The team were one of the first teams on the mountain and also one of the first to sleep at camp 3. This would have put us in a very good position for the summit in the next few days. However, due to the rope fixing occurring quite late this season we have seen a large number of people heading up from Camp 3, possibly 100-150. This combined with a small weather window and relatively high winds for a summit push, the team have decided it would be safer to wait for a potentially more favourable time to summit.

We wish luck to all the climbers hoping to summit on the 19th and 20th of May. After this time all indicators show that the winds will be high until the 24th or 25th, after which they drop significantly. We are all hoping that this will give us the chance to summit in good conditions.

David Hamilton (Camp 2) transcribed by Adam Ward (base camp)

This morning, one of our Sherpas, Pem Chirri, was hit by falling ice at Camp 3. Apparently the ice came off a serac above and broke Pem’s arm and leg. He was airlifted from the Western Cwm and is now back in Kathmandu being treated in hospital. Pem is a quiet, unassuming man, with a slight build that belies his formidable strength in the mountains. Our thoughts are with him and we wish him a speedy recovery.

The rest of the team are currently in Camp 2. This accident has put their attempt back by 24 hours, which David thinks may put them outside of the weather window. We will update when we hear more news.

The night was crisp and clear for the 5th and final ascent through the Khumbu Icefall. David led the first half of the team into Camp 2 at around 10.a.m, followed by Pasang Tensing and the remainder of the team at 11.00 a.m Kathmandu time.

The reports were that the weather was excellent, calm winds and clear skies.
The team can now look forward to a relaxing afternoon and a full day of rest today (Thursday)! Now we are keeping a very close eye on the weather forecasts and looking for the window of opportunity that we are all hoping for!

Best wishes to all our followers.

Werner was making his usual rounds of satellite phone updates back to Costa Rica, Bruno stocking up on meds and snacks, Cian attempting one last win at the rounds of cards and improvements on his coffee technique, Ian — well just his usual chilled-out self really –, Phil finished on all the engineering detail around camp, Brett continuing his focus on warmth in all down layers he’s got handy and Nick keeping close accounting on the winners brackets of said card games.

So the team set out Wednesday morning up the mountain at the now familiar time of 1.30 a.m. after a fortifying breakfast of hot drinks and porridge (salami for Bruno of course).

The night was crisp and clear for the 5th and final ascent through the Khumbu Icefall. David led the first half of the team into Camp 2 at around 10.a.m, followed by Pasang Tensing and the remainder of the team at 11.00 a.m Kathmandu time.

The reports were that the weather was excellent, calm winds and clear skies.

The team had a relaxing Wednesday afternoon and can look forward to a full day of rest today (Thursday)! Now we are keeping a very close eye on the weather forecasts and looking for the window of opportunity that we are all hoping for!

If all goes to plan the team will continue to monitor the forecasts with a possible summit night of Saturday night. All being well, they will move up to Camp 3 on Friday, then Camp 4 on the South Col on Saturday morning. They will leave The South Col late on Saturday night to give them plenty of time to reach the summit and return to Camp 4 on Sunday.

This current plan is dependent on the ropes being fixed to the summit, which is due to happen on Friday 18 May. The plan is subject to change, depending on the weather forecast, but the team is in Camp 2 later today and ready to go when it looks like there is a good enough window of opportunity. We wish them the very best of luck!

We look forward to turning the story back to the mountain in the next few days. It’s a strong team and a group fully in support of each other.

After a week waiting at Base Camp we have finally got a weather window. The weather this year has been very up and down and it can change very quickly.
We will be leaving Base camp at 1am tonight (or tomorrow morning) and making our way through the Ice-fall and then onto camp 2. We are hoping to reach camp 2 around 8 or 9 tomorrow morning.
We will have tomorrow and the next day to rest at camp 2. While at camp 2, we will be in radio with our base camp manager and monitoring the weather very carefully.
After our 2nd day of rest at camp 2, depending on the weather we will make our way up the Lhotse face to camp 3.
We will spend the night at camp 3. The next morning we will get up early (pending weather), move up the rest of the Lhotse face, across the Yellow Band and Geneva Spur and hopefully reach camp 4 (the South Col, 7,950m approx).
We will try and eat, drink and rest for that day (maybe 8 hours or so) and then hopefully leave for the summit attempt around 9pm or 10pm that night. That means if everything goes to plan we could be on the summit 20th May.
There are so many factors that can change this plan. Anything can happen from the minute we enter the Ice-fall and onwards. Our weather charts are only predictions and can change very quickly as can the mountain through avalanche, rock-fall and other people having accidents or getting in trouble.

From my experience on Cho Oyu, once you go into the Death Zone, its really a case of mental toughness and physically pushing yourself hard to get up and out of there as quickly as possible. When your up above 7,900 -8000m you really have to be self sufficient and have all your strength and concentration.
Throughout the climbing so far I have been conserving alot of energy for the summit day.

I feel pretty good. I’m excited but nervous about the summit attempt. Today, I have tried to keep myself busy organising my gear, cameras, food, and other things. Some people seem to be very worried about the weather and other things such as using oxygen.
I am just trying to focus on myself and what I can do to climb the mountain.

