Hello everybody,

Today, the four climbing members of the Singaporean-Latin American expedition will attempt to move up from ABC (Advance Base Camp – 6500m) to North Col (7000m). They will be ferrying loads (food and mountaineering equipment) up from ABC. This marks the first time they will be encountering real ice since they arrive in Everest Base Camp.

The weather at BC today is beautiful – windy, sunny, and no clouds.

TS

Today’s sponsor focus features:

CANON:

Canon has supplied us with digital cameras; making them our Official Digital Cameras and Camcorders. All digital images featured during our Everest 2001 climb were taken using either a Canon Digital IXUS or G1 Powershot camera. Digital video cameras include MV3is, MV300s as well as an XM1. See http://www.canon.com.sg

From left, Beng Cheong, David, Roz, Ting Sern and Gil

The YAK story

Some fun facts about our favourite gear carrier.

In Nepal, especially in the Everest region, many trekkers have seen black furry beasts of burden which they think are yaks. In fact, the majority of these animals are yak hybrids. A cross between yaks and cows, these are dzopkyos; smaller and more docile than the real yaks. They produce more milk and are thus more domesticated than the thoroughbreds.

Over here in Tibet, you get to meet the real yaks – large, often capricious beasts up to a tonne at times. When some hapless trekker’s duffel bag bothers a yak, it is not uncommon to see it bucking and thrashing about until the offending baggage is thrown off. I’ve even seen a duffel being twirled around on a horn tip of an enraged yak. Yak herders are contracted by the various authorities to carry our expedition kit to basecamp or beyond at times. After a harsh winter, the yaks carry less, so post-monsoon expeditions benefit by paying less (since the costs are calculated per yak head).

There is no such thing as yak cheese. Milk comes from female yaks or ” naks” as the sherpas call them. (In Tibet, female yaks or naks are called “dri “.) So technically, the cheese should be called “nak cheese”! In Nepal, you can find factories (I have seen them in Lantang region) producing the cheese, which are up to 10kg in weight and the size of a large basin.

Yak meat is also eaten in various parts of Nepal and Tibet. It tastes like buffalo meat, except it has a stronger odour and takes quite a while to get used to. The meat and soup is very heaty and is good during the winter months or when the trekker gets cold feet.

Yak dung which litter the trails here is often dried and used as a cheap source of fuel. Sometimes, they can be seen decorated on roof tops and side walls of villages. Unfortunately, we find that it burns very inefficiently and produces copious amounts of pungent smoke which definitely takes getting used to!
Ciao,
David and TS

Here, we see the yak herders loading the expedition’s barrels onto a yak. Notice the leading herder’s hold on the horn of the yak (to keep it under control).

Hi everyone,

Yesterday evening, I received a radio call from David that they have reached ABC (Advance Base Camp – 6500m).

The team will be resting at ABC today. According to schedule, tomorrow, they will attempt to climb to North Col (7000m) for the first time.

The weather at BC is normal – very windy, cold, and sunny. Hardly any clouds today.

This morning, I had a power supply failure (serious). We used solar energy to power all our electronic equipment. The solar panel supplies 24V, 2.5 amps nominal to a “charge controller”, which distributes the electrical energy between the backup sealed lead acid batteries and the equipment.

When I plugged in the battery outlets into the charge controller, I noticed the usual voltage (12.5 Volts) displayed. I then plugged in the solar panel output but failed to see the current (in amps) displayed on the controller. Also, there was no output power sent to the electronic equipment (Apple Powerbooks, Nera Worldphone, etc).

So, I dug out my usual tools and of course, the faithful FLUKE DMM and went to work. In 20 minutes, I saw my problem – a broken wiring (which is very common here – because of the severe environmentals – a daily temperature change from -20 deg C (at night) to 20 deg C (during the day). A 5 minute job with my battery powered soldering iron and presto …. everything works normally.

Thanks, Fluke!

