Where in the world is JPR?

Updated: 6/11/2009

Kathmandu local time

 

See the Manaslu ManasluExpedition here

August-Sept, 2008

See more of Paul's Everest Photos here

Videos from the Summit of Mt Everest, May 23, 2009

A greeting to my friends and colleagues at Purdue University

Paul climbed Mount Everest with the team from Himalayan Experience led by Russell Brice. He summited on May 23 at about 9:31am. You can view a description and the itinerary for the expedition here. You can also read the current Everest expedition newsletter and sign up to receive newsletters.

Paul's blog is updated occasionally. You can monitor the progress of the team through the blog of Bruce Parker, who has climbed Manaslu with Paul, or the blogs of the other team members.

View a few photos from our trip on Picasa Paul's Everest Photos and some more here (these are from Hiro)

Latest reports from Paul

Day 63 (June 2) (Last report from Kathmandu)

Well it turned out that today is a national strike in Nepal. No shops are open, there are no busses, no taxis, no cars, and not even any bikes. There are people with red Maoist flags on every corner to prevent any cars or any transport at all from passing. Its not very nice. In fact, one person riding a bike thru one of the blockades was beaten up and his tires let down becuase he dared to use a form of transport. I hoped to do some last minute shopping, but all the shops were shut and there were people with red flags everwhere to make sure they did not open. At about 3pm, a car arrived out our hotel to take us to the airport - they had driven on back streets to avoid the red-guards! When you consider that Kathmandu is a pretty large town of a couple of million people, there are no stree signs and no addresses!!! It was an interesting trip to the airport entirely on back streets and at every street corner the driver was looking very concerned as he rounded a corner hoping to find the street clear....well we made it and the flights were on time. I arrived the next day back in Indianapolis safe and mostly sound. This was a trip of a lifetime - it will be hard to beat this last 10 weeks for excitement......

Day 62 (June 1)

Today will be last shopping in the thousands of shops in Tamel district of Kathmandu and at 4 pm we will leave the hotel for the airport. I suspect this will be the last addition to this blog, although when I return I will review all the equipment I used and give it a rating. I will also add lots of new photos and many short video I took. Thanks to all of you who have monitored this journey. I hope it has inspired some of you to try some new and perhaps difficult things. For others, I hope that I have challenged you to contribute to our Cytometry-for-life Project.

Day 61 (May 31)

Today I managed to get out of bed late (a la stomach) and walked to the NWA office and changed my flight tickets. They only take cash here for such things - amazing really. Anyway, it took 90 minutes to change, but I am on a flight out of here at 7:10 pm on June 1st. I found out today that tomorrow is a national strike day - whatever that means! After 60 days of an expedition, believe me, it is really time to get back to normal life. It has been an amazing experience - something that is hard to describe really. Clearly you have to go through a lot of hard and difficult times to reach some goals. This was one where the road was rough and tough and very, very long. You don't climb Everest in a week! Frankly, it still has not hit me that I managed to summit the highest mountain in the world. It just happened and hopefully in a while, the impact of this incredibly hard journey will hit me.

Day 60 (May 30)

Today at 6 am we were all at the Lukla airport eager to get back to Kathmandu. The flight arrived on time and a lucky 15 (including me) got onto the first flight. It literally took 10 minutes for them to unload the flight and load us on. We landed in Kathmandu about 45 minutes later and went to the Tibet Hotel. Today I had a full breakfast in Lukla before leaving and a full breakfast at the Hotel when we arrived in Kathmandu. Then we went to Mikes Cafe and had another full breakfast. In the evening we went to a nice restaurant and had some very rich food. Well not surprisingly, I suffered from overeating with a very distended stomach. It had shrunk so much, that eating all this good rich food was too much and most the night and next day I suffered miserably!

Day 59 (May 29)

Today we will walk about 6 or 7 hours to Lukla where we hope the weather improves by tomorrow as our flights are scheduled for 30th of May to Kathmandu. It was rainy and foggy all day. One good thing is that it was not too sunny, but the bad thing is that we are now almost in the monsoon season and so this affects flights into Lukla. We have heard that there are many teams stuck in Lukla waiting for space on flights. Each plane only holds about 20 people. We have guaranteed space only if flights actually fly on May 30. If not, we join the long queue and we wait in Lukla. Some groups have had to wait a week in Lukla - lets hope we don't! My flights from Kathmandu are due out on June 7. If we make it to Kathmandu on 30th, I will definitely see if I can leave earlier. It's time to go home!

Day 58 (May 28)

We left at 8am from Pangboche to go to the famous Namche Bazzar (3440 m). We were told this would take at least 5-6 hours but most of us did it in 4. The only problem with todays walk is that twice we have to descend to the river, cross it and then climb up again. First to the famous Tengboche Monastry then back down to the river and up a 2200 foot hill that eventually winds its way to Namche Bazar. We were supposed to have lunch at a small inn on the way, but we were there so early (too many red blood cells, so we walked very fast up the hills) that we decided to wait till we got to the "Everest Bakery" at Namche. Well, when we got there, we ordered everything on the menu and I think most of the 8 or so that arrived together ate an equivalent of 2 days food over about a 2 hour period. It was truly fantastic! Tonight we stay at the Alpine Lodge where we stayed on our forward journey. Tomorrow we have to have our bags packed and at the front door for the porters by 6:30 am.

Day 57 (May 27)

Today the sun came out. Frankly I did not believe my eyes as we are supposed to leave Base Camp today for the 65 km walk to Lukla! Well, I spent the first hour or so from 6 am packing my drum and my bag and my backpack. By 8 am all my stuff was in front of the cooks tent and there were about 20 porters ready to carry our large bags to Lula. We left the camp at 9 am and walked for 3 hours in heavy snow and eventually total slush - frequently 4-6 inches of absolute slush mixed with yak dung - really delightful stuff. When we arrived at our Lobuche Base camp (4910 m) Tashi our chef was waiting for us. They had left 2 tents up and one was the dining tent - we had a delicious lunch and within 20 minutes moved on.

Today we determined we walked about 30 km at least - it was definitely a very hard day - and we went through Thoka (4620 m) to Pheriche (4240 m) to Shomare (4010 m) and finally arrived at Pangboche (3930m) where for the first time in 57 days we actually slept in a real bed in a real building. The fact that the porters never arrived with our bags didn't seem to phase anyone as we had slept in the same clothes for 2 months, another night without anything was a minor inconvenience.

