April 19, 2011
Advance Base Camp
It’s hard to believe, but I am back at Advance Base Camp on the North side of Mt. Everest. It seems like just yesterday that I left ABC and headed for home, with dreams of “2011 Reedux” spinning in my head.
The distance from Chinese Base Camp to ABC is about 15 miles up a rocky, dirt covered glacier. The distance from CBC to Intermediate Base Camp (19,000 feet) is about 8 miles and the distnce from IBC to ABC (19,000 feet) is about 7 miles. We moved from CBC to IBC on April 17, and the trip was pretty uneventful.David made the tip in 3 hours, I made it in 4 hours, Aboul came in right behind me and Doug came in around 45 minutes after Aboul. We selpt at IBC and made our move from IBC to ABC on April 18. The move to ABC yesterday was a really tough, hard day for me. The route is up and down a ridgeline, and it plays games with your mind, because each time you reach the top of one ridge, you expect to see the tents at ABC. Instead, all you see is another, higher ridge. When I got to within 1 hour of ABC, it started
to snow pretty hard, and I was cold and tired when I entered the dining tent to enjoy a cup of tea. David made the trip from IBC to ABC in 3 hours, I made it in 5 hours, Aboul pulled in right before me and Doug arrived about 1-1/2 hours after me. Poor Doug had to endure a lot of snow and wind, but he made it just fine. I recall feeling the same way about the ro ABC journey last year.
Our location at ABC is the same as it was last year. We have a great view of the North Col. Each of us has our own sleeping tent, which is nice. Today and tomorrow are rest days. On April 21, David and I plan to move up to the North Col and then come back down on the same day. April 22 is our Puja.
It is bone chilling cold and windy right now, and it snowed pretty much all day. We have received about 3-4 inches of snow since yesterday. I can hardly feel my fingers as I type this message. We have a nice heater in the dining tent to keep us warm. I also brought 10 bottles of my Yucateco hot sauce, which helps. My sister-in-law, Bev, made some peppers for us, but I’m the only one that can eat them because they are so hot. David, from Mexico, took one look at the little orange devils and waved them off as too hot. More peppers for me, so I’m happy. You put the peppers on the food and can’t feel anything in your mouth for an hour. Milk helps ease the pain, but we don’t have milk.
The photos you see in my posts are taken by David. I am taking photos and video, but we are using David’s photos for the posts. If you want to see my photos from last year, so you can picture what you read, you can check them out on my website under ” 2010 Photos and Video.” There is also a map of the route on the website so you can picture where we are.
El Capitan
I’ll try to send some photos.
Bill