Mt. Everest Base Camp - April 7-April 13, 2002

Kami, Sean's second climbing guide, and Pemba, the base camp cook, had arrived at base camp a week before we got there. They had been busy setting up the camp, and everything was now ready for us. Given the condition of the mounds of gravel, rocky stones and ice formations, it was a very inhospitable place. Living on top of a glacier was tricky. Nothing was flat. Despite all that, our camp looked GREAT!

Kami and Pemba had situated our camp quite beautifully on the banks of a small icy lake. It looked more like a nice little ice skating rink. The frozen pond added some beauty to the moonscape and made the area feel more like home. Our tents surrounded the lagoon. At the far end, the storage tent and kitchen hut bordered one side. Next were three small tents for the three Shrepas, Gombu, Kami and Pemba the cook. Then there was Sean's tent and Seth's tent, the dinning tent and next to that, my tent. Behind the kitchen were two more small tents. One was the bathroom and the other was the shower. I couldn't wait to take a hot shower.
The kitchen was well stocked with shelves full of boxes and canced food, fresh vegetables and other containers, a counter top and work area, thermoses and barrels of hot and cold water, kerosene stoves and finally the large remains of an animal hung by the door. That part was a little disgusting but the meat-eaters were happy, I guess. The dinning tent had a big table with a beautiful flowered table cloth over the top and was covered with various choices of powdered drinks, jams, peanut butter, cookie tins, napkins, ketchup, salt and pepper shakers and more.
That evening we got situated in our tents and later had dinner. It was nice sitting in the dinning tent under the propane lantern. But it was cold! I dreaded going to my tent and I really dreaded having to wake up in the middle of the night to find the toilet tent. I put toe warmers in my socks before bed and wore every layer of fleece I had brought. At about 3AM I was awake, stripping down to nothing. I was so warm it was impossible to sleep and impossible to move in the sleeping bag. Again it snowed all night. I slept well until National Geographic turned on their generator at 5AM.
By 8 the sun was shining brighter than I have ever seen it. It was absolutely beautiful. About three inches of snow blanketed the ground. The view outside my tent door was spectacular, perfectly framing the Khumbu icefall, the route to the summit of Everest. I sat for a while just looking out the tent door. It was a winter wonderland. Absolutely beautiful! I forgot all about how cold I was the night before. Mother Nature made up for it that morning.

I washed my face and even combed my hair and fixed pigtails. It was an important day. The Lama was at base camp, a different Lama than the one we met in Pangboche. Many Everest teams were on his agenda. He was needed to perform the sacred "puja" ceremony. It was customary for all teams to have the ceremony done before climbing Everest and before going through the icefall the first time. Since most of the climbing guides were Sherpa and were Buddhist, it was very important to ask permission from the mountain gods before climbing. This tradition has been part of every climb since Hillary's, in 1953.
Sean was next to have his ceremony just after National Geographic. The Sherpas had everything ready by 10AM. There were basket trays full of offerings for the mountain gods, crackers, cookies, candy, fruit and more. Sean sat with his two climbing guides and the Lama in front of a stone altar facing the Khumbu icefall. At the top of the rock structure like a stupa, the Nepali flag waved on a wooden flagpole and Sean's CancerClimber flag was there too. Prayer flags were also tied to the pole and waiting to be strung across our camp.
Prayer flags were everywhere, all over base camp, making the area look somewhat festive. Next to the stone altar, juniper branches were burning like incense, making the occasion more mystical. Every morning now after this ceremony, the Sherpas would burn juniper here to maintain the good luck.
When everyone was in position, the ceremony began. One man played the drum and the Lama pounded the cymbals. They chanted special Tibetan prayers and threw rice. Other powders and food was thrown and placed on our right shoulders. Then the Sherpas passed out milk tea and chang, the local brew, similar to a homemade beer. The Lama gave us each a second sacred string, which I still wear tied around my neck.
The Lama wore a knit hat that said Everest across the fold above his eyes. His big sunglasses had two gold lions at each side of his head. He was a popular man that day, going from one important ceremony to the next. We assumed he was paid a hefty sum.

During the chanting and drumming the prayer flags were strung across our campsite and more across base camp. The juniper burned and the smoke filled the air. The mountain gods were cooperating. After more cups of chang, everyone felt good. The prayer flags blew in the wind and the icefall sat observing in the distance. Other climbing Sherpas from other teams came to join our party. Soon there were almost 20 people around Sean, helping us generate good energy for his climb. It was a success. Gombu said the gods were happy.

