Everest 2012: Doldrums

If we were talking about sailing this would be called the doldrums, there that time when there are no winds and the boat is basically adrift with the current.

Our Everest climbers on both side are adrift at their camps passing each day just like the previous and the next waiting for those winds to move on.

This may go on for the next week, or two or more. You just don’t know.

As I posted yesterday, the winds are expected pick back up starting today or maybe tomorrow and then reduce around May 18th. So leaders and Sherpas are trying to get the upper camps in shape to support summit pushes around that time. Reversing the schedule from May 18th has teams leaving base camp around May 13 or 14 – about few days from now.

But if the winds don’t die down, it could be longer. The latest first summit was in 2005 on May 21st when snow prevented the Sherpas from fixing the ropes earlier.

There continues to be reports of snow up high which is excellent news as well as no rock fall. With little traffic in the Icefall at the moment, we cannot get a sense of the conditions, especially near the top, but this is probably the most critical area this year.

As you would expect the blogs have quieted as the climbers don’t have a lot to say, except from our favorites this year of Axe and Ian. Grant Rawlinson (Axe) on the north who describes his vision of his summit schedule. He has the added bonus of his theory on Mallory and Irvine. Axe states:

I believe Irvine and Mallory were descending together in bad weather (I do not know if they made the summit or not). They were following the ridge line and were roped together, Mallory took a fall, Irvine tried to arrest him with his ice axe. The rope pendulum’ed and snapped, Mallory fell a long way, broke his leg and died in the position marked on the map. Irvine continued downclimbing the ridge, but died of exposure/fall a short time later in the approximate position I marked on the map. Thats my theory anyway!

Then we have Jagged Globe’s south side climber Ian Ridley, whose blog has become required reading for many. Today Ian takes on his melting tent platform. This could be a scene from Faulty Towers:

Just behind my tent over a small ridge of morraine (it really is only a metre or so) is a large depression (that’s the land form not me!) which up until yesterday had a frozen lake in it. Well yesterday afternoon after what sounded like a large ‘thud,’ a bit like a tree trunk splitting, the frozen lake has gone! It’s as though somebody has pulled the plug out of the bottom of the lake. The water has just vanished deep within the glacier.

So, not a lot of news today, which is a good thing. The teams could use a break from all the drama! Speaking of drama, crowd control is probably a huge topic over meals on the south. I’ll give my perspective on that tomorrow.

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are everything