ABC waiting

A storm of some sort is predicted; we wait it out at ABC.

Yes, we have a new photo above, taken by Jamie of Hans an hour above ABC, looking north into Tibet and a distinctive 6000m peak that has been climbed by Japanese expeditions a few times.

20 Sept ABC 5640m

We were having a nice rest day when I picked up our email; one of the weather forecasts had a surprise. A low pressure was heading towards the Himalaya from the Bay of Bengal. Predictions were vague, some snow (and we had already had some) and possibly some strong winds after a few days. The forecast was for Cho Oyu but we are only 50? kms away.

It is times like this you almost don't want forecasts. Instinctively we had headed down the mountain to ABC, not with the fear of a storm, but just normal snow prudence. And now with this forecast on screen we can't contemplate going up for a while. Without a forecast we probably would have carried another load up before deciding the weather was bad again. There are advantages though, Mark, up at Camp 1, has been warned by radio.

This puts some other teams in a bind though. There are several camps close to us that have time limits of flying out of Kathmandu on around the 2nd of October. Given that we may have to wait at least several days, the end of their expeditions look uncomfortably close. The earliest any of our team are scheduled to fly out is 15 October, so we have no worries...

Several of the HimEx team visited us, and obviously they have a similar forecast to us, although no exact details were divulged. One of the members had laptop issues so sent an email from our machine. The other person was Arnauld, who came to Cho Oyu with us several years ago and came down with High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). He had wanted to join us again with just a climbing sherpa, Dawa Gyalgen. I would not accept him again even though the year after, 2005, he did summit Cho Oyu without getting sick. In my opinion the risks were just too high for me. And here he was on a full Himalayan Experience expedition. A good solution.

So far our safety record is exemplary, part luck and part judgement. I know this cannot last but now after 15+ big expeditions I understand the risks more, and we manage everything well.

It was an evening of a few terrible, terribly funny jokes.

21 Sept ABC

I have some Italian Lavazza espresso coffee; who needs other drugs? I think if I had had another coffee I might have started hallucinating!

Clive, Hans and Walter are feeling good at ABC, having slept well, and are getting some exercise. So all is well.

The sherpas must be bored, they made a stone path to the door of the dining tent, have thrown small rocks on the dirt floor inside so that it doesn't get muddy and rearranged the electricity system under the dining table. And the table cloth was washed.

I am back to using my old Nikon digital camera, with my Canon staying on the mountain. I miss the 5D. Despite this I went on a shooting spree above camp.

We are in a holding pattern for now. Yesterday was a full rest day. from now on we have to get at least a few hours of tough exercise each day to stay in condition, I feel.

Enough writing, back to pictures!