It has been an interesting past few weeks. We have completed our second rotation from Base Camp up to Camp 3 and back....we are now down at Debuche (i.e., elev. 12,500 feet) resting before we begin our final ascent of the summit. We will begin our final ascent the day after tomorrow.
The move from Base Camp up to Camp 3 was memorable....and not because everthing went well. Day one of the rotation took us through the Khumbu ice fall again....which was as spectacular as the first time. As mentioned earlier, the ice moves about 1-3 meters a day, so the route is ever changing. One section that was a spectacularly narrow section with high ice walls during the first rotation was now an on-the-knees-crawling-on-all-fours experience....which on the return was not longer part of the route. The Khumbu maintenance crew had been forced to create an alternative, and safer passage. Another section that consisted of a sensational/scary three-section ladder crossing over a crevasse had been filled in by an avalanche during our return. The Khumbu ice fall will always be one of the highlights of the trip. At the end of Day One, we had successfully moved up to Camp 1 where we spent the night in an uneventful manner.
Day Two of the rotation was consumed with the move from Camp 1 to Camp 2. This was relatively uneventful, with my personal highlight being the passing of the still-open-hole-crevasse that I fell into a few weeks back. In the end, we pulled into Camp II for an entirely different experience than our first visit. This time the weather was quite pleasant (i.e., albeit freezing cold except for a few hours during the day when the sun shown directly on the camp). At least there was very little wind and we were able to retrieve and account for most of our gear that had suffered through the wind storm that had leveled Camp 2 right after our first rotation. We spent the next day resting and preparing for the move up to Camp 3.
Day Four of the rotation was the day we moved up to Camp 3. It was one of the most interesting days of the climb. We began by marching from Camp 2 up to the base of the Lhotse face (i.e., an extremely steep and icing section of the climb). I estimate the slope of the Lhotse face to be approximately 50 degrees. Right above the base of the Lhotse face, one of our climbers fell into a crevasse and was stopped by the fact he was clipped in to the fixed line. Unlike my visit into a hidden crevasse a few weeks earlier, this one was fully visible with its glaring teeth exposed for all to see. It was certainly a dangerous section and the fall was unfortunate....but if someone was to fall into a crevasse, that would be the spot.
As part of the falling in and retrieval process, the fellow client injured one of his arms...near the wrist. As a result of the injury, the fellow client continued on for a bit, but eventually returned to Camp 2 and on back to Base Camp believing his arm was broken. The assessment of the injury was hampered by the fact there is no way to take an X-ray of an injury up on the mountain. The guides didn't believe the arm had actually been broken, but the doctors at Base Camp indicated their belief that the arm was indeed broken. Therefore, the fellow client packed up and returned to the United States for the purposes of treating the broken arm. Ironically, when the fellow client returned to Southern California, and had the arm X-rayed, it turned out that the arm was not actually broken....so, after 13 hours back home, it jumped back on a plane and returned. He is now back at Base Camp, and we should see him in about four days, once we return. I believe that no on has ever dropped back from the Camp 3 rotation all the way to the United States...only to return for a summit attempt. He is set to join the summit attempt when it occurs.
The move from Camp 2 to Camp 3 was also a sad day for all the climbers on the mountain. During the move, a client from one of the other guide services collapsed and died right below Camp 3. Despite a massive rescue operation, the climber could not be revived and was pronounced dead on the Lhotse face. It was a solemn experience to slowly climb by the man (...and the rescue effort), knowing that he was most likely going to die. The forced proximity of the fixed lines to the collapsed climber somehow made the experience very personal. In the end, we all made it up to Camp 3 and spent the night....trying not to dwell on the tragedy, but it was hard not to....
Day Five, we returned to Camp 2 and spent the night. This is where my own personal struggles began. More later.
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