Expedition end

Our 2010 Project Himalaya Everest Expedition 8848m dispatches

We clear the mountain in strong winds

Wandering around the Everest memorials I remember David Sharp, a good friend - Jamie

1 June - to ABC

Our missions now are to clear the mountain of the gear left behind by our other expedition, and see what else we can accomplish. Basically they took extra gear up and used the sherpas to carry the personal gear of struggling climbers down, and so when it came time to take it all down, the sherpas didn't have enough time to go back up to 8300m again, before having to leave with the members. That left Bali (Bal Bahadur), Dawa and myself as the only crew left, plus Dorje, Karsang, Rinchin and young Norbu as the Tibetan kitchen hands.

Bali trekked up to ABC yesterday; today myself and Dawa made the long trek, myself in around 6 and half hours including rather too many toilet stops.

2 June ABC / North Col

With no mucking around, Dawa and Bali climbed to North Col and said categorically they would handle everything high on the mountain - and they get the bonuses too, so almost churlish of me to help. Additionally I am quite dehydrated and every time I drink plenty I end up being more dehydrated. Dehydration is particularly dangerous high up with my already rather thick blood.

3 June - ABC / 8300m return

Go Bali and Dawa! They climbed in strong winds up to our Camp 3 at 8200m and packed the tents and oxygen. We expected less oxygen than there was due to the Summit Climb rescue, but they had not even told us at this stage how much oxygen our ours they had used. (Or ever publically acknowledged our support).

Blia and Dawa reached Camp 3 around 1pm and only crawled back into the North Col camp after 7pm.

4 June - to BC / ABC

I climbed to North Col (no toilet stops - yay; tricky in a climbing harness!) as we had more gear there, and together we climbed down, well loaded and getting blasted by hail-snow.

What I love about my Mountain Hardwear South Col backpack is it can be cinched down to a framed daypack, act as a normal pack - or be a load carrying monster. When full (70 litres) the outside straps can still hold 4x full oxygen on the side (15kgs) and the back straps a couple of tents, and the top straps some mats or tents. And while I didn't have more than 35kg this time, in 2008 even with closer to 50kg, it didn't break, yet itself weighs less than 2 kg empty.

So we now have everything off the mountain - now we just need to pack ABC...

Today was also the best day from the forecasts from several days ago but the wind was still raging, tearing at the ABC tents, ripping over the mountain, so we made the right decision not to even try to summit.

5 June - BC / down to BC

Another windy day. With cyclones forming instead of the monsoon, there is nothing to push away or lift off the jet stream.

Bali is a master packer so I left him and the team to it and I trekked down to BC. En route I met Chhiring Dorje and team from Rolwaling Excursions who are going to try to remove the body of the dead Japanese man from about 8400m. Good luck to them, at least the winds begin to drop on their big day.

Norbu and Rinchen made the nicest Tibetan stew this evening. With luck it may even stay in place, down at this lower altitude. It has been two weeks now...

6 June - to BC / BC

Yaks will brought our gear from ABC to BC; I had a day to get the rest of the photos and video for a project but it was WINDY, at least the views were good enough. For some reason the 3G network is down - or the USB sticks (for I have two) are expired. Or is it a Tiananmen Square thing?

7  June - drive Zhangmu

After an early morning of packing we set off, one completely full truck and a full Landcruiser too as we gave our Tibetan staff a lift. At Tingri we said goodbye Karsang, Norbu, Dorje and Rinchen - a BIG thank-you for all the hard work.

The views leaving Tingri were stunning but at Nyalam it was windy and raining at Zhangmu, at least the CTMA staff gave me a good room.

8 June - Kathmandu!

Hopefully Kathmandu today! (And I did make it - but it took around 4 days for my gut issues to clear.)