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Everest Base Camp, 7 May 2005:
For the first time in many days, there has not been any snow today. The sun was extremely warm, a perfect day for laundry and showering. It is a sight to behold -- the guys, squatting before basins of soapy water, scrubbing their thermals and pants.
The weather promises to be fair for the coming days and the hope is that the forecasts will point the way to a summit window in mid month.
Everest Base Camp, 6 May 2005:
It looked like a normal day at Base Camp until a walkie call came in at about 11am from Robert. He and Edwin, directors of the NUS team, were on their way up to Camp 3.
"We just had a close call in an avalanche, and we are returning to Camp 2,"
he said.
It turned out that it was more than a close call. They were at the bottom of Lhotse Face when an avalanche made a direct hit on Robert and their sirda Kami who was already up on the precarious slope. Fortunately, the avalanche consisted mainly of soft snow, and though buried up to their chest, both men were able to scramble free and dash to safety. A less immediate reaction or an avalanche of greater magnitude, and they would have been buried alive.
The NUS team at Base Camp received the news in shock and awe. It had been snowing heavily the last few days, which had led to the big avalanche three days earlier that devastated Camp 1. And now this. Everything that the members had read and learned about avalanches and how to react came flooding to mind.
Avalanches are much feared by mountaineers as they are hard to predict and impossible to avoid when one is on the mountain. It is always a calculated risk when climbing in deep snow. Robert, Edwin and Kami are more than grateful to have escaped injury. Edwin, a devout Buddhist, asked that a puja be conducted for them, in thanksgiving for the gods' protection.
Everest Base Camp, 5 May 2005:
This should have been yesterday's update, delayed because of some confusion as to whether the Nepalese Liaison Officers here at Base Camp had the authority to embargo the information. The news has since been out in the US media. The incident affected our team only marginally but we have much to learn from the events.
At 5.15am yesterday morning, an avalanche hit Camp 1 with considerable force. From BC, its impact was not obvious. Robert and Edwin were preparing to climb to Camp 2 and left at 6am.
By 8.30am, all the walkie-talkies were ablazed with information on injuries to climbers who were sleeping at Camp 1. Seven climbers -- including one sherpa -- were injured by rocks and ice blocks crashing through their tents, breaking one climber's ankles, bruising another's face and hitting the sherpa on his back. They were all from the same expedition group.
Fortunately, there were no fatalities and the injuries were not too serious.
Nevertheless the whole base camp quickly swung into action.
An experienced base camp manager in one of the camps took charge of coordinating rescue efforts while several others, including our agents International Mountain Guides, stood by with stretchers, ropes, doctors and sherpa power. Other guides and sherpas at Camp 2 reported back with details and the kind of help needed. Just identifying the injured people and accounting for every known climber up in Camp 1 took some doing. Then came the assessing of the severity of injuries and what medical treatment if any was needed at the scene.
At mid-day, Robert arrived at Camp 1. There were already quite a number of sherpas and guides on hand to handle the situation. He came upon a climber with a badly bruised face, one whom the rescuers were unable to identify.
Robert asked him for his name but he would only say he was Czech. (He turned out to be a Polish climber without a permit, hence his reticence.)
When it was clear that there wasn't anything else he could do to help as things seemed under control, Robert moved higher up the camp site and saw that all our tents had been flattened, their contents nowhere to be found. He reported the situation back to Base Camp and moved on to Camp 2.
The team at Base Camp followed the rescue effort through the exchanges on the walkies, fully aware that they could have been sleeping up there, had they not completed their acclmatisation climbs earlier. It was frustrating not being able to help as only highly experienced guides and climbers and sherpas would be able to cope with the physical and technical demands of hauling down the injured on stretchers over the treacherous icefall. Our expedition doctor Nguk Hoon went to help at the HRA medical tent when the injuried people began arriving in the afternoon.
We were all amazed and impressed with the efficiency of the rescue operation. At one stage, the coordinating team even called the Singapore camp's walkie frequency to ensure all our climbers were accounted for. We also learned the importance of keeping one's head and not jumping in with knee-jerk reaction and dashing up the icefall with the intention -- however noble -- to help. This incident called for cool heads, clear minds and appropriate expertise and the rescuers had generous amounts of them.
Today, our sherpas who had been ferrying loads up to South Col, came down to Camp 1 to salvage what they could. Fortunately, we did not have much there -- just some ski poles, stoves and pots.
