The Ice Fall

With the Puja blessing taken care of we now have permission from the gods to venture onto the mountain. I decided to go have a scout and test a few of our camera and radio systems yesterday morning. It is a rare privilege to climb with the Sherpas. They are much stronger and faster than westerners as they carry heavy loads through the Ice Fall.

My day started at 4:00 am with the temperature around 15 degrees Fahrenheit inside my tent. After putting on a few layers of gear, boots, climbing harness and a helmet I went over to join 16 of our Shepas for an early morning bowl of beans and a cup of instant coffee.

A few minutes later we trundled out into the cold morning. Each Sherpa lined up before the Lungtar Puja altar and tossed blessed rice over the altar and a fire of sweet smelling juniper. We walked around in a clockwise direction and were on our way. The pace was quickly intense. I could see a few people in front of me in the beam of my headlamp and they were moving well.

As part of my geek routine and in keeping with the medical research spirit of the expedition I was wearing a recording Forerunner GPS, heart-rate monitor from Garmin. At first my heart didn't want to wake up and was stuck at a rate in the mid 50's then after ten minutes or so it began to climb as I struggled. Eventually it climbed to 161 beats per minute but I was holding on. The Sherpas packs were heavier and I was able to stay with them with hard work.

About a third of the way up I decided to try out a helmet camera. I had left it out over night to allow it to cool to ambient temperature. It would start up and then record for two seconds before shutting down. I continued to try a few more times before my fingers became numb. This camera would have to wait until I arrived in Camp I. After a while and a little higher - after feeling restored to my fingers - I tried a second camera, it seemed to be working but the image was no good. Both cameras were too cold to function. I have brought video cameras to the summit before without difficulty but they were stored in my pack and probably those days were warmer, even at the summit.

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Blog by Michael Brown