Day 56 (May 26)

Rest day, and - yes - we had snow all day. About 15-16 inches of snow and it was nasty. By end of day we had over 1 meter of snow. It just caked our tents and a few of the members tents collapsed under 18 inches or more of snow that accumulated on their tents. I woke about 5 am and realized it was way too quiet and got up and cleared my tent. By 6 am myself and one or two other early risers were clearing members tents with shovels. Most of us think we will be here for 3 or four days.

Day 55 (May 25)

Today we walked from Camp 2 to Base Camp through the Khumbu Icefall. We woke up at 3:30 am and left at about 4:30 am. I was not feeling well at all, excessively tired, and very weak. We had eaten precious little food for the past few days, typical of being at high altitude where one has no appetite at all. Once I packed my back pack, I really felt that I would not be able to carry it all the way down to base camp. It was really heavy since all the personal gear that we had taken up on two trips to Camp 2, had to be brought back. The trip was not too bad, as it took about 5 hours, but even a few hours in the icefall, is not pleasant. One thing that was really nasty was a new ladder across a crevice that had 5 ladders roped together. It was by far the most rickety ladder we crossed. By the time you were in the middle, it bounced and swayed and was plain nasty. The crevice was about 50 feet or more deep and it really was a difficult ladder. One of our members actually slipped off and ended up crawling over on his stomach. It was not fun to watch as I had just crossed and was leaving when this happened and I had to go back and help steady the ladder for 10 minutes or so that it took this member to get across. Every time he moved his feet, he either caught a crampon on a rung, or his backpack started to slip to one side. Eventually with much advice and support, he got across and recovered. It was not a pleasant event to witness. The rest of the trip through the icefall was uneventful even though it was snowing most of the time. At least with the cold, the icefall is much more stable and we were also completely through it by 9 am which was our team's suggested time for getting through the icefall, and a clearly well thought through deadline.

After removing our crampons at crampon point, on the edge of the main Everest Base camp, we walked the 25 minutes or so to our Base Camp and as we entered the camp, there were horns, clashing of tins, and loud noises, a scene repeated for every climber, guide and Sherpa that returned from a successful summit. Even though it was snowing heavily when we arrived, everyone at Base Camp was out in the snow greeting and congratulating us as we returned from our epic adventure. It was a truly remarkable scene and one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

 

Day 54 (May 24)

Today we moved from Camp 4 down to Camp 2, leaving at 7 am. Camp 3 was dismantled overnight so we had no choice but to go on to Camp 2. We started at 7 am as the wind was very strong, and it was also very cold. Of course, we were still in our down suits. Camp 4 is on the South Col and is subject to continuous high winds. The route is over the Geneva Spur, down over the Yellow Band and then a traverse across to the Lhotse Face and down to the Western Cwm and on to Camp 2. The last distance of about 1-2 hours is a gentle slope down to Camp 2. I was very tired and found this entire day really stressful. It took me around 5 hours to get from Camp 4 to Camp 2 and when I came into Camp 2, I was totally wiped out.

Day 53 (May 23) - The summit day

At 1 am our team left Camp 4 for our summit attempt. We left later because of the potential for lower winds later in the morning. Low winds means less chance of losing fingers and toes! The first 4 or 5 hours requires a steep climb to what is called the "Balcony". On the way up we came across a climber by the name of Mike Farris who was having extreme difficulty. Apparently he has left for the summit the day before and had problems. Amazingly he had no radio to communicate with his people! Something that frankly no person who is prepared would do. He asked for our help and members of our team gave him oxygen and radioed down to his team as well as our own people at Camp where he eventually ended up for most of the day till his Sherpas came up to get him. I find it amazing that people claim to be independent climbers and its fine until things go haywire and then they are in total trouble. The mountain is littered with bodies of people who were trapped by difficult circumstances and in many cases without the wherewithal to recover. Farris was in my opinion, one such individual who ended up depending on the goodwill and support of large teams.

One of our members found his backpack just up from the Balcony, and another apparently picked up his oxygen mask and found it working fine as they tried it out. The tragedy of this story as I was told later was that Farris ended up with most of his fingers and toes and nose badly frostbitten. This story could have had a better ending had this "independent" climber chosen to have a support matrix around him so that when things went wrong, he had help. He didn't even have a radio to call for help on! This I believe is nothing less than stupidity. Every member of the HIMEX team including every Sherpa, guide and member had a radio that was monitored every minute of every climb. Climbing mountains like Everest is not something that you should do unprepared. All you do is put those that are prepared at more risk, when they have to detour from their well laid plans to aid those who are not prepared. I am not saying that we should not assist those who need assistance - of course we should - but their stupidity in the end should not be rewarded with praise. Indeed, they should be chided by the mountaineering community for the idiocy of their ways. There is no glory in putting oneself in danger and others at risk to save them. I have no hesitation in stating my views on this publicly, as I find it amazing that such events occur, and they occur every year. I even heard that Farris had written or was writing a book on surviving Mt. Everest. What a crass notion that would be!

The Balcony is a small area that is relatively flat and where about 20 climbers could sit down to rest. Here we dropped off one of the 2 oxygen cylinders we carried up in our back packs. From here we climbed for some hours up pretty steep rock slope. It was pretty slow here as we caught up with a large group of climbers that were painfully slow and there was no way to pass. It is these times that one must make sure that ones hands and feet dont freeze. Eventually we made our way onto the South Summit where we changed oxygen cylinders again from bottles stored there by our Sherpas and moved across to the true summit climbing up Hillary's Step. This is a really difficult area where you have to climb over fairly large rocks to get around to an area that allows you to move up the slope. Its a fairly long time of moderately difficult climbing until we reached the rather small area of the Everest Summit. It was an amazing time being on the summit, even though the weather was not particularly nice with winds, and clouds. I summited at 10 am on May 23, Nepal time. When we arrived at the summit there were already about 15-20 people crowding the summit so we waited just below them till they all left and we were on our own for about 40 minutes on the top of the world. The first thing I did was have Nema, my Sherpa take photos of some mementos that I had carried to the top for a fellow member who was taken with a serious medical condition on his way to Camp 3. I think I mentioned this earlier. I promised him I would take his things to the top and I did, and so we wanted to photograph everything. Then Nema took a stack of photos of me holding up the ISAC flag, and some Purdue flags and then I made a shot video commentary to family, and colleagues. Of course at this point, the camera battery died so that was the end of photos. The only minor irritation was that I put my ice axe down to hold something for a photo and of course it went sliding down the hill Only 10 feet fortunately so we rescued it! After all was done and good, it was time to leave. It's an interesting feeling having spent the best part of a year preparing to do this and 35 hours of climbing to get there and you have to go, knowing you will never again be at this place. It sounds odd, but I sort of enjoyed the time I was there and didn't really want to leave. But of course we did and spent the next few hours winding our way down again being held up numerous times at critical points by climbers who seemed to have no idea how to go down a rope!