The team feels extremely lucky to have escaped this tragedy through sheer luck in timing. But this is the reality they have to face. Reading and calculating the risk of the terrain, especially after the heavy snow in recent days, is part of the sport. They will remember this lesson well.
Everest Base Camp, 4 May 2005:
It seems like it will be another week or more before the team can launch its summit bid. Not only do we need a good-weather window, the fixed ropes up to the summit need to be established. An agreement has been struck among some key expeditions' agents -- including ours, International Mountain Guides -- to pool sherpa power and ropes to do this. The process is expected to take several days, depending on the weather.
The members have to find ways of filling their time. There was a proposal to trek down to Gorak Shep on a day hike just for the exercise, but this was abandoned as it was considered unnecessary risk. Many other climbers who have fallen ill with flu or bad coughs have gone down to lower altitudes to recover. Our guys going down would risk picking up such ailments, not to mention the risk of injuring themselves from a sprained ankle or worse.
At this final stage of the three-year preparation when everyone is fit and strong, free from infection or illness, it was more important to maintain their state of health than to find distractions from boredom. So it's out with the chess set, books, CD players and movie DVDs.
Everest Base Camp, 3 May 2005:
The weather has started to turn for the better, with bright sun in the morning and intermittent snow. The wait continues as good weather is needed over a certain stretch. Our eyes are on mid May.
Meanwhile, time weighs heavily on our hands. Yesterday, we invited the two doctors from the Himalayan Rescue Associaton (HRA) over for dinner. HRA runs a clinic at EBC each year, treating clients and sherpas from expeditions without their own doctors. The doctors, a young Belgian couple who were married by a lama in a Sherpa-style ceremony a few weeks ago, work as flying doctors in the Australian outback. They are volunteering their services at HRA.
Over dinner of chicken rice, steamed eggs and fish crackers, they shared their knowledge of mountain medicine and inside information about recent incidents at EBC.
Everest Base Camp, 2 May 2005:
Sleeping on oxygen at Camp 3 gave me really good rest. That's despite having to wake up every couple of hours to drain off the condensaton in the mask.
So when I woke up at about 6am, I felt refreshed after the previous day's trudge up from Camp 2. I even had the appetite to down some biscuits, a cup of Milo and some oatmeal.
Our sirda Kami said we'd be leaving at 8am, so I gathered my things to prepare for the descend. We arrived at Camp 2 under two hours, which was pretty good timing. I suddenly felt hungry and gobbled down two bowls of noodles prepared by Kama, the cookboy in Camp 2.
The sun was blazing by then, so I changed into lighter clothes. Kami decided to stay behind as he was planning to go back up to ferry load to South Col.
Cookboy Kama was sent to accompany me on my way down as it is always safer to have a sherpa along. I was feeling good, although we were moving quite quickly. On the way, we met all our sherpas coming up to Camp 2 from Base Camp. They will be going to South Col the next day to ferry load. It is amazing the number of times they can go up, and carrying such heavy loads.
I made it to Camp 1 an hour later. After a quick sip of water, we carried on down. I was beginning to feel tired, and having to cross the icefall didn't help. I moved faster to get over this dangerous stretch as fast as I could.
The route had changed considerably with new ladders in place. At the lower parts where the terrain was flatter, the ice was melting and slushy.
It was a great relief to be back at Base Camp just after 2pm, to enjoy Pemba's fabulous fried rice with bak kwa!
Having been behind the rest of the team in their final acclimatisation climb, I feel really good to be on par with them now and I can go with them on the summit bid.
When I was moving up to Camp 3, I saw how quickly the weather could change, from sunny to snow. Let's pray that during our summit bid, we will have constantly good weather.
Everest Base Camp, 1 May 2005:
Cloudy conditions and light snow at Camp 3 at first persuaded Ernest and Kim Boon to descend to Base Camp. But after some consideration, Ernest decided he would remain in Camp 2, hoping that the weather would improve the next day for him to go up to Camp 3 for the night. He was feeling strong as well as eating and sleeping well at Camp 2, all good signs of him acclimatising well.
Kim Boon, however, was not sleeping well and decided to descend. He returned to Base Camp, tired but glad that he could now recover and rebuild his strength.
Meanwhile, Ernest and sirda Kami, up at Camp 2, were pleased to see the sun out and the weather clearing up. At 8.30am, they decided to go up to Camp 3. Ernest arrived after a grueling and tiring eight-hour climb to spend the night sleeping on oxygen.
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