excitement on our way to Camp 2 when a Sherpa directly in front of me crossing a crevasse on a ladder fell off the ladder into the crevasse. Fortunately he did not fall far because he had his safety clip attached to the rope, but he dangled for awhile below the ladder, obviously scared. I was unable to help him because he was on the other side of the crevasse so I yelled out to his friends and they came down and after a struggle they were able to pull him out, shaken, but unharmed.
It snowed pretty hard at Camp 2, but we got some a good rest. The three of us who are going to Everest took a rest day at Camp 2, while the four who are doing Lhotse moved up this morning to Camp 3. They will come down tomorrow while we will go up to Camp 3.
I must admit to a bit of nervousness because I have not yet been to Camp 3 and getting there involves climbing the steep and icy Lhotse face, but they have six climbs to the mountain and I understand steps have been kicked into the ice so I feel confident that I will make it just fine. Tomorrow morning Mark, Terry and I head up. We will stay there 1 or 2 nights and then come back, spend the night at Camp 2 and then head back to Base Camp for some rest.
I will file a further report in the next couple of days.
Bill Burke