We made it back to Camp 4 where Phurba our Sirdar, had hot tea ready for us - and helped us into out tents for a long afternoon and evening of rest sucking in lots of oxygen and listening to the roar of the ceaseless wind literally rock our tent until we left at 7 am to descend to Camp 2 the next morning.

Day 52 (May 22)

Today we moved from Camp 3 to Camp 4 on the South Col. We left at 5 am and immediately started up the face which is rather steep. It was about 3 hours climbing before we crossed the traverse and came to cross over to the famous Yellow Band. This required climbing up the band and then across to the Geneva Spur. Once up the Geneva Spur we had to walk around the Spur to the South Col where our Camp 4 was located.

Day 51 (May 21)

Today we moved from Camp 2 to Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face and left at 5 am. It was a particularly hard day. One of our team members collapsed and had to have an injection of Dex; and that meant he had to abandon his climb. It was rather distressing as we spent about 90 minutes to 2 hours with him before one of our Sherpas arrived with oxygen and took him back too Camp 2. We all continued up the hill to Camp 3, but the sun was pretty hot by the time we arrived at Camp 3 after 9 hours. I suspect that I got badly sunburned and I was definitely very dehydrated by the time we got to camp 3. We slept on oxygen at Camp 3 and stayed on oxygen continuously from there.

Day 49 (May 19)

We left at 12 midnight from Base Camp to go to Camp 2. We left earlier because the previous team got caught in the heat of the Western Cmb and nearly fried. I went through the Icefall in about 5.5 hours (as opposed to 7.5 hours a few weeks earlier) but then it took me another 5.5 hours to get to Camp 2. Eleven hours, many of them in the heat. It was really stressful and I struggled to get into Camp 2. Fortunately we had a rest day to recover.

Day 48 (May 18)

Well since there are already many teams on the mountain, some trying to summit today, and our first team left 2 days ago, I can now tell you that my team will leave at midnight tonight to leave for Camp 2 from Base Camp. We are leaving 2 1/2 hours earlier than the first team, as it took some of them 10 hours to get to Camp 2 and they found the going very hard when the sun hit them on the Western Cwm. Isn't it amazing that at 20,000 feet plus on Mt Everest, that the temperature can be 100-105 degrees F or higher on the Cwm. So hot that you almost melt into the snow and ice you are standing on! So our team will leave earlier to try to avoid that, although I am not looking forward to a 10 hour climb to start a 7 day summit attempt for sure. But there is no way around it. Today I tested my oxygen system to make sure it was working properly and I will spend the rest of the afternoon packing my backpack, unpacking it, and repacking it. My brand new Petzl latest version headlamp died yesterday - an internal cable broke. Very poor design; it sort of makes me mad that companies like Petzl who are supposed to make the highest quality tools for the most extreme environments, can't create a well engineered wire connection to a battery pack. I had to borrow one from someone else who had a spare. Its not the sort of thing I need the very day I leave for a summit bit of Mt. Everest. Anyway, I need to go now, as I really do have to go over my gear - decide how many pairs of gloves I need to carry, how many spare batteries and whatever else has to be done. Its a bit hard to make these decisions, as once you leave, you have what you have and there is nothing to be done. On the other hand, there is no way I am carrying a ton of stuff up that hill, just in case I need it. Even the toothbrush and toothpaste may be left behind I think

Day 46-47 (May 16-May 17)

Rest days

Day 45 (May 15)

Rest days

Day 44 (May 14)

Rest day. Sunny, beautiful day! Today there was a long guides meeting after breakfast where the final summit teams were selected and the dates defined. I can't divulge right now what the details are, but we are now all quite relieved as we know exactly when we are going for the summit and who our guides and teams are. There is much conjecture around the entire base camp as to when everyone is going. So we have been told that we cannot at this time divulge our teams plans. We understand that there are around 300-400 climbers at least maybe 500 at base camp. On top of that an almost equivalent number of Sherpas and guides. So, it's going to be crowded going for the summit. I did see about 30 people going up the icefall at 6 am this morning, so they are either Sherpas taking loads, or climbers going for the summit now. Since we have 22 climbers left (5 dropped out, 1 already summited) we have 6 less to fit onto the teams. So that makes it moderately better in terms of Sherpas-to-member ratio since we have, I think, 29 Sherpas on our team.

One thing is for sure, we now have all firmly set our eyes on one task, and one task only - our summit attempt. For the last 44 days since we left Kathmandu, the only task we have been set was to become acclimatized to the high altitude. Several (5 actually) for one reason or another were unable to acclimatize or decided not to continue this venture. It is psychologically very hard indeed to spend so long in preparation and much of the time just waiting around doing nothing. The trick is to acclimatize but not lose so much weight and muscle that you get weaker and weaker. So, that is why we went up to Camp 3 but did not stay there. Even at Camp 2, it is thought that you move over the balance where you lose body mass at a faster rate than you can gain it. So, Base Camp is apparently neutral, although I figure I have lost about 15 lbs so far. The way I look at it, it makes my backpack 15 lbs lighter! We have been resting, literally using as few calories as possible, and eating as much as possible every day. Most days, I have no problem eating 3 meals a day. Its always eggs and toast, often with bacon and beans for breakfast, and lunch is usually a salad, potatoes, veggies, and a variety of additional things such as canned fish. Dinner is always hot soup which is always excellent, followed by pasta, potatoes, meat of some sort, veggies and baked bread followed by desert of fruit or some other nice desert. The food at HIMEX is really excellent and frankly, we have yet to have a bad meal.

