Carrying the Rock!!
The team proudly carrying the flags of Singapore (left) and Brazil (right).
Dear Friends,
It’s set. We leave basecamp tomorrow (May 11) for the summit push, with actual summit day being on May 17th. If the weather looks iffy, we may hole up at ABC for one or more days. Currently, the jetstream is still away from Everest although the afternoon snow showers at Basecamp suggest large rloads of snow higher on the mountain. We need some friendly breezes up high to shift this stuff. Unfortunately, winds up high aren’t so good for climbing. Weather forecasts from Meteorological Service of Singapore are good for 4 days but our summit push will take 6-7 days – so we must move and assess the situation as we get higher. So far, to our knowledge, there have been no summit successes this season although we have news that several teams are moving up in our same time frame.
Today, Roz and Gil studied the aerial photos of the route as well as the oxygen equipment and protocols. Both are in good health. We’ll likely be breathing bottled 02 from Camp 5 at about 2.5 litres per minute; cranking it up over more difficult ground. Of course, we will have to take this camp by camp.
Our final rations will include Brands Essence of Chicken, GNC-supplied All-Carbo drink mix, 151 bars as well as freeze dried foods and other drink mixes. Going up to will be the handy Canon MV31 digital video cams and G1 Powershot digital still.
Personally, I’ll be also carrying a few momentoes including a small rock taken from near the summit of Mt Everest in 1998. It was a gift from my friend and Everest summitter Alan Silva. The condition that came with it was that I had to put it back some day. Let’s see how far it goes on this trip!
Keep track of us on our website, “the” source for news on the Expedition,
Ciao,
David
Report in Portuguese
Olah,
A hora esta chegando..amanha partimos do Base para entao tentar o cume. O previsto, se tudo correr bem, serao 7 dias daqui ao cume – 17/maio. 2 dias ate o base avancado (6.600m), um dia de decanso, depois colo norte (7.100m), campo 5 (7.800m), Campo 6 (8300) e cume. Retorno em 4 a 5 dias. Para o sucesso da expedicao necessitamoos que tres variaveis sejam totalmente favoraveis: 1 – a nossa condicao fisica; 2 – nossa condicao fisiologica de suportar a extremas altitudes e 3 – o clima (sorte), precisamos que o tempo esteja bom, sem tempestades ou ventos fortes…senao nao dah! Tambem nao podemos ficar esperando no ABC o tempo melhorar, pois nao ha recuperacao fisica aquelas altitudes (6.600m), um ou dois dias tudo bem, mais que isso nao. Escalar o Everest eh um jogo um tanto dificil nao? ficamos tanto tempo se aclimatando, subindo e descendo, e quando vamos para cima eh tudo ou nada, o tempo eh curto, precisamos contar com o “apoio da montanha”…acho que eh ela quem decide..por assim dizer.
Dois dias atras, Rozani, Beng Cheong e eu tivemos umas pequenas “ferias” de dois dias. Descemos a uma altitude de 4.400m numa tipica vila Tibetana. Foi maravilhoso ver o verde novamente (graminias no fundo do vale), dormir numa cama e ficar de camiseta tomando um pouco de sol pela manha. Ao longo dos vales existem inumeras vilas tibetanas, agricolas. As construcoes sao todas iguais, quadradas, de adobe, brancas ou bejes e com as janelas e portas muito coloridas. As casas nao tem telhado, apesar de ter cobertura por causa do frio e vento. Alimentacao a base de arroz, ovo e legumes. Voltamos ontem e hoje eh o dia de preparacao para subir.
Torcam e rezem por nos. Faremos o possivel.
Forte abraco a todos,
Gil
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