{"id":15217,"date":"2013-05-04T08:15:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-04T14:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=15217"},"modified":"2019-04-06T12:28:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:28:33","slug":"everest-2013-race-to-camp-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/04\/everest-2013-race-to-camp-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2013: Race to Camp 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Camp<\/a>
Camp 3 Lhotse Face<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seems like the teams are only talking about the weather this weekend on Everest. There is movement on Saturday as the forecast calls for very high winds soon.<\/p>\n

Most of the teams moving up now are trying to spend the night or tag Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face. Once they have completed this task and returned to Base Camp, s their acclimatization program is complete and they will wait for a five day window of good weather to go for the summit.<\/p>\n

There is talk of the first summit window around May 18th<\/sup>. This is along time for the climbers to wait – two weeks. Their acclimatization will last several weeks so that is not an issue, but boredom and focus will be concerns.<\/p>\n

Big Winds<\/h3>\n

Wim Smets<\/a>, climbing Lhotse, made this post today:<\/p>\n

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A storm is coming to lhotse. I will abort my acclimatisation trip and return to basecamp tomorrow. No early summit for me this time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The US Air Force<\/a> team with IMG climbed to Camp 2 on Friday and posted this report as they returned to C2 ready to go to C3:<\/p>\n

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The team made a very early start through the Icefall yesterday, and arrived at Camp 2 at about 9am Nepal time. They will be waking up shortly and spending a rest day to acclimatize. Other climbers report a very breezy night further up at Camp 3, and the winds at high altitude were strong enough that the Sherpas decided to delay another day before attempting to carry loads to Camp 4 on the South Col.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The large Indian team from Pune also moved to C2 preparing to go to C3. SummitClimb<\/a>, Adventure Consultants<\/a> and Mountain Trip are all trying to race to C3 before the winds hit.<\/p>\n

This is the latest report from the Adventure Consultants<\/a> team at Camp 2:<\/p>\n

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This is the second rotation up the hill, hence we aim not to stay at camp 1 any longer. One of the challenging factors was the tremendously cold wind yesterday – some of us wearing all our clothes (two down jackets plus a goretex jacket, but not down suits) walking to camp 2 in the sun! <\/span><\/p>\n

To compare western climbers\/members with our sherpas, today our fastest sherpa left camp 2 at 6480m and carrying loads OVER 20kg, they climbed up past camp 3 (which is a lot of distance as well as altitude) all the way to the South Col at 7950m, higher than most mountains in the world, searched for a campsite for Adventure Consultants, stashed the equipment in case of storms which takes time, and returned back by 9.45am!! 7.25 hrs! And all without oxygen. That fastest time was done by Pemba Chhoti who is famously strong. The other sherpa arrived between 10am and 1pm, all fantastic times.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

David Tait, usually a man of dramatic, emotional dispatches, made a simple Tweet today from Camp 3:<\/p>\n

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Made it to c3 – more later weather bad<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes a few words is all it takes! David has had problems with his power systems and I’m sure will post a longer update once he is back at EBC. He had wanted to go with the Sherpas when they fixed the line to the summit but with the bad weather moving in, I’m not sure of his plans.<\/p>\n

Mike Chambers<\/a> has a great audio update from Camp 3. He really captures the moment, again in a few words – 50 seconds. It is the Blog of the Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Down Valley<\/h3>\n

Peak Freaks<\/a>, having touched C3, is now down in the Khumbu at Pheriche resting in the relatively oxygen rich air. They get the benefit of more oxygen in the air, sleeping off the ground but run the risk of getting sick from interacting with new people. This down-valley vacation happens every year with many, many teams going down for a few days before the summit bids.<\/p>\n

For anyone following Chris Klinke<\/a> and the team from Rolwaling, he has posted a lengthy update on his blog. They are also down valley after having spent a night at Camp 3.<\/p>\n

North Update<\/h3>\n

It is not a lot different on the North but teams are taking different approaches to dealing with the weather.<\/p>\n

Phil Crampton, Altitude Junkies<\/a>, reported they are staying put at Chinese Base Camp:<\/p>\n

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Base camp continues to be hammered by strong winds and the visible plume coming off the summit from the jet stream is longer than the entire length of the Northeast Ridge. Our latest weather forecast expects the jet stream to stay in position for several more days leaving us stuck down at base camp.<\/p>\n

Our Sherpas returned to base camp yesterday after spending two weeks at advanced base camp and above. They explained that advanced base camp is a miserable place indeed at the moment with the constant wind and that many tents belonging to other groups have already been destroyed by the high winds. We know of several teams in position at ABC waiting to climb to the Col but unfortunately the forecasts are not looking so good for the next several days.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But the Adventure Peaks team is at the North Col squeezing in that milestone before the winds hit. Bob Kerr<\/a> made an audio post from the Col saying the weather was acceptable for the moment. At this point, they are climbing without supplemental oxygen by design to acclimatize, so they must be very, very careful with exposure to high winds to avoid frostbite.<\/p>\n

I always find it interesting how different teams view risks and make decisions.<\/p>\n

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything<\/p>\n

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