I think it fair to say, that everyone is sleeping well at this altitude (5250 m - 17,500 ft) without any problems. In fact, I think we have acclimatized so well, this altitude almost seems normal, until you bend down to pick up a moderate size rock to support your tent, and you realize its not really normal at all.

So, without divulging the dates we will leave, here is the summit plan. On day 1 we will leave at 2:20 am from our camp, walk to crampon point on the icefall edge of EBC - about 30 minutes walk. We will put on our crampons here and start moving up the Khumbu Icefall. Hopefully it will not take me the 7 1/2 hours it took last time. I am aiming at about 6 hours or less to what was Camp 1, but we will not be permitted to stop at Camp 1 this time, we will continue another 3-4 hours to Camp 2 where we will stay for about 36 hours. We will leave around 5 am from Camp 2 to climb to Camp 3 (6300 m) where will stay overnight sleeping on oxygen. About 5 am the next morning we will leave Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face to climb to the South Col at 7,900 m. We will stay overnight again sleeping on oxygen. At some ridiculously early time to be revealed to us, we will leave from the South Col on our summit bid. It is a long way - around 900 m in height - almost a kilometer in vertical climbing! This will probably take 9-10 hours and then return to Camp 4 at the South Col to sleep again on oxygen. Next day, we will move from Camp 4 to Camp 2 where we will stay overnight and next day return through the Icefall as early as possible to Base Camp!

I have to say that after all this time preparing for this its nice to have a firm date to leave. I have not yet resolved in my mind how to cope with the stress and extreme exhaustion that we will face for basically 6 days straight. But, one hopes that we have reached a point where we can play the mind over matter game to get through this next part. Having already been through the Icefall and up to Camp 3, certainly gives once confidence that we can do that again. From Camp 3 thought, its two very difficult sections and on summit day, you have to go up and back.

Since we are now very close to the end of this expedition, I can' but help to remember what the driving force has been. My goal, as I have said many times, is to raise awareness of the issues of AIDS and the lack of diagnostic tools for a great number of people in resource-limited nations. If you have not already done so, I exhort you to go to www.cytometryforlife.org and make a donation to the cause we are working toward. Across the cytometry world, there have been many individuals who have worked toward a solution to low cost diagnostics. However, the problem is far greater than any one group can solve. So this is the time for you to go to the above site and find the donation page and make a statement for the field of cytometry. When I return, I will be spending a great deal of time promoting some specific solutions to the cytometry issues that face those trying to bring very low cost, affordable CD4 diagnostic to those in rural environments. I am surprised that some of the proposed solutions that were heavily promoted at the 2006 AIDS Congress in Sydney seem to me to have been dreams! Frankly, in the last couple of years, I have been told of so many incredible solutions to low cost CD4, I might be excused for thinking that some of them might actually work. Frankly though, it might be the lack of oxygen up here on Everest, but my gut feeling is that most of the proposed solutions are pretty much hot air. For some reason, CD4 seems to be an easy term to use to raise the term sheets of start ups but not much more.

I have written a more detailed e-mail that will be sent to the cytometry discussion list in a day or two, so I will leave it to that email to challenge some of you on this issue.

In the mean time, I will start to get ready to move up the mountain. Its around 14 in the match and it's about time. I am looking forward to a real bathroom, a real shower, changing clothes less than every 8-9 days, not sleeping in a sleeping bag, not wearing a backpack for a long time, being able to talk to someone in my own field, not having eggs for breakfast every day, drinking real coffee, not drinking Sherpas tea (which is great on the mountain), not sleeping in a tent, and finally, being able to breath real air!

Day 44 (May 13)

Rest Day - Snowed - relatively miserable day. Some sun.

Day 43 (May 12)

Rest Day - Snowed - relatively miserable day. Little sun.

Day 42 (May 11)

Rest day - Snowed - relatively miserable day. No sun.

Day 41 (May 10)

Rest Day. It's snowing today - several groups tried to go for the summit in a 5 day run, but they had to turn around because of high winds. Tomorrow winds of 90 km/h are predicted - our maximum safe wind speed is around 20 km/h which means a minimum temp of around minus 30 C - that is not predicted for 10 days or so. So, this morning my primary activity was re-leveling my tent - since we are on a glacier - the tent sinks over several days and we have to keep building up and leveling the base. It's a lot of work at this altitude.

Day 40 (May 9)

Rest day.

Day 39 (May 8)

Rest day. What a food day! Since one of our members left a day or so ago by a heli, Russel Brice organized an incoming food drop on the heli - we had the most magnificent Norwegian Salmon - huge Salmon and so lunch was just extraordinary. In fact, breakfast, lunch and dinner were the very best we have had since we arrived. On long rest days, it seems the food is really worth while. Of course, I have lost a lot of weight - not sure how much, but I suspect about 15 pounds (7 kg). It's not that the food is not great, it is the various times you go off on acclimatization expeditions - if you go high, you just lose weight.

I have not commented so far on the big avalanche that hit the Khumbu Icefall a few days ago. It was very big and I am sure all the blogs have discussed it in detail. We saw it happen at 10:30 am from our Base Camp - and unlike most avalanches that happen around the camp, we did race outside and watch this one more than dust the entire Everest Base Camp (but not ours as we are 20 minutes lower than the traditional EBC). The sad thing is that a Sherpa was killed and two climbers injured - but apparently ended up walking away. For the past 3 days, we have observed teams of people on the Icefall looking for the body of the Sherpa. My understanding is they have not found it. The team caught in the avalanche was apparently "Asian Trekking" from Khatmandu. I really don't know any more details and chances are, most details you read on the web will be 3-rd or 4-th hand reports (typical of Everest Web information), so they may not be particularly accurate. We are all very glad that all of our HIMEX team was down the Icefall before this big avalanche happened. It has been drilled into us that the Icefall represents danger, and we try our hardest to be in the Icefall only at night or early morning when it is most stable.

This is probably a good time to remind those of you following my Everest Expedition, why I am here! Remember, my goal is to raise both funds and awareness of the difficulties in dealing with AIDS in resource limited countries and that I believe we can make a major impact if we in the cytometry world, focus a lot more in producing low-cost, easy to use, lightweight diagnostic instruments for CD4. Surely this is just one aspect of management of AIDS, but one that needs a lot more effort than presently being made. Our program at Purdue is just one for sure, but my goal is to encourage all of you to make a contribution - please go to www.cytometryforlife.org and go to the donation page and make a contribution. Thank you for doing this. The best time is now. Of course I will remind you again before I finish this expedition.

