The art of climbing big mountains - Patience!

18 messages :: read>

?Why the lull in the blogs??, I hear you ask. Well, we have been out of camp. Having gone high and got the altitude exposure it is usual for teams to head down below base camp to relax, recuperate and try to ?fatten up a bit?! So why break the habits of tradition. We descended to a charming little farming village known as Dingboche in the shadows of the spectacular Ama Dablam. The village has a number of lodges popular with trekkers and climbers. What distinguishes it from a number of the other lodge settlements en route to Everest Base Camp is that it appears to be a proper living, thriving community.

We stayed in the Sonam Friendship Lodge, a very cosy welcoming place. The picture with this blog is of Sonam and his wife with Roger and myself either side of them. This picture was taken as we left the lodge yesterday. Sonam and his wife presented us with prayer scarves that you can see us wearing around our necks. These are gifts to ensure safety as we climb ? they were very gratefully received and will be carried on our rucsacs as we climb.

Sonam has lived in the area for all his life and he remembers, as a six year old boy, Sir Edmund Hillary staying in Dingboche as he descended after the 1953 summit of Mount Everest. There have been a very small number of large altitude research expeditions over the years?.one of these was an expedition to Makalu in 1961, known as the Silver Hut expedition. We are well acquainted with a number of the key players in this expedition, one of whom Jim Milledge (now in his 70?s), accompanied us for the first 4 weeks of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. Sonam was able to inform us that he had in fact portered on the Silver Hut expedition; so we developed a great affinity for Sonam and his hard-working family. Whilst at Sonam?s lodge we ate lots, slept well in the slightly ?thicker? air of the lower altitude and enjoyed some long, picturesque walks. On the last day before heading back up here, 5 of us climbed a trekking peak called Pokalde (5800m) ? good preparation for heading back up through the ice fall.

And so to our main objectives; I think it is fair to say that we all feel that we are now ready to head back up to camp 1 and above with a view to trying to summit this mountain?..but herein lies the art. Patience! At the moment a number of teams are already up at the high camps itching to summit, but the weather dictates. Base camp is covered in snow and there are reports of blizzards at camp 2. We have reports that yesterday a Korean team got as far as the ?balcony? on the summit ridge (8500m) but had to turn around. We will try and remain patient and wait for the weather window that would enable success rather than join the rush now to be disappointed and to spend our energy. Once you have given a summit push a go, you find yourself to be as weak as a kitten and subsequent bids are less likely to be successful. Patience??doesn?t come naturally to all of us!

Post a comment on this article...

 Open message form

Comments on this article

Blog by Nigel Hart