Lucille also called for a very short chat, bad connection, and said they were having trouble receiving text messages and somehow I should look into it for her. I don't know if I can do much from here, but I guess my Saturday agenda just got Hijacked.
Ted
Go Spot Go
Latitude:28.58663
Longitude:84.5643
GPS location Date/Time:05/05/2012 15:58:41 NPT
Sorry about the delay in ?? I tried to do that about 12 hours ago, I think I talked a bit too long.
Anyways, as most of you know, I did summit and everything's good. I'm feeling good now. I had a few issues. What happened was we got to Camp 4, Domhnall and I got there together, ate and drank and hydrated and stuff for about 5-6 hours. Got up at about 6 o'clock in the evening we got everything ready and ready to go by 7:30 and so headed up. I think I knew this but it is completely uphill: there is no relief, no traversing, the whole time it's uphill and so we started off, but at least it's in the dark, so you don't really know how much uphill it is and it's pretty straight uphill. So headed up. I was feeling pretty tired. I hadn't eaten a whole lot the day before, on the way to Camp 4. No breakfast, no drinking, so I was a little bit low on fuel. I was feeling quite tired and kind of slowed down the group.
When we got to the summit, we got to the South Summit just as the sun was rising so that was really nice. After the South Summit, it still took us a couple of hours to get to the real summit. The Hillary Step was a little bit interesting, not too bad, and then of course the summit ridge, which was long! And then you get to the top and all of a sudden, all of a sudden you're there! The view was the peaks of the mountains and a fair bit of clouds covering probably below 5000 metres. But it was beautiful up there, really, really nice. We didn't spend a lot of time up there. We took off our oxygen and my big mistake is that I shut off my oxygen and so it was frozen. So my sherpa, Tshering, was very nice and gave me his oxygen but then his mask was way too big. So after Domhnall and I kind of split up; he headed down 'cause the forecast was really nasty weather and we were trying to get down and quickly as we could. So I took off my oxygen mask and within, we were still pretty high we were about the South Summit. It didn't take very long that I didn't have any energy at all: I didn't want to stand up. So, we had a lot of fresh snow which made the climb up kind of difficult and long but so what I started doing was sliding down, and I've kind of torn up my seat. My poor sherpa Tshering didn't really know what to do. Tried to mount up a rescue but I was still talking, coherent, just didn't have much energy, and so eventually I put the oxygen mask back on and started walking down. We did some sliding, the both of us together, because it is so much faster than walking down. Anyways, we made it down, we made it down to the South Col where the other sherpa ?? met up with us and then we made it all the way down to Camp 2 last night. So it was a long way, a long day, a couple long days but certainly well worth it!
I want to thank everyone, everyone who's supported me, everyone who's encouraged me, everyone who's made comments on my blog, just everything. I don't know when I'm coming home. I'll probably be changing my ticket 'cause I'm coming home earlier than early June but we'll see. I'd love to stick around and see how the rest of my team does but I don't know how much longer I want to be staying here staying away from home.
I will continue to make podcasts, for the next, probably the next week or so and keep you up to date and maybe some more tidbits and about what happened. Keep listening.
Love to you all, take care. Bye.
(Ted) Unfortunately, the Spot tracking got turned off accidentally at the South Summit, causing many of us to worry a bit.
We've been here for a few hours. We are hydrating, eating and resting on some oxygen. You hear a little bit of coughing and stuff. Hopefully we'll be leaving in a couple of hours, which would make it 7:00 our time, and heading up for the summit.
We had a good time, coming here. Everything went well. I was on oxygen the whole way, so was Domhnall, and our two sherpas are here with us as well taking good care of us.
So hopefully the next call will be from the summit if everything goes well. The forecast is still for some pretty nasty weather, but hopefully it's going to hold off until after we are down past Camp 3. So we'll talk to you in a little bit and follow the SPOT and thanks to everyone for listening.
I made it up here in about 6 hours. We are now resting. The word is, is that nine sherpas summited today when they fixed the rope all the way up to the summit. So that bodes well for us leaving the South Col late on the 6th. and hopefully summitting on the 7th. The weather looks like it will probably hold. It looks like there's going to be some strong wind on the afternoon or the evening of the 7th. By strong winds-we're talking about 150 km an hour. So if it comes true, that's what's going to be happening. Hopefully I going to be on my way down. Everything is well heere, I'm here with Tshering. He has made me some tea, he's made me some tea, he's made me some soup. We are hydrating, we are sitting, we still have an appetite.