Day 38 (May 7)

Rest day at Base Camp. Absolutely nothing to do - just rest. I am reading lots of books... We can go for long hikes, but frankly, the rest is worth more than the exercise. We may go down the road an hour or so tomorrow just to keep the legs going.

Day 37 (May 6)

Today we went from Camp 2 to the Base Camp. My tent mate Bruce was not feeling well so we went very slowly. We made Camp 1 within 75 minutes and then started through the Khumbu Icefall. It was the first time that I got a chance to see it in the daylight. It is pretty scary actually and goes on forever. There are over 30 ladders on the ice fall. Some go up, some down, and most are flat over crevices. Clipping onto ropes on either side, one navigates the rungs trying to get the front claws of the crampons over the rung, and then the next foot, etc. Most are about 10 feet long, but some are 2 or 3 ladders roped together making a somewhat shaky track. We had to wait for about 15 minutes at one ladder as the Icefall Doctors (a group of Sherpas paid to maintain the route across the Ice Fall) were repairing a ladder that had dropped into a crevice after a huge block of ice cracked apart and wrecked the route. I managed to take some video as I descended but dont know how it tuned out as I was clipping in, holding the camera and the ropes at the same time! We finally reached crampon point 5 hours after leaving Camp 2 and another 30 minutes to Base Camp. The first thing I did was have a shower and change of clothes after 5 days! I am certain to sleep well tonight. Its not clear how long we will now wait at Base Camp. The long term weather reports indicate strong winds on the mountain for the next 10-12 days, so it looks like a very long rest.

One thing that was very exciting was that one of our team members, David Tait, was able to summit Everest yesterday. The fist summit of the season! David was going to go without oxygen, but because of time constraints he decided to go for the summit with oxygen immediately after the rope fixing team fixed to the summit.

So far, of 28 climbers, 4 have dropped out for various reasons, mostly altitude adjustment problems. I suspect another person will also drop out soon. Frankly, after the last 5 days, I can understand anyone wanting to drop out. Getting to 7300 m is tough indeed without oxygen. I know that we still have to do everything we already did again - that is a sobering thought, but I sure hope it is easier with the acclimatization. I have a pretty bad cough - probably the famous Khumbu Cough but hopefully it will die down with the next 10 days rest. As a final thought, once we get to Camp 3 next time, it will be our summit attempt and we will at least get to "sleep" on oxygen. Being at Base Camp feels like a 5 star hotel compared with the mountain - thats for sure. Now we get to sit around for 10 days or more until the weather cooperates. One evening, we will be told, "pack and leave at 2:30 am tomorrow". We have no idea when that will be...

Day 36 (May 5)

Today we descended from Camp 3 to Camp 2. We left at 8:30 am because of the extreme cold. We followed a long team of other climbers. Descending very steep ice is hard and takes a great deal of concentration. While it would have been preferable to abseil down, with so many climbers its just not possible, so most of the descent was using a half Austrian arm hold meaning its faster, but requires much more energy. What took nearly 6 hours to climb, took out 2 to descend, even with the traffic jam. I had to stop for about 20 minutes at once stage after a climber about 5 ahead of me, slipped and fell about 20 feet. It took him a long time to recover and I was grateful for the chance to rest. Once I got to the bottom of the Lhotse face, I literally dawdled down to camp 2 where I enjoyed a few hours of sleep in a boiling hot tent and a fairly decent nights sleep which at 6400 m tells me I have really acclimatized pretty well.

Day 35 (May 4)

Today we left at 5 am to climb to Camp 3. I have to say, this was the hardest day I can remember. For 8 and half hours we climbed up ice. I estimate that the lowest angle of ascent was 45 degrees going up to 75 degrees. It's entirely on ice so at times its extremely slippery and very difficult indeed. For 8 and half hours we crawled up the Lhotse face where our camp was located at 7300 m on the side of the mountain. Helmets were mandatory since chunks of ice were constantly falling from the many climbers above. It was also very cold and we climbed in our down suits. There are two levels of camps at Camp 3 with the lowest camps about 7200 m. We reached this level and rested for 30 minutes, and then it took over 90 minutes to reach our HIMEX camp just 100 m above. An advance rate of just about 1 minute per meter. Once we reached camp, I had to go get snow for melting and it took the next 5 hours to melt enough snow for two of us for drinks and a dinner of chicken soup. It probably need not be said, but there is absolutely no sleep to be had at 7300 m - and not much appetite - but a guaranteed headache.

Day 34 (May 3)

We left Camp 1 at 5 am to walk up to Camp 2. It took about 3 hours 15 minutes arriving just after 8 am. The sun hit the camp at about 8:20 am so we were spared the deadly heat of the Western Cwm. We rested all day at Camp 2. Camp 2 was quite amazing - a large dining tent that could seat about 16 at a time, a large cook tent, and about 10 tents for clients. It's sort of 3 star in the hotel on the mountain standards.

 

 

Day 33 (May 2)

Well Hello again after 5 days! I have to say that this last 5 days were most definitely the hardest 5 days I have ever experienced. It was physically exhausting. We left for Camp 1 at 2 am, May 2. We walked about 30 minutes to crampon point where we put on our crampons and started up the icefall. Frankly, I found it incredibly hard work. Fortunately it was dark so we did not see much of the icefall itself. Twice I had to stop to retape my feet. My boots were definitely hurting with the constant up and down and without retaping I would have ended up with trip-ending blisters. However, the icefield never stops. It is really hard work and I took over 7 hours to get through to Camp 1. Fortunately, Sherpa Cassan never left my side until I reached Camp 1 at about 10:30 am, by this time the sun was beating down mercilessly. I literally dropped into my tent and spent the next 6 hours trying to recover. My tentmate Bruce cooked dinner and I managed to get some good sleep.

