NFB 2001 Everest Expedition (PV Scaturro, 05-18-2001)

EVEREST LIVE

May 18, 2001
3:15 PM Nepal Time

From: P.V. Scaturro
Expedition Leader
NFB 2001 Everest Expedition

PV toasts the climbers, sherpas, and base camp staff to a succesful summit push. Photo by Didrik Johnck.

For a second day in a row the entire team, with the exception of Steve Gipe, who remains at Camp 2, is resting at base camp. They continued to relax after the previous week spent at Camp 2 and to prepare for the upcoming summit attempt. If all goes well and the weather cooperates, the final summit push will begin tomorrow morning when Erik, Sherm, and Jeff leave Base Camp for Camp 1. They will start their climb through the icefall at 5:00 AM, and should arrive at around noon. The remainder of the expedition will depart for Camp 2 the day after tomorrow. The entire team will be reunited in Camp 2 on Sunday. Our summit day is still planned for the evening of May 23. We heard that the Chilean-Spanish expedition that attempted a summit two days ago was turned back at the Yellow Band above Camp 3 due to bad weather, mainly high winds. To date, no one has even tried a summit attempt above the last camp on either the South or North sides of Everest. Tomorrow morning at least five expeditions will start their summit attempts. Hopefully they will be able to get to the South Col, then on to the summit. If they are succesful, then we will be two days behind.

Several people have asked questions about the fixed rope situation above the South Col and why, 10 days after the Sherpas fixed the ropes almost to the South Summit at 28,800 feet, there is a problem. When our Sherpas fixed 850 meters of 7mm climbing rope above the South Col last week, they did so in excellant weather. However, they did have to break trail in excess of three feet of soft snow. After they fixed the lines the weather turned bad and it has snowed almost every day since. Between the periodic snowfalls and the short periods of sunshine, the snow has packed up deep and crusty over the fixed lines. If we find the location of the fixed lines, then it is questionable if they can be pulled up. The next team atempting a summit, therefore, will have to refix many of the fixed lines that were previously placed.

Chuldim, climbing sherpa, enjoys his toast as well. Photo by Didrik Johnck.

The weather is still the main hurdle we must overcome. The forecasts still look marginal at best. We wake up to clear skies only to get snowed on everyday around 2:00 PM. Steve informed us this morning that the winds were very strong high up in the Western Cwm. The reason we pay so much attention to the weather on Everest is that Everest is no ordinary mountain. We have summited many mountains around the world in poor weather, including 27,000 foot Cho Oyu in 1997. Everest is different because at 29,035 feet it actually sticks up in the jet stream. Everest is almost TWO MILES taller than Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. If we get stuck up in a snowstorm way above our last camp the consequences could be serious. For this reason, we are very careful about paying attention to the daily weather patterns that affect Everest, primarily the location of the jet stream that can pound Everest with winds in excess of 100 mph.

We leave for the summit tomorrow morning. We'll try to keep you updated.

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