Ting Sern

Today’s sponsor focus features:

SINGAPORE POOLS:

We thank Singapore Pools for their continued support for national mountaineering expeditions. Pools has an extensive community contributions programme and has helped many Singapore cultural, charitable and sporting causes. We’re proud to carry the Pools flag once more. See http://www.singaporepools.com.sg

Top from left: Ting Sern, Gil and Roz;
Bottom from left Beng Cheong, David.

Hi everyone,

Today’s weather is fine, as far as Rongbuk’s standards goes. Bright sunshine, gushing wind, no snow, no clouds.
Last night’s radio report from David came in at 6:20pm. The team was staying at Intermediate Camp (all okay).

Today, there was no radio calls from them. However, according to their schedule, they are now supposedly on the way up to ABC (Advance Base Camp) from Intermediate Camp (I-C). I will wait for radio calls at 6pm.

Ting Sern,
at Base Camp.

BRANDS ESSENCE OF CHICKEN:

Brands has been a staunch supporter of the expedition as well as the 1st Singapore Everest Expedition in 1998. We also have from them numerous food supplements including the famous (dehydrated version for the exclusive expedition use) Essence of Chicken. See http://www.brandsworld.com.sg

Two guys with strange head gear… Beng Cheong, Gil, Ting Sern, David and Roz. Looking very pleased with themselves after a hot Brands Essence of Chicken!!

Hi everyone,

In appalling weather today (wind was up – 25 knots, -20 deg C), cloudy sky (hardly any sun) and snow drifts around (which cuts visibility to 1000m), all 4 climbing members of the expedition left Base Camp (BC) left for Intermediate Camp (I-C) and later bound for ABC (Advance Base Camp) and the real objective, North Col. The team will be away for 8 days from today.

While the route from BC to ABC is mainly trekking on glacial moraine and glacial ice itself, the path up from ABC to North Col is a steep (45 degrees to 50 degrees) ice slope. Members will taste ice climbing (using crampons and ice axes) for the first time since coming to Everest BC.

Health wise, all 4 members of the climbing team are still suffering from some coughs and/or colds in one way or another.

Cheers
Ting Sern

SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS:

Our official media, SPH’s contributes to the community through support for sporting events, writing and reading causes as well as other worthy community activities. We thank SPH for their support and hope to be sending more stories and pictures in the course of the expedition.
See http://www.sph.com.sg

From left guy with strange head gear… Beng Cheong, Roz, Ting Sern, Gil, and David.

Hello again…

Today we manage to our duty for our sponsors, we took pictures.
Managed to take stills and digitals images with our sponsor’s banners. For the stills, we manage to salvage from Ting Sern’s “magic box” a good flash for the camera. As for the digital cameras, we just shift our position so that the sun shines on our faces. I left the G1 Canon digital camera at Advance Base Camp (its going to the summit U know) so only the Ixus are left at Base Camp.

We are preparing to go up tomorrow. This time round, we will be away from Base Camp for at least 8 days. It’s going to be full of action because this time we will attempt to get to Camp 5, this is at 7900 m. If the weather permits, we will try and go higher. The winds are still blowing hard and we hope that it will slow down a little bit. Your prayers could help.

Health notes.
We’ve been eating too much (realised this a bit too late) and we have to get rid of the extras. Guess the climb tomorrow will help us burn off the spares that we have picked up over the last few days. Our coughs are getting OK. I have finished an antibiotics course and quite a lot of cough syrup too. They taste good.:)

Gonna be higher

rozani

Base Camp
16/Apr
Dear Friends,

Our fourth day of rest here. Colds are drying up and coughs a bit better. Thanks for all your email and news from home. Special hello to all my friends at Troy Athens marching band and the Summit Journal Chat. The weather has been ugly up high with snow even down here at basecamp (4 cm a few nights ago). Clouds have obscured views of Everest completely these last few days.