Day 31 (April 30)

This is written on April 30 - the day before we leave for our first expedition up on Everest. It just started to snow and hail this afternoon, we hope that this will not interfere with our plans tomorrow morning. The first team left 2 days ago and our team has been waiting around to move up. Frankly, it's been one of those nervous days as the next stage is increasingly more difficult than all the past climbs. We will start our assault on Everest tomorrow so it's making many of us feel a little on edge. This will be our first trip over the Khumbu Icefall and that is always a concern. So, since I will not be able to get to email for 7 more days, I figured I would let you know what we will be doing. We will leave camp at 2:30 am in the morning having risen at 1:45am. We will be carrying decently heavy packs as we have to take our down suits, mitts, and a ton of stuff that we will leave at Camp 2. We also have to take food for 3 or 4 meals at Camp 1. We will walk up to crampon point (about 30 minutes) which is where we have a tent right on the edge of the icefall. Here we will put on crampons for the 5-7 hour climb through the ice fall to Camp 1 (6100 m) where we should arrive around 8-9 am. We will camp here because it is too hot to walk across the Western Cwm in the day time. The next morning we should be on our way by at least 6 am to go the 3-4 hours to Camp 2 at 6400 m. Camp 2 is very hot and we will remain in our tents all day resting. . We will remain at Camp 2 for at least 2 or 3 days acclimatizing. At some time when we are reseated enough, we will leave early in the morning to climb the 1000 m climb to Camp 3 on the Lhotse face. This is going to be a very hard day indeed with about an 8-9 hour climb probably. We will stay overnight at Camp 3 (although the chances of sleeping or eating at 7500 m are slim). We will then return to Camp 2 to stay one more night to recover before returning to base camp. Once we return to base camp, we will need at least 5 days rest before making our summit bid. The summit bid will be similar to the above, but will be a straight run to camp 1, 2, 3, 4, summit and return...

Two days ago, I watched our first group make their way up the icefall at 4 am. Fortunately I can see the path from the back of my tent. It was an amazing sight as about 15 climbers and about 25 Sherpas crawled up the icefall with their lamps clearly showing the pathway. They looked like small ants with lamps as they advanced up the tortuous route through the icefall. There are over 30 ladders on the icefall - most are flat across crevices that are rather deep. Some are vertical. So it takes a long time to clip in (double ropes on the ladders) before and after every ladder. The entire icefall has fixed ropes of course. The reason we are travelling through the icefall at night is the increased stability of the icefall at lower temperatures. So it is far safer to travel in the dark, and an added bonus is that you can't see how deep the crevices are! So, if all goes well, we will return to base camp about May 6-8 so we can do it all over again!

Day 28 (April 26)

Today is a rest day. Team 3 returned from Lobuche Base Camp today. I have finished another book. This morning was the first day of clouds - the sun failed to get to the camp so it was a bit gloomy as the sun has been greeting us around 7:30 am each day rising around 2 minutes a day early. I am mostly drinking Sherpas tea by 6:10 am each morning, with breakfast at 8 am. Sherpas tea is a milky (yak I presume) mixture of tea, milk, and sugar - lots of sugar. I dont think I would drink this elsewhere! It is great for hydrating though. I understand we will be resting for a few days and then move up to Camp 2 on Everest. I got some fantastic photos of Everest on Lobuche peak. Really fantastic! Unfortunately, we were at 6100 m and we were still nearly 2.7 km below Everest Thats a long way to climb it seems to me

Day 27 (April 25) Lobuche East summit

It is a really long time, isnt it? Today at about 3 pm, I just got back from our second trip to Lobuche East summit. Yesterday we went from Lobuche Base Camp all the way to the summit and camped on a ledge at the top no wider than 20 feet - two rows of tents!!! Over the edge - 3 to 4000 ft. Naturally even to take a leak we had to clip into the lines. No sleepwalking at this camp. Unfortunately I had a headache all night and even with an Ambien only got 3 hours sleep, so the descent at 7 am this morning was tough. Down about 4000 ft and then the 12 km walk to Everest Base Camp. Frankly I am wiped out now. It took me 4 hours to walk back to camp and I literally crawled into camp - the highlight though was that I got to take a shower (my third in about 24 days!!) and so I feel better for that, but my back is aching and I am worn out. Hopefully the next 3-4 days will be rest days before we head across the Khumbu Icefall to stay at Camp 2 for several days of acclimatization.

I have plenty to do. I have read about 5 books so far maybe 6, and I am working on a book on Russel Brice. He is really an interesting character and I decided when on Manaslu that one had to be written. So I am hard at work on that....

Once we leave for Camp 2, I suspect we will be gone for about 6 days and no communication at all. Then we will be back waiting for the weather and the winds to comply for our summit bid.

Day 24 (April 22)

Last night we had a team meeting to discuss future climbing plans. It was decided after discussion with the leadership and guides that we would make another trip to Lobuche East. So the group I am on, will set out after lunch tomorrow and walk the 12 km to Lobuche Base Camp (4800 m), stay overnight, then the following morning we will move up to just below the summit of Lobuche where a new camp has been established at 6100 m. Last time we made our way up to what was Camp 1, but this time we will go all the way from Base Camp to Camp 2. This will be on the false summit of Lobuche East (just below the real summit) where there is a small ledge similar to camps that will be higher up on Everest such as camp 3.

We will stay overnight up on Lobuche East and then return to Lobuche base camp next morning quite early, and then back to EBC. I think it will be quite a hard day work on both days, as we are doing the same thing we did last week but a day less and sleeping at 6100 m as well. The goal of course is to get us acclimatized. I believe the decision was taken to go back to climb Lobuche again was based on the instability of the Khumbu Icefall which has experience three significant collapses on the trail in the last 4 days. Staying away from the Khumbu is not a difficult decision, but eventually we will have to cross it. As far as we understand, no one was injured on any of the collapses so far.

So, day 25 will be walking to Lobuche Base Camp (12 km); day 26 will be climbing to the summit to sleep at 6100m; day 27 will be descending to Lobuche Base Camp, then walking the 12 km back to EBC. My next communication will probably not be until Day 28 (April 26, I think).

Basically then the goal will be to rest a couple of days, then make an attempt to get up to Camp 2 on the Western Cwm of Everest and stay there for several days and during that time, get up to Camp 3 and stay overnight, then descend to EBC to rest until the weather is right for an assault on the summit.

