Day 25 - May 6

Namaste everyone, it is May 6th, and I am, guess where, Camp 1, I guess it has really only been Camp 1 or Base Camp up until now.

So, let me catch you up on what happened yesterday morning. There's been so much snow, as you know, and so, Domhnall left for a little while and he came back with two pairs of snowshoes, and so he gave one pair to the Italians, and he kept one pair for himself, and we were thinking that if we had enough people on skis, like four or five people on skis that would go first, and then after that the people on snowshoes, and then after that the people walking that most people should make it up to Camp 2.

So, we came up to Camp 1 yesterday, and we had a few little problems during the night, we didn't have enough ventilation in our snow cave, today, everything is good.

So this morning, Domhnall took his snowshoes and he headed up to Camp 2. Now unfortunately, noone except the three Polish guys, have come up from Base Camp. So there are now, I think it's seven or eight people now at Camp 2. I decided to stay at Camp 1, I was just a little bit tired and just needed a little bit more of a rest. I think the plan for tomorrow is that there is going to be a whole bunch of people going up to Camp 2, I think myself included, I'll see how I feel, and from Camp 2 that's going to be our new Base Camp, and we are not coming down until we either summit or we run out of time, or we decide we're coming down. So, keep an eye on the spot, and we'll see how things go.

Today was actually a beautiful day, we only had probably about three or four inches of snow, so that's really spectacularly beautiful for us. The day before we only had, once again, well probably about six inches of snow or so. But, actually fairly nice now, and last night was actually a clear night, so that's the second clear night since we've been up here on the 20th.

So everyone take care, love to you all. Bye.

May 6 - Check-in/OK message

Holding at Camp 1 for now, it would appear.

Go Spot Go
Latitude:28.58672
Longitude:84.56505
GPS location Date/Time:05/06/2012 15:29:26 NPT

Message:All OK

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7oef7/28.58672N/84.56505E

If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=28.58672,84.56505&ll=28.58672,84.56505&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

May 5 - Check-in/OK message

Back at Camp 1.

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

Message:All OK

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7nzds/28.58663N/84.5643E

If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=28.58663,84.5643&ll=28.58663,84.5643&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Day 23 - May 4

Namaste everybody, it is May 4th and we are back down at Base Camp. Now the reason we are back down, of course, is the weather, we've had alot of snow in the past little while. But thankfully, we didn't get the snow that was forecasted. They had forecasted a metre of snow last night, and thankfully that didn't happen, we only had about, you know the usual, 10 to 20 centimeters or so.

The Italian group that we are with went up to Camp 2 today, and they said towards the latter part they were almost waist deep in snow trying to break trail to get up there. And so, we decided to come down to Base Camp. Everyone right now is down either at Base Camp, OR, at Samagaon eating and drinking and being nice and warm. But we're up here, we are going to see what the forecast does,and see what the snow does. If things stay, if we don't have too much snow today, tonight, then we may go up to Camp 2, just sort of test it, and see how things go. The trouble is the trail breaking, alot of the Sherpas say they have never seen it with this much snow. There is a gentleman here, who is in our camp, who has climbed all 14 of the 8000 metre peaks, and he says that when he climbed it, I don't know how many years ago it was, because his English isn't very good and my Italian is very poor, he said he was just walking on rocks, not even any snow, and here we are floundering in waist deep snow. So it's kind of interesting.

Now, the other thing I want to mention is Mrs Schmidt's grade three class from Trochu Valley School is getting ready to do "their" summit. So I'm wishing you all, all the best, good luck, and if you don't manage to make this summit, remember you've got one more week. So good luck everybody, and if you do manage to summit, when you do manage to summit, just remember what a good feeling that accomplishment is. So good luck to you all.

Alright, love to you all. Bye.

May 4 - Check-in/OK message

Go Spot Go
Latitude:28.59348
Longitude:84.59822
GPS location Date/Time:05/04/2012 16:09:36 NPT

Message:All OK

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7nJla/28.59348N/84.59822E

If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=28.59348,84.59822&ll=28.59348,84.59822&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Day 22 - May 3

Lucille called to chat on the Sat phone this morning.  Today they slogged their way up to Camp 2, breaking trail in snow that was up to Domhnall's waist, even where there was an old trail underneath.  The snow pack is pretty epic by the sounds of it.

They then retreated back to their snow cave at Camp 1, and the plan is  to retreat to Base Camp tomorrow.  The reason for that is once again weather.  It started snowing again when they got to Camp 2, and the forecast is calling for another metre of snow, yes you read correctly, 1 metre of snow.  This just adds to the difficulty and it has to start presenting an elevated avalanche hazard.  This situation with the snow is clearly wearing down their resolve.

It seems that the Italian team that is sharing their Base Camp location is calling it quits, and others have already left.  Manaslu and Mother Nature may not permit any summits this season.  No teams have been higher than Camp 2 yet this  season.

Lucille is also struggling a bit with her chest and does not have her usual vigor.  We will just have to wait and see what a rest at Base Camp brings.  They may be deciding on a big change of plans. 

Stay tuned.

Ted

Day 21 - May 2

Namaste everybody. It is May 2nd., and I'm calling from outside our snow cave at Camp 1. I know it seems like we spend alot of time at Camp 1, and we have, but alot of that is because of the weather.

So, we had a really nice day today which is exactly what we wanted and needed, so that will solidify the slope going up to Camp 2 and Camp 3. There are about 25 people that have come up today from Base camp to Camp 1, and so there should be lots of people for breaking the trail up to Camp 2 tomorrow, which is really really nice. There's no way we could do it with just one or two of us.

So, we fixed up our snow cave a little bit, we went and helped the Germans build their snow cave, we went visiting a little bit, just had a really social day. So, everything is good, and we will call you tomorrow, hopefully from Camp 2.

take care everybody. Bye.