Our plan for the next critical stage is to reach North Col and to spend time up there. We shall be leaving Base Camp on the 18th for Intermediate Camp and then to Advance Base Camp on the 19th. Here, we’ll rest a bit and then hope to reach North Col on the 21st. I would add that the key to able to launch climbing forays higher up or a summit bid is dependent on how we do on this next round up the mountain. The Col is a snowy saddle at 7000, affording spectacular views onto the other side of the north face of Everest and a peek into Nepal over Everest’s west ridge. It will be a grunt to get up – but hey, this is where climbing begins! We’ll be out of touch except of radio calls down to BC for about eight days, so please bear with the skimpy dispatches until then.

Meanwhile, we’re catching up on some reading with Roz tucking into Alex Haley’s ” Roots” and I sneak away daily with Henri Charriere’s ” Papillon”. Since Gil has only one book in Portuguese, he is savouring the adventures of Bilbo Baggins in the translation of JRR Tolkien’s “Fellowship of the Ring”.

Ciao,
David

Olah,

Em primeiro lugar agradeco a todos que tem mandado mensagens de apoio a nossa expedicao. Estas mensagens sao muito importantes pois ajudam a levantar o nosso astral. Muito obrigado.

Hoje completamos 17 dias aqui na montanha e jah chegamos aos 6.600m no Campo 3, ou ABC. O Campo 3 fica no peh do colo norte e bem embaixo de toda a face norte do Everest….eh magestosa a visao. Esta empreitada durou 5 dias, ida e volta ao campo base, e agora estamos descansando aqui no Base…aos 5.400m de altitude. O que fazemos por aqui?…bem, eh um trabalho de paciencia pois o clima e frio e muito vento. Passamos o dia dentro das barracas, com poucas saidas, lendo (estou lendo agora o Sr. dos Aneis), escutando musica e…..esperando a hora do almoco, do jantar, da pipoca da tarde… Tambem o contato com os americanos esta sendo muito bom, cabecas diferentes, experiencias diferentes, etc. Amanha, se o tempo melhorar quero ver se vamos ate o Monasterio de Rongbuk, um importante Templo Budista, proximo ao Campo Base do Everest. Umas 2 horas de caminhada.

Dia 18 devemos retornar para altitudes maiores. A meta sera o Colo Norte a 7.000m de altitude, depois voltamos, descansamos e voltamos de novo para cima…

abracos a todos,

Gil

Translation:

Hi,
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has sent supporting messages for our expedition. These messages are really important. Keeps our motivation up. Thank you very much.

Today we complete 17 days here in the mountain and we already reached Camp 3 at 6.600m, also known as Advanced Base Camp. Camp 3 lies at the feet of the North Cole, right under the the north face of Mt. Everest… the view is magnificent. This journey to Camp 3 took us 5 days from Base Camp and back, and now we are resting here in BC at 5.400m of altitude. What do we do here? … well, it’s a patience exercise due to the strong wind and cold. We spend the day inside the tent, with a few going outs, reading (now I am reading The Lord of the Rings), listening to music and… waiting for lunch time, dinner and having popcorn in between… The contact with the Americans has also being very good, different minds, different experiences, and so on. Tomorrow, if the weather gets better, I will try to bring the guys up to the Rongbuk Monastery, which is an important Buddhist Temple, close to the Everest Base Camp, within 2 hours of walking.

On April, 18th we should get back to higher altitudes. Our next goal will be the North Cole at 7.000 asl, then we come back, rest and climb up again…

Big hug,
Gil

Hello everyone..

Today we are actively resting at Base Camp !?!!!!

All of us are eating as much as we can to replace some of the energy burnt off during our last climb to Advance Base Camp.

Last night was snowing. We had a little bit of a breeze from the North. In the morning, there was snow all over camp. For us, from equatorial Singapore, it looked good. We grabbed our cameras and furiously started shooting each other and the Everest.

Mt. Everest is fully covered with clouds and only sometimes shyly revealing itself just for a moment. We took pictures with our sponsors’ badges, flags etc. but the sun was behind us and we all looked even darker than we already are. Thanks to the Apple Powerbooks and Canon Ixus Digital Cameras we saw our attempts immediately. We’re planning for another photoshoot in the evening when the sun will be shining on our faces with Everest on the background. This way, you will get to see our faces too!!!