Books read so far:

• Ranulph Fiennes: "Mad, Bad and Dangerous"
• John Grisham "The Appeal"
• George Soros "The Crash of 2008"
• Michael Crighton "Next"
• Jeffrey Archer "Paths of Glory" (the story of George Mallory)

Day 23 (April 21)

Today the cricket match is taking place. I was going to try to sneak away and walk the 4 or 5 km uphill and down to watch it - it was going to be a rest day - but Russel decided that the two groups that have not taken the test course on the ladders over the crevices will do that in a few hours with our big boots and crampons, ice axes etc. We have had a fairly tiring last few days. I need to recover - have developed a bit of a cough - nothing serious though, so rest will get rid of it hopefully. The icefall is a little unstable and several sections have collapsed over the past few days.

Day 22 (April 20)

Today we walked from the Lobuche Base camp to Gorak Shep (5180m) where the Everest Test 2009 Cricket Mach will be played tomorrow (April 21st) at 9 am local time. Today I walked quite fast to make the 10 am practice of the two teams, Tea, Hillary and Team Norgay. About 30 players from the UK (mainly consisting of English, NZ, Australian and other odd individuals came to Gorak Shep to play the highest cricket game in the world - and for a place in the Guinness Book of Records. The HIMEX team turned up at the area where the game was to be played with two teams - one the Sherpas with all yellow and one the Climbers with all red. We had a cricket bat and stumps and paraded onto the field. It was a lot of fun and soon the "official" teams came over and all signed our cricket bat. They exchanged caps with our team leader Russel Brice and gave us a cricket ball that we will take to the top of Everest and return to them. It may bring them some money for the charities they are working to support. We spent much of the morning watching the two teams practice for their challenge match tomorrow at 9 am. You can see their website at www.theeveresttest.com and a blog of their match at cconeverest.blogspot.com. Of course we fully intend to break their record by playing the Worlds Really Highest Match at 6400 m on the Western Cwm. The proposed date is April 28. Lets see

The other big event today was I was able to take my second shower in 20 days and washed clothes as well. It was a great way to finish the day. I decided that everyone else smells!

Our base camp is really superb. It is clean and well organized. It is far nicer than the higher Everest Base Camp which all of us found rather smelly, crowded and unhygienic really. People are literally on top of one another, toilets next to water sources, and yaks everywhere. It really was not very nice. I am very glad that the HIMEX people decided to build their own base camp about 15 minutes lower down. Also today, one of the climbers brought a Scalectrix car set - so we set it up in the pod and we have been racing cars! Have not done that for over 45 years! Forgot what it was like to play with toys! But then there is not a lot to do on many days here - just hurry up and wait.

Day 21 (April 19)

Today was a tough day. We left from Camp 1 just above Lobuche Base Camp. Out goal today was to acclimatize on a moderate climb of Lobuche East (6119 m). We camped overnight at Camp 1 (about 5200 m) and left at 5:30 am to reach the summit. It took me 4 hours and I found it tough going indeed. Very steep climbing and some very large steps that are energy consuming. Finally some very narrow ridges, wide enough to plant one foot at a time from the false summit to the real summit and to cap it off a 4 foot wide crevice that we literally had to jump over, and then to the summit - a hanging crest of about 30 feet of ice. We sat on this for 30-45 minutes before descending all the way to Lobuche Base Camp - a drop of 1300 m. It was definitely one of the most tiring days so far.

Day 20 (April 18)

I had a birthday today and climbed Lobuche (6119 m) - a hard day! Definitely too hard for a 56-th birthday- It took me 4 hours to get to the summit. Oddly it is the same distance from the Lobuche Base Camp to the summit as it is fromCamp 4 at South Col to Everest summit, but that is 3 km higher! So I figure it will be just a bit harder!

I walked from Lobuche Base Camp to Camp 1 about 400-500 m above on the ridge. It took a couple of hours up a fairly steep hill. We arrived about 12 noon, rested all afternoon and cooked our own dinner of some mush with soup and some hot chocolate. And that was itNot exactly the most exciting birthday I suppose, but we did what had to be done. I dont know why, but I didnt sleep a wink this evening. Probably I am a bit anxious about the climb. Turns out, no one on our team of 9 climbers slept well that night either. Well, I am now 56!

Day 19 (April 17)

Today we walked from EBC to Lobuche Base camp - a distance of 12 km. It was an up and down walk. Its not the funniest walk. People talk about paths... well don't believe it - basically there are rocks and you walk from one to the other. Occasionally there are some small areas where you might call it a path, but its rare. It was a long day and we ended up resting all afternoon for our walk up to Camp 1 tomorrow. The Lobuche Base Camp is one place we go to train and acclimatize.

 

Day 18 (April 16)

Another rest day - I have no idea what I did today - probably just hang around the Pod and read a book. Actually I am up to my 4^th book as far as I can remember. The list is below. As one finished a book, it gets added to the library in the Pod!

Day 17 (April 15)

Rest day - basically did nothing - just rest. There is so much time up here in the mountains It would be great if we could put some of it in a container and take it home

Day 16 (April 14) Message to all the Cytometry4Life supporters

Lots of Sherpas are going up the icefall. Today 26 went up with big loads to Camp 1 and Camp 2. They are established our camps now and equipping them with tents, sleeping bags, food, cooking gear and ropes. They will run the ropes up the mountain for us.

It is now 18 days since I left for the Himalayas. We have approximately 53 days of the expedition to go if we leave on schedule. So far the weather has been perfect. We have walked the 60-plus km from Lukla to Everest Base Camp over ten days. We have spent several days acclimatizing and will continue to follow this pattern for the next month to prepare ourselves for our assault on the mountain. We are a large team of 29 climbers and 30 Sherpas, 7 guides and a large kitchen staff.

Several of our team are from South Africa and we have had some interesting conversations on the problems of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Frankly, they pointed out to me that things are never as good as we hear - particularly outside the cities. My goal in climbing Everest as you all know is to raise awareness of the problem if HIV/AIDS in resource limited regions. Rural regions are simply not serviced with the basic diagnostic needs on the most part. True there are some that are trying to address the problems, but the efforts need much greater resources. I strongly urge you all to make a contribution to our small cytometry effort "cytometry for life" by making a small financial contribution (www.cytometryforlife.org). We are grateful to those companies and individuals who are supporting this effort. I can assure you that when I return from Everest, my efforts in this area will significantly increase. I am convinced that the cytometry community can do much much more.