I have a little quiz for those with medical knowledge. If somebody's vitals are: a heart rate of 114, the oxygen saturation is 70% and we're breathing at a rate of 26, where do you think we are? We are right at ?? acclimatizing at Camp 3 or above.
So I'm here. I'm not on oxygen. I will start, I will start the oxygen tomorrow morning, att 3:00 in the morning when I leave for the South Summit (Col) or Camp 4. So watch the spot and I'll call from the South Summit (Col). Love to you all and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
Lucille had trouble connecting with Gabcast this morning, so she gave me, Ted, her report directly.
Everything is going to plan. She spent the day resting at Camp 2, and Domhnall joined her there as well. They had a little bit of snow, but not too much. The ropes have been fixed to the balcony, and it looks hopeful to be fixed to the summit tomorrow or the next day. Lucille will be moving up to Camp 3 tomorrow. After that, if the rope does not get fixed all the way, she plans to come down, as the weather forecast looks to start going the other way on the 8th. But otherwise, she should summit on the 7th. and be on her way down.
Of the other team members, she says TA is at Camp 1 and Mango is back at Base Camp ready to move to Camp 1. The two Turkish climbers are at Camp 3, and the rest at Pheriche resting.
Today was kind of a difficult day. It started off pretty good, got up at 4:30, we left at about 5:15, just Tshering and myself. Made it up to Camp 1 in just over 4 hours, it was really good timing. It didn't feel like I was pushing it at all, everything felt great. And then from Camp 1 to Camp 2, which normally takes about 2- 2 1/2 hours, took me 4 hours! I had the tunes on, I kept taking breaks, but boy it was quite a slog. The last 2 hours, you can see Base, er, you can see Camp 4, sorry Camp 2, sorry for the last 2 hours we could see Camp 2 and it seems that it's never getting any closer. So you walk, and walk, and walk..aa, yeah.. it was a long day. Tshering came and found me just for the last ten minutes or so, took my pack and then when I got here, of course I'm the only one up here: everyone else is either down at Pheriche or at Base Camp; we have 2 team members that are up at Camp 3, the two Turkish guys.
And so instead of sitting in the dining tent all by myself, I asked the sherpas if I could sit with them in their dining tent. It is actually the cook tent, the dining tent, they sing in there, they tell jokes, they do all sorts of things. So I was allowed to go and sit with them and they were very nice, very polite, and I just had super in there with them as well 'cause I'm feeling a little bit lonely, kinda up here all by myself. But of course I get treated a little bit differently than they do. I got served some popcorn, and then some soup, and then I got served dhalbat, so dhalbat is, dhal, it's like lentils, bat is rice and some fried potatoes and some vegetables and stuff and they all watch me eat, and then, eventually, their food gets prepared and they eat pretty much the same thing that I do but mine was prepared specially so, which is really nice. I am getting treated really well here.
I've gone to bed now, it's 6:30 at night. I really didn't sleep at all yesterday, just being a little be anxious and not wanting to miss the, the um, 4:30 alarm and so I'm going to head off to sleep here pretty quick. The plan for tomorrow is for me to have a rest day here. Domhnall is going to come up from Base Camp all the way up to Camp 2, and we'll meet up, hopefully we'll be maybe sharing a tent so I won't be quite so lonely and then the following day if they start fixing the ropes, the wind has to die down for that, then I will head up to Camp 3 and Domhnall will spend the next day here, at Camp 2. The following day, when I move to Camp 4, he's going to go from Camp 2 all the way to Camp 4 which is a really long day for him and then we'll be poised for the summit push! So keep your fingers crossed that the, um, the ropes get put up above the South Col and that the weather stays good. And hopefully nothing is going to stop us. If it does, if the ropes don't get put up, then I'm going to spend an extra day here, waiting for that. If that doesn't happen, then I'm gonna go down, and then rest for a couple of days, and then do this all over again! So, which would be alright.