Health note…
Everyone except Ting Sern is coughing. I still have my head cold and been downing antibiotics down my gullet. We are all resting, drinking lot’s of hot Brands’ Essence of Chicken and hope to be up in the next 3 days. Meantime, life a little bit slow at Base Camp with the wind still blowing now and then.

Mohd Rozani

East of Rongbuk, note the glacier

The trek up to Advance Base Camp.

It was a long walk

Dear Friends,

Thanks for all you messages. Al/ Chris – regards to Bear, Jay and Liz/ SJC – have conveyed hellos to Dave Hahn

After 4 days up high, the team is back in Basecamp (BC). It was a hard slog to get to Advance Base Camp (ABC). Current fast runners are Roz and Gil who both made the legs to Intermediate camp and ABC in very good time. It’s hard work, covering the total BC- ABC distance of over 21 km , most of it over 5900m. I had a particularly bad time, nursing a cold, and got into ABC quite hammered.

The route above the intermediate camp, is more of the same although the route crisscrosses more glaciated terrain, none dangerous, but thin layers of powdered scree overlaying slick ice made for careful walking.

It was hard not to keep looking at the soaring north face of Everest. Occasionally, it would be obscured by Changtse’s north ridge, but in any case, the summit route is easily discerned even from a distance. Closer to ABC, the Raphu-La/ pass revealed itself as well as the difficult northeast ridge. This ridge eventually merges into the north ridge/north face’s shoulder. The NE ridge withstood many attempts, including the ill-fated British 1982 expedition which had Tasker and Boardman disappearing near the crux of the climb , the Pinnacles. The ridge succumbed some years later to a huge Japaneses expedition which seiged it for 2 months.

We spent 2 days at ABC (6500m), scoping out the route to our next objective – the North Col ( 7000m ) .We also set up 2 larger tents at ABC for more elbow room!! From the snowy saddle of the North Col, summit attempts will be launched. However, back in BC, this is still a long way to go. We will head up only in another 5 days or so. The sherpas and American team with which we are sharing resources are pushing the route hard though and some interesting developments are due in a few days.

WIth the ‘circus’ in town – many expeditions here now, it will be interesting to see how many are willing to share the costs of the fixed line to be used on the route as well as the manpower to get the line there in the first place. So far the big teams here are : the Russians, the Aussie Army Team as well as Russell Brice’s outfit.

But for now, we have numerous things to settle – the main is to get rested as well as getting rid of our hacking coughs and streaming head colds. The low temps, dust and bugs around here don’t help.

Ciao
David

This is Intermediate Camp(I-C), situated between B-C and ABC. It is placed on a very rocky terrain, mostly moraine.

News from Tibet (10/4/2001)

Hi everyone,

Ting Sern here …. no change in weather since yesterday. Sun is shining brightly now, but the wind is still very strong (and cold).

I got a radio call from David (this morning) that they are staying one day in ABC (Advance Base Camp, 6500m) and should be coming down tomorrow morning. The team is fine. ABC is really very cold.

That’s all I have for you at the moment,

Bye (from the freezer),
TS

Hi everyone,

I am all alone now in BC. The wind hasn’t given up blowing everything in sight down since this morning.

Even though the temperature is comfortable (25 deg C inside my comms tent), the wind (speeds up to 35 km/hr) makes it a kamikazee to venture outside for long. A dust storm is stirred up by the wind and the fine particles sting the exposed skin when it gets hit by those dust particles.

Today, the climbing team have left Intermediate Camp and is now heading for ABC (6500m) for one night stay. They will come down to BC after that.

Cheers
TS

Hi all,

Today, we got a beautiful morning (as far as Rongbuk Base Camp goes). Nice sun shinning, very little wind, and temperature that goes up to 30 deg C inside a tent. Right now, I am typing this report in rolled up sleeves and shorts. I know it won’t last long – so I am enjoying weather while it lasts.