Thank you for your continued support and your contributions to the C4L program.

Kind regards and best wishes from the shadow of Mt. Everest!

Day 14 (April 12) Everest BC to Kala Pattar (5,550m) - Everest BC

Today many of the team took a walk to Kala Pattar which was about a 4 hour there and back. I did not go, as I discovered a small infected blister on my small toe. I had noticed it hurting a few days ago, and taped it up, but then forgot it as we did not wear climbing boots around BC. This morning, when putting on my socks, I was surprised to see how nasty my little toe looked, so went to the BC doctor and she lanced and dressed it. It will probably take 2-3 days to heal and it will be fine, but I decided discretion was the better part of valor today and stayed in camp. About 7 or 8 others did the same. I also spent some time working with the kitchen staff trying to establish a water line from a mostly frozen lagoon above our camp, but it was fruitless effort and we gave up. I read and typed up some materials for the rest of the day. We now have places to charge our computers and ipods in the communication tent - and tomorrow I will actually send an email which includes the last 10-12 days. Sorry about that, but it has taken a long time to get BC running smoothly. Today was also a very important day for climbing - Six Sherpas went across the Khumbu Icefall today and established a tent at Camp 1. They left at 4 am this morning. Three of them went on to Camp 2 and also established a small position. This means that the route to Camp 2 at least has been roped. Although I believe our team is going to return to Lobuche base camp and climb a 6000 m hill close to that camp. This will significantly reduce our need to cross the ice fall.

Books read so far: Ranulph Fiennes: "Mad, Bad and Dangerous", John Grisham "The Appeal".

Day 13 (April 11) Everest BC

Today was the Puja that is a traditional event never missed by a climbing team in the Himalayas. The Sherpas have strong religious beliefs and the role of the Puja is to pray for safety and success on the mountain. Today was a beautiful day - no clouds or wind. On this last evening, I had just a very small headache, having suffered headaches on most previous nights. Perhaps my acclimatization is proceeding better after several days rest at EBC. Our base camp is on a large ice flow, but it is not moving much at all - perhaps only a few meters per year where we are. It is about 15 minutes below the regular EBC that all the other teams are located at. Today two members retreated to Lobuche base camp a few hundred meters lower as they were having trouble acclimatizing and had to go to a lower altitude. The team doctor today did my routine medical to check out my condition. My blood oxygen was 85 - an improvement from the 79 I had a few days ago. Hopefully I will get up to 90 maybe if I am lucky. My pulse was only 69 which is pretty good at this altitude. While my blood pressure was definitely up, that too is normal at high altitude. By now my bone marrow is madly making and delivering tons or red blood cells into circulation. These will be necessary to deliver the oxygen we need as we keep going higher. So far, I have been very fortunate - no health problems at all. A number of team members have had stomach or respiratory viruses so I hope to be fortunate enough to miss out on these!

Day 12 (April 10) Everest BC

A rest day today - that means doing absolutely nothing at all. Even so, the altitude (5200 m - 17,300 ft) is a little hard to take even after taking 10 days to get here. I felt fine during the day, but headaches all night - most nights. It's an unfortunate but routine impact of altitude. At least I am sleeping on and off most of the nights despite having constant headaches. I decided long ago that headaches would be routine and just ignore them - or take a few pills at 3 am to try to run them off - but you really can't. Bedtime is routinely 8 pm and rise about 6 or 6:30 am. In that time, I will wake at least 6-10 times - sleeping at altitude is not easy and one of the hard things to get used to. Hopefully the length of time we spend at base camp will improve our ability to sleep here. Of course, as we go up, it gets worse - but when you know what to expect, its easier to handle. Frankly, I am feeling far better than my last trip to the Himalayas in September 2008, when we climbed Manaslu - there I really had a hard time sleeping at all. Some of the climbers will be returning to Lobuche today or tomorrow - they are not handling the altitude well at all and unfortunately they may not recover at this altitude. By going down a few hundred meters, they can recover at the lower base camp, spend a few days there and return to EBC. This is nice to know that there is a good opportunity for recovery at our lower base camp. We may need that in the future I suspect.

Day 11 (April 9) Lobuche to Everest Base Camp (5,140m)

Today we left the Lobche base camp (50 tents) to walk to our Everest Base Camp (EBC). It was a rise of about 350m or so. It took us about 3 and a half hour of nonstop walking and was a moderately pleasant walk. With only a small rise in altitude it was not particularly stressful and the walk was amazingly beautiful - we were literally walking around the mountains surrounding Everest and occasionally saw Everest in front of us. We also saw our first view of the Khumbu Ice Field which looked terrifying and one of the nasty parts of climbing Everest from the South side as we will be doing. The HIMEX base camp is 15 minutes below the regular Everest BC. The idea was to take a larger spot that is on ground less susceptible to movement as on the regular BC - another benefit is it's likely that we have a healthier environment as I heard that there are 15-20 camps up the hill. Our camp has approximately 60 tents in a sort of horse-shoe design. We have 3 large dining tents and several cook tents and the coup-de-gras - a white pod tent that would be 30-40 foot across and 20 feet high containing a large screen TV, stereo, bar and a really nice environment to relax in. It is placed so that on one side, there are clear plastic windows with a fantastic view of Mt. Everest. We will be at this camp for 60 days so its important to be able to have some of the comforts of life I suppose. Behind the white pod is the electrical and communication tent that has about 50 large solar panels and two whopping big Honda generators. What amazed me was the fact that a Nepalese porter carried each generator from where the helicopter landed about 42 km from here and up probably 2000 m or more in altitude. That would be OK - except the generators weighs 120 kg each!!! I could not believe that one person could carry that weight that far! Actually, we are 60 km from Lukla at EBC - and 42 KM from Namche Bazar - interestingly the Everest marathon runs that 42 KM from EBC to Namche Bazar! So we walked 60 km at least from Lukla and totally up hill-down dale, zigzagging across the mountains. When we leave base camp to go home, we will walk the same distance in about 3 days that took us 10 days to get here. That will be interesting. My tent is in the back row of member tents - and when I open the back flap, I have a perfect view of the back of Everest. It would be quite idyllic, except for the fact that my tent is on a rocky base, it's rather cold at night, and we still have 3.3 km in height to climb and 55 days to get to the top of Everest and back!