After six days above Everest base camp, we have now returned safely through the Kumbu ice fall and are recovering today by not doing much of anything.
Day One above Base Camp: climbing through the Khumbu ice fall was pretty specatular.....lots of ladders spanning deep crevasses and step ice routes....a special day...eventhough it was utterly exhausting....it was an important acclimation day. We spent the night at Camp One...just above the ice fall. Cold, but no wind to speak of.
The next day we did a short hike up towards Camp Two. This was an interesting day and I am still trying to recover. Along the way the route is intermittenly laced with fixed ropes and sections with no fixed ropes. We were just into one of the fixed rope sections (i.e., approx. 50 feet) when a climber in front of me, and directly in the center of the path was engaged in a clothing layer adjustment and had unclipped for that same purpose. Being clipped in, I took one mini-step off the main path and partially fell into a hidden crevasse. My right leg and most of the rest of my body went in....my left leg stayed on top. I have never been as flexible as that little maneuver required. My first observation was that the crevasse was sufficiently wide to slip into and that I could not see the bottom. Even though I was clipped in to the safety line, I do not believe the fixed rope prevented me from falling all the way in....it was my left leg and crampon. It all happened quite fast and I was able to squirm my way out of the crevasse without assistance from any one else. However, the event resulted in a twisted left knee which I have been nursing ever since....Tiger Balm helps.
One of my first, and scariest, observations was that one of the other climbers was about one foot away from this previously hidden crevasse and as not clipped in. If he had been the one to step off the main route, he could have gone deep into the crevasse and a resce would have been under way. This all took place above the dramatic Kumbu ice fall and on the most pleasant flat snow field one has ever seen....a reminder that the glacier we are working on is still a glacier and full of the dangers inherent with glacier travel.
More later.
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