The sun is really very deadly too – because the UV is so high it goes off the scale of my UV meter (0 to 16). Singapore weather at noon day gets about 8 to 9 whereas this place gets a rating of 16 or 17. High UV means no bacteria nor virus can survive for long too.

The air is also very dry (5% RH), which forces you to apply heavy duty cream (Neutrogena, Nivea, etc) on your hands and exposed areas of your skin. Ladies, night cream is also for the guys too!!!

From here, it is a very long walk (5 to 6 hours) to Intermediate Camp (I-C) at 5900m. From I-C, it will take another 5 t0 6 hours to Advance Base Camp (ABC). Both I-C and ABC are situated on the East Rongbuk Glacier.

The climbing team of 4 people just left for I-C about 1 hour ago. They will spend two nights at I-C, then walk up to ABC to spend another night. They should be back at Base Camp on 12th of April.

David is down with a slight cold, while Rozani still has to contend with his cough and blocked nose. Other than that, everyone is still okay.

Cheers
Ting Sern

A note from the freezer
6/Apr
David writes,

Nothing much happened today. Just another day in the freezer at basecamp Rongbuk. Woke up to minus conditions (about -6 on a good day) – just like your freezer unit at home. The hard bit is realising it’s time to get up and out from a warm sleeping bag and into the cold. The sun hits camp only at about 8:30am so pretty frigid until then. Even when the sun shines, the bitter wind makes it feel a lot colder. Yesterday, i washed some socks and clothing but they never dried – the wind froze them into sheets of stiff fabric before the water had time to evaporate. Had to pluck small icicles from the ends of the ‘dripping’ clothes. Eventually, I stretched them in between the inner and outer layers of my tent to get them ‘ freeze-dried’. Today, the weather up on Everest is ugly and the wind colder than a witch’s tit. The tents here are taking a nice whipping from the wind as it either piles up the East Rongbuk (late morning) or down from the mountain (after lunch). Most times, it comes in from everywhere. Basecamp Khumbu in 1998 is tropical by comparison.

Typical basecamp garb are thermal underwear, down jacket and fleece trousers. Your unprotected moments come when you have to unzip to have a big dump in the communal toilet hole 20 metres away from the tents. Wonderful… gives ‘ freezing your ass off’ a whole new meaning.

Meals are eaten quickly since it is unlikely that the food will stay warm before you finish. Breakfast is usually some sort of porridge or muesli, chapatttis and fried eggs. It’s not possible to have them sunny side up since the freeze-thaw cycle breaks the thin membrane which separates the yolks from the whites. You learn something new everyday here at Rongbuk.

Both Roz and I have some mild throat bug so we’ll see how we feel about going up the Big Hill again tomorrow. My disabled ankle has been holding up so hope we can do a better time to Intermediate Camp when we go. If we do go, it’ll be for a few more days including maybe a night at Advance Base Camp (ABC) at 6500m. As for Beng, not sure, because he seems deep in sleep here in the comms tent.

Until, then, greetings from the Freezer.

Ciao,
David

Gil writes,

Ola,

Paciencia eh a palavra de ordem por aqui no Campo Base. Estah frio e venta muito, com rajadas, acho, de mais de 70km/h. Fora das barracas nem pensar, por isso o negocio e inventar o que fazer dentro. Passamos o dia lendo, ouvindo musica (quando o barulho do vento chacoalhando a barraca deixa) ou conversando. Para escalar o Everest nao basta apenas a forca fisica e a aptidao necessaria, eh preciso tambem muita paciencia e auto controle. Ontem pela manha o dia estava formidavel, consegui tomar um “banho” (mais ou menos) e lavar roupas, mas hoje……Amanha a programacao eh ir para o Campo Base Avancado (ABC), espero que o tempo melhore, pois a jornada eh longa e dura.
Ontem e hoje o maximo que andamos foi da barraca que dormimos para a barraca refeitorio, o que nao dah mais de 30m.

