RAN - Summer 2005 08.indd - Regis High School

Summer 2005 13
April 15, Everest Base Camp, Tibet. Elev. 17,000 ft. The team
arrived at base camp on April 10 after a three day jeep ride on dirt roads
from Lhasa and spent several days acclimatizing. Despite being dusty, windy
and cold, BC was the warmest camp on the mountain, and we would
return twice during the expedition to recuperate. In the picture the yellow
dome tents are Dan and Greg’s and the blue a-frame tents belong to the
Sherpas and cooks. Larger dining (green) and cook (blue) tents are on the
right. The team and Tibetans are weighing gear for yak loads to Advanced
Base Camp (ABC). The immense north side of Everest is in the center of the
picture. The Northeast Ridge to the left of the summit was the team’s line of
ascent. The air at BC has half the oxygen of air at sea level.
yak herder for a dzi stone necklace replica. Dzi stones are believed to have
magical properties that bring good luck and ward off evil. Genuine dzi
stones are hundreds, if not thousands of years old and are passed from
generation to generation. Life at base camp revolved around sleeping
and eating, but we also read, played chess, visited other expeditions, and
explored the nearby Rongbuk Monastery.
April 19, Elev. 22,000 ft. The North Col is
at the top of the picture and climbers can be
seen on the steep snow slopes and ice cliffs
winding their way up. Our first acclimatization
climb to the North Col took five hours and we
were completely exhausted. Six weeks later,
during our summit push, it took us under four
hours and we were still fresh, the wonders of
acclimatization. Our near super-human Sherpas,
who live above 12,000 feet most of the year and
have a genetic advantage at high altitude, would
regularly carry 40 pound loads to the North Col
in two and a half hours and sometimes continue
to Camp 2 the same day.
June 2, Summit Elev. 29,028
ft. View from the summit of
Everest toward Tibet, the climber
in red approaching is Greg. We
struggled to stay on our feet on
this final section of the Northeast
ridge as 60 mph crosswind gusts
threatened to blow us down the
corniced, 10,000 ft. Kangshung
Face to the right. The winding river
of ice in the middle of the picture is
the East Rongbuk Glacier, our route
to and from ABC.
June 4, evening, Base
Camp. A close-up farewell
of Everest at dusk, as we
packed into jeeps with our
mountain of equipment
for the drive back to
Kathmandu.
June 2, 9:30 AM, Summit. The Big
Green Everest Expedition on top of the world,
temperatures were below 0 F and windy. From
left, Greg, Ang Mingma Sherpa (5th summit),
Dan, and Mingma Dorjee Sherpa (2nd summit)
with the Nepalese flag. We stayed for a little
less than a half hour taking pictures and gazing
at the incredible views of Nepal, Tibet and India.
We could see five of the six highest mountains
in the world: Kangchenjunga (3rd), Lhotse (4th),
Makalu (5th), and Cho Oyu (6th). The second
highest mountain in the world, K2 (28,250 ft.) is
eight-hundred miles away in Northern Pakistan.