Everything's going well here. A bit of snow today, but everything was good. So everyone take care. Thanks for listening and I will call again tomorrow. Bye.
Namaste everybody from Camp 2. It's April twenty-..oh,I don't even know..I think it's the 28th today.
We had a fantastic day today! What we did was we went all the way up to Camp 3 and came all the way back down. The weather was fabulous! We got some really good shots, you know the summit doesn't look all that impossible anymore, not like it has been looking impossible for the past couple of weeks, so that's kind of a big bonus. The Lhotse face that we went up, of course it's all roped, down at the bottom the big bergschrund that was a bit of a challenge today to get up and over, but I was able, and then parts of it, parts of the Lhotse face are just solid ice, solid, solid ice so it's really nice to have the jumar there to have a little bit of backup there when you are crampons slip off the ice. We got up there and had a bite to eat, stayed up there for about 45 minutes or so and then we came back down. Got back down and it was starting to snow and clouding over and stuff and cooling off. So we had some food, our sherpa boys up here have some nice warm food for us and some hot liquids.
Now I'm in my down suit, in my -40 bag. I know I did the same thing last night but I only lasted ten minutes because I was just way too hot. I took off my down suit but I think I would last a little bit longer it is quite a bit colder tonight. At the beginning of the season it was quite a bit warmer and ?? unseasonably warm. So now it's quite a bit cooler and so that's just the way it is.
All looks good I am going to be heading down to basecamp tomorrow morning. Domhnall came up here to Camp 2. Came up today, I didn't see him, he just left a message for me and then his plan is to go up to Camp 4 and carry some oxygen bottles and then come down to Base Camp so I'll be seeing him the day after tomorrow.
And speaking of oxygen, we have about 130 bottles of oxygen up here at Camp 2 that the sherpas will be bringing up to Camp 3 and Camp 4 in the next week or so. I just.. I can't, can't imagine how they can get that done. I can just barely get myself up there and then they can carry four bottles at a time, so, looking at about 30 pounds or so ??
Anyways, that's it for today. I will call you from Base Camp tomorrow.
Thanks, take care. Bye.
Photo is a view from Camp 3 taken by Domhnall during his 2009 Lhotse expedition.
Namaste everybody, and Lorraine, I'm sending you a big birthday hug, and we'll share a bit of birthday cake when I get home.
Today I'm doing really good, really really good. I had a couple of down days, just a little bit of less energy, but today feels really good. We left Camp 1 at about 7:00 this morning, and made it down to Base Camp at about 10:00, which was three hours, not terribly fast, but ?Steve? and I were the first ones here so that made me feel pretty good. We met somewhat about fifty people in the icefall today, alot of them were sherpas passing us on the way down after they've dropped off their loads at either Camp 1 or Camp 2. These men are just amazingly strong. And then, of course, we saw many people going up ???? Camp 1. Chatted with quite a few of them while they were waiting at the ladders.
Now, about the ladders, I'm doing actually quite well in the icefall, but there is one ladder that still makes me feel a bit queezy every time I get to it. It's vertical, it's angled to the left, and it's quite loose, so every step you take you feel like you're falling off to the left hand side. But there is a rope, there is a safety line, and of course nobody has fallen off the ladders yet, so everything is good.
So, we're just going to have probably four or five rest days in Base Camp, and then we will be going to be going back up.
Thanks everyone for listening, and for everyone who knows Lorraine, give her a call today and make her day. Love to you all, take care, Bye.
Today is April 19th, Monday, and what we did today is we went to Camp 2, for an acclimatization little hike.
We got up at 5:00 in the morning, it's still pretty cold, what we didn't want was to be on the Western Cwm for too long during the heat of the day. It took me three hours to get to Camp 2, which is actually pretty slow, but I'm a bit dehydrated and I don't think I've been eating quite enough, all things that I will correct.
Made it to Camp 2, and then we came back, and then we've just kind of been lazing aroung all afternoon. Domhnall came up this morning from Base Camp, showed up at Camp 1 about 11:00 I think, maybe a little bit earlier, I'm not quite sure. So he and I have been chatting, the plan is the group is going to go down tomorrow, there's a possibility I may be able to go to Camp 2, so watch the spot, and have a listen tomorrow.
Thanks again for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.