Gil

We need to repack those essential heavy stuff from Everest BC for the yaks to carry up to ABC. Here, David (left) and Beng Cheong (right) repacking the drums with goodies (mainly high altitude food). Roz, the dark guy behind David wonders where the rendang had gone.

Intermediate Camp
5/Apr
Hi everyone,

The climbing team is back from Intermediate Camp (5,900m). Initially, 2 camps between Basecamp and Advance Base Camp were planned. However, there is now only one camp (IC) and as such each trip to ABC Will be harder (two 5-6 hour legs). The route to IC follows the lateral moraine – rugged up and down. Our first trip up on the 3rd April took 5.5 hours (Roz and Gil) and 6.5 hours (Beng and myself). It’s tough gaining altitude the first time up. We hope to cut this down gradually with each successive trip. A point of histoirical interest was my finding a piece of old communications cable from the 1930s expedition.

The views of Everest and Pumori (7,123m) are spectacular on the way up. Once around the corner of the East Rongbuk glacier, we hope to get to ABC on our next climb up – most likely April 7th – 9th.

Our only problem 2 days ago was a lack of functioning stoves at IC, making for a group of tired and thirsty/hungry climbers.

Health OK except for a scratchy throat or two. Right now the jetstream at 100 knots at 9,000m is giving great photo opportunities at BC. We’ll be sending more pictures soon.

Ciao for now
David at BC

Ola,

Chegamos ontem do campo avancado (CA – 6000m) situado entre o Campo Base (5.400) e o Campo Avancado (6.500m). Levamos cerca de 6 horas para chegar lah, um tempo razoavel pois ainda estamos no inicio da a aclimatacao. Ficaremos dois dias novamente aqui no Base e depois partiremos para o ABC (6.500m). o Campo CA fica no meio do Glaciar Rongbuck leste e eh apenas uma barraca de circo com 4 x 5 metros, sem chao. Os fogareiros nao funcionaram direito e foi dificil cozinhar..coisas da montanha.

Vou contar um pouco sobre o Campo Base (CB). Eh uma estrutura bastante grande e confortavel. Tem uma enorme barraca cozinha, onde os Sherpas fazem deliciosas comidas para esta condicao. Uma barraca refeitorio com mais ou menos 6 x 6 metros com uma mesa central e cadeiras ao redor. Ja contei 28 escaladores jantando. Cada montanhista tem a sua barraca, pequenininha, mas confortavel – sao 33 barracas todas amarelas. Existem dois geradores de energia, um eolico e outro solar. Nos temos o nosso proprio gerador solar e uma barraca para comunicacao e para ficar batendo papo e tomando chimarrao. Hoje foi o dia do banho e de lavar roupas. A temperatura esta agradavel e sem vento. Ficaremos amanha por aqui, descansando, e depois partiremos para o Campo Base Avancado a 6.500m. Entre ida e volta deverao ser mais ou menos 4 dias.

Abracos a todos que nos acompanham,

Gil

Loaded Yaks!!!
2/Apr

Hi..this is Roz (unplugged from Everest Base Camp)

Today we loaded up our gear and high altitude food rations, onto the yak train for Advance Base Camp. Everyone is feeling fine, except for me- have a little bit of a cough and running nose. The temp last night dropped to minus 10 degree centigrade with a bit of wind. We have a very sunny morning today without even the slightest breeze. It is a clear day and we are rewarded with a great view of Mount Everest, it stands… very big.

Felt like a summit day, not so long ago. Later in the morning the wind started to blow, the usual. Things got dusty and cold even though there was the sun shinning directly on our heads.

Everything seems pretty productive for the team. David and Gill went for a hike, while Ting Sern, Beng Cheong and myself went for a cool wash here (brrrrr). Got every battery charged up and will get even more video recorded and digital pictures uploaded.

Tommrow the whole team will be heading up to intermediate camp and will stay for a night. The next day we will try to climb up to Advance Base Camp and return to back to Base Camp. It’s going to be a hard and slow day tommorow, hopefully the wind will relax a little bit.

Till then…
rozani