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Latest News
Wednesday 7th May The bordom of down time at base camp was broken today with a welcome visit from Martin (53° North in Carrickmines) and his mates from Dublin. It was great to hear some familar accents, and catch up on news from home. We took the guys into the start of the icefall and it was nice for us to show them the route and terrain we have to cross on our way to camp 1.
Some interesting stats we learnt are that there are 37 teams here with 41 permits, 285 climbers and a total B.C community of 1000! Some members of that bustling community are NASA researchers and on Sat last some of them threw a party so it was nice to let the hair down at that for a bit.
See how we look after 48 days in base camp in the 'photos' section - top left hand one!
May 3rd.
We have been off the mountain two days now. We are hoping to go back up on a six day
acclimatisation stint in the next three to five days. That will include a trip to camp three. We are
not sure if we will be sleeping at camp three, it depends on our progress and how we
are coping with the altitude up to camp 3 at 24,000 feet.
We were going to take a walk to Gorak Shep today but it has been snowing at base
camp yesterday and today. It is colder than usual at the moment but hoping for
better weather over the coming days.
I'm writing this while the wind blows the dining tent about this afternoon - having just watched "Rendition"! We descended back to base camp from camp 2 yesterday afternoon. That, as you know, was our third acclimitisation climb and it went well. We've been relaxing here in base camp for the past 24 hours.
We wrote this on Fri 25th but just got to post it now.
Tomorow is Sat 26th April, pretty much the 1/2 way mark.
Brief report: We completed climb 1 (to Camp 1 & return to Base Camp) and heading off today (Tues. 22) on climb 2. This is back to Camp 1 where we'll spend a couple of nights before pushing on to Camp 2. So it'll be a few days before I make the next posting.
We are established in camp 1 at 6,100m. We aim to spend the night here tonight, before a very early morning descent tomorrow back down to base camp. Hope to give a fuller report later.
We have ventured into the ice-fall a number of times over the last few days - I found it hot(!), yes hot and tiring - but tomorrow (Tues. 15th.) we plan to go all the way through it up to Camp 1. Should be interesting!!!!
Slight change in plans - will now be heading for Camp 1 on Fri. 18th.
Wed 9th:
Today some of us got up early (6am) to trek to Kala Patar (5,646m) to get the typical "postcard" view of Everest and to see Sadhbh (who had joined us for the trek in over the last 3 weeks) off, as she heads back to Dublin.
Others in the team (who shall remain nameless) opted for the lie in (and listening to music and reading books on the "terrace" instead)!
We have arrived at base camp after an interesting trek with a number of climbs along the way. This will be our "home" for the next 6 weeks or so!!! For now we'll have a few days of R & R here but also busy sorting out equipment etc. We're digging out solar panels to power the communications tent - and recharging the DVD player! Life on the glacier has it's comforts (relatively speaking).
Fundraising / Donate
There are 3 ways that donations can be made;
- By electronic funds transfer to account number 42792240, sort code 93-33-92
- By sending a cheque made payable to Fields of Life No 2 Account, to Everest Project, Fields of Life, Tree Tops, Brides Glen Road Shankill, Dublin 18.
- By clicking the mycharity.ie link below