That afternoon we relaxed and watched the clouds roll in. Soon it was snowing again. As the sun fell behind the mountains, it got colder and colder. Then it was freezing. I spent the evening watching Seth coordinate all his equipment, the laptop computer, the solar panel, the motorcycle battery and satellite phone. He managed to get the computer working and I looked on at all the digital pictures they had taken during the trek. I was amazed he managed to get it working.
The next morning, again after suffering through a cold night, it was beautiful and bright outside. The sun was shining like never before, and again a blanket of snow warmed the ground. We were amazed at how this fairytale landscape could turn to a snowy frozen nightmare in the afternoon. I decided Hell should be a cold place; ice is much more miserable than heat! My toes were ice cubes.
The second day at base camp, Seth, Pemba and I went for a tour of the other camps. I concluded that Sean's camp definitely looked the best. Many of the others were big and scattered with tents all over the place. It was easy to walk into a camp thinking one was on a trail. We had a few people cutting through our camp until Gombu built a rock wall where the intruders were getting in. I felt bad walking through other camps but it was difficult to get around.
There were no good trails to be found anywhere and parts were slushy ice or wet mud. Base camp needed some good trails but who was going to make them? It was sort of a free-for-all, with tents pitched here and there. It also meant one could get a good look at the other camps while accidentally walking through them. Most dinning tents and camp kitchens were huge with long tables stretching for several yards. It would have been interesting to see them at dinnertime. Other tents had desks and computers, cords and cockpit-looking controls. Maybe these were radio systems? How did all this gear get here?

We walked over the pathless, road-less terrain. There were slick snow covered sharp rocks for miles, interspersed with glacial icy formations and ponds and frozen layers of snow. It was best to step in another's footsteps to be sure the ground would hold. I feared twisting an ankle on a rock or sliding a foot into a narrow hole. Needless to say, I traversed slowly. We found the woman we met in Namche who was working with the Brown University students. She had been sick in her tent for the last three days. I knew it was altitude sickness, but the doctor on her team had diagnosed her with dehydration. I was very surprised to find such a sick person stuck in such an awful place. She could not even walk! I thought she should go down – for sure, fearing she would only get worse.
I went to find the team leader of her group who was working on the computer. At first he said he was busy (!). When I finally had his attention, he said it was too difficult to take her down because she couldn't walk. I was very surprised no one wanted to help her or deal with the situation. There was a way to get her down -- the porters are good at that. How could she have been in her tent for three days? It was an awful situation -- and a learning experience for me. I learned to stay out of the way. "The politics of Everest," Pemba explained. Each company deals with health problems differently. Some might wait until they can call in a helicopter. This is covered by insurance -- porters are not. She was better in a few days, which I thought was lucky
Again the clouds came in that afternoon, and soon after that it started snowing. I spent the evening trying to fall asleep by hitting the tent walls, knocking the snow off the tent. I watched the shape of it slide down the nylon tent walls. It always seemed a degree warmer when I got it all off. Then in the middle of the night, another avalanche would boom through the valley. I wanted to open the tent door to look, knowing it was dark and I would see nothing. There were four or five avalanches each night. The load broke with a strong, dull crack, and then tons of snow would fall in a loud rumble of thunder. In the daytime one could see the snow dust rising. At night, one could only imagine -- and hope it was far away.

The next afternoon I went with Sean, Kami and Gombu to the edge of the icefall. This is an area at the base of Everest where the Khumbu glacier falls down a steep rock cliff and breaks up the ice into huge building-size chunks. It is also the most dangerous part of climbing Everest. More people have died here than on any other part of the mountain. Part of the problem is that one must cross the icefall in order to get to camp 1 and one must go to camp one and beyond several times before summit day in order to acclimatize to the extreme altitude. During a typical climb, the icefall must be crossed maybe ten times. The glacier is moving about four feet a day, so it is best to cross the ice early in the morning before the sun has a chance to melt parts of it.
It was amazing to walk here at the base of the icefall where towers and ice formations stood on all sides. I was afraid to walk over the areas that were covered with snow. Crevasses are dangerous business. Some chunks of ice have deep gorges between them that are hundreds of feet deep. After fresh snow, they are hard to see, but I figured I was with Kami and Gombu, the best of the best. They knew what they were doing.
It was snowing by the time we found a good icy cliff on which they could practice. Sean looked great! I was impressed. He didn't slip or slide once. He climbed the 30-foot ice wall a few times. It was cold watching them and hard to take pictures with cold fingers. Gombu said the route near the top of Everest was similar to this vertical ice wall -- only a little steeper. (!)

I left base camp the next day, on April 10, and headed back to the airport in Lukla with Pemba, the trekking guide. On the way we crossed Cho La Pass, at 19,000 feet, the highest I've ever been now. It was amazing to cross the snowfield at the top, and there was lots of snow and ice on the trail, which made the trekking a little difficult. But we finally made it safely to the other side. It was beautiful.
Including crossing the high pass, Pemba and I were in Lukla in a record 3 days! We hiked 10-hour days, of course. It was like three marathons in three days. I was sore and certainly slept well each night. I felt great when I finally got back to Kathmandu. It was a great twenty-day trek.

I've been in Kathmandu for two weeks now and am looking forward to trekking back to base camp in a few days. Robin, part of the base camp support team, arrives next Monday, and a day later we leave for the second trek. We hope to be at base camp around May 8, the time when Sean is scheduled to summit. We will see.

Heather O'Neal
Of Global Interest LLC
www.ofglobalinterest.com

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