Today our Altitude Junkies team, along with a few other teams, made the first sortie into the Khumbu Icefall. We got up at 4:30 am and left our base camp at 6:00 am passing by the puja alter with smoldering juniper boughs sending smoke into the air. I paused for a moment to take it all in and to acknowledge where I was and what I was doing.
It took us about 20 minutes to reach Crampon Point but we kept going higher before we actually put our crampons and harnesses on. The sun was lighting up the terrain and Pumori, as usual, stood out with her snow covered summit brightly lit.
Our objective was to go fairly high up but not to Camp 1. This was not a race, not a test but rather a part of our acclimatization process. We carried only water and layers, nothing heavy.
Personally, and everyone has a different perspective of the route, I found the lower section of the Icefall significantly more difficult than in previous years, especially 2015. There were sections that required actual climbing, not just walking on pulling on the fixed line with a jumar (a mechanical device that has teeth oriented so you can go up but catches on the rope in case of a fall).
The route is put in and maintained by the Icefall Doctors. They started working the route almost a month ago so this is tedious and dangerous work.
I climbed with Kami and we only crossed two ladders. We reached about 18,300 feet or 1,000 above Everest Base Camp before the sun poked over Lhotse and the temps went from reasonable to ridiculous. The warm heat of the sun also makes the Icefall much more dangerous as the fragile seracs can fall over at any moment – with no warning.
Happy with our progress we turned back for the comfort and safety of base camp.
We will spend the next few days resting before heading up for our only rotation to Camp 1 and then Camp 2 before our summit push. This is an aggressive approach that I will talk more about in future posts.
April 18, will be a solemn day of remembrance for the Sherpas who died in the Icefall in 2014. There will be no climbing that day.
As Kami I were headed down, a rock slide occurred on a nearby peak once again reminding us of where we are and that nothing is safe in the high mountains.
So a critical milestone in our plan. More to come.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
Latest Everest News – Sunday April 17, 2016
- Sherpas are making are taking loads to Camp 2 now
- Icefall route is a bit more diffcult than in 2015
- China continues to delay North teams, some are flying to Lhasa.
- First climbs into Icefall for foreigners began April 15
- Alan is in Everest Base Camp and has gone into Icefall once.
- Both Ncell and EverestLink are working well this year
- Weather continues to be quite warm, more like late May than mid April
- Some concern with warm temps and impact on climbing conditions but upper mountain seems stable, for now.
- Climbing routes not crowded at all
- 279 Everest permits have been issued to 31 different teams as of April 10 per Himalayan
- In 2015, the Ministry of Tourism reported 319 individuals with Everest permits and 96 for Lhotse. 109 climbers from 2014 used their permits in 2015.