Two things on my last e-mail, the first photo was the start of the Lhotse face (not the ice-fall).
A jumar is an ascending device used to move up rope. We mainly use it as a safety device as our foot and crampon work what gets you up the mountain. You slide the jumar up the rope and then use your crampons and ice-axe to climb up. If you fall the jumar will jam and stop the fall (you hope). Sometimes the teeth of the jumar can ice up which means it wont grip the rope. If this happens, the best thing to do is the breath on the teeth so it melts the ice)

I have worked hard to get to this point and with a bit of luck and a about 5 days of hard climbing Im sure we will summit. It should take about 2 days to get down to Base Camp, again depending on various factors

Thanks for all the messages of support from back home.

Cian

Today is a standing-still sort of day. Another round of morning walks to Gorak Shep for the guys plus Adele.Here in camp it remains quiet. David’s called in from Camp 2, where he’s up for a two-day reccie of developing conditions and a chance to check out the Lhotse Face firsthand, after this last dump of precipitation.

He reports down that the winds still blow heavily up high, strong on the Yellow Band.

Just after our breakfast here, all the Sherpas returned from the last load carries up to the South Col. Mingma still waits at camp two for our youngest and newest sherpa member but Thundu, Pem, and the rest of the team now safely down here munching on cinnamon rolls and recovering in the relative warmth. Pem’s load of 50kg to the Col yesterday an astounding feat. All the more so given he’s hardly more than 60kgs soaking wet himself. Really humbling how hard these guys work day in and out on the mountain here.

Now they rest, like the rest of the team here.

Before you think its all tea and biscuits the next few days, there’s still work to be done. We’ve been working on radio and battery counts this week, modifying our comms set up for the summit nights, and then continually rebuilding tent platforms as the glacier creaks and groans at night; shifting our ‘beds’ from horizontal into somewhat more twisted angles. Similarly, we’ve been to work on the toilet tents, making sure the listing doesn’t land anyone down a particularly bad slide.

All best from Everest BC

Heavy snow on the Lhotse Face during the night of 9/10 May prevented both the ‘load carrying’ and rope fixing teams form climbing to the South Col as planned on 10th May. The 12 strong rope fixing team have returned to Base Camp.

The weather is looking better today (11th May) and the load carrying sherpas are hoping to place all the equipment needed for the summit push on the South Col. Additionally Jagged Globe Sherpas are aiming to collect the loads that were dropped at Camp 3 yesterday and carry them to Camp 4 on the South Col today.

The weather forecast models show a period of high winds from the 12th until the 17th. Once these drop it will be possible for the advance party of sherpas (including our own Pasnag) to prepare the route to the summit, with climbing teams following on a few days later.

We are all a bit dissapointed in this delay but we are aware that it it is still early in May and histroically most summits in recent years have happened in the second part of the month.

The climbers are remaining in Base Camp and watching for the weather window that we hope will open sometime after 20th May.

Recently we were told that the biggest team Himex (Russell Brice) would be packing up and going home. There were lots of meetings in Base Camp with the big teams. There were a lot of concerns about the Ice-fall moving so much, the avalanches, and then the rock fall on the Lhotse face. With more people being injured and other incidents, its no wonder that people are having doubts about Everest this season. There are also some individuals from teams just packing up and going home. From what I have heard we are the only team that hasnt had a member go home or get injured. Lets hope that this continues for the last and hardest part of the climb.

Before we left for our camp 3 rotation, we weren’t sure about the route to camp 3. Every time we move through the Ice fall, and onwards to camp 1 and camp 2 we seem to be one of the only team around. This also plays with your mind. Where and what are all the other teams doing? I guess we are on a different climitisation program and as we were one of the first teams to arrive in Base camp, we might be moving up the mountain before other teams.

For this trip through the Ice fall, I went a lot quicker and didn’t take much time for photos or video. The more time I spend in the Ice-fall the higher the chances of an accident happening. I got up to camp 1 ahead of the rest of the team with Pasang. The rest of our sherpa team were at camp 1 organising equipment and taking down some of our tents. We left one tent there in case of emergency. I waited around for the rest of the team. As it was about 6am in the morning I got pretty cold. Once the rest of the team arrived at 7 we made our way up the Western Cwm towards camp 2. Again I moved quickly to get warm. I had a an hour rest at camp 1. Once the sun came up and reflected of the snow the Western Cwm became like a furnace and the heat was unbearable. So far on the mountain you are either really cold and worrying about fingers and toes getting frostbite or you are way too hot and your energy is being drained from the sun. You have to be careful what you wear at the start of
your day as it is very hard to take clothes off or put them on when you have your harness on and are roped up.

I arrived at camp 2 around 9.30am and knew I had the whole day to rest and the next day. By the afternoon we werent too sure exactly when we would be moving up to camp 3. Some of our shepas moved up to camp 3 the following day to check the route and drop up supplies. When they got down, they said the new route was longer but there was no rock fall. The only concern was some seracs on the Lhotse face that could collapse. The next two days there was lots of snow, and some high winds making the Lhotse face too dangeroous to climb. We were hoping the snow would freeze and hold the rocks in place. With all the snow we had over the few days meant there was more chance of avalanche.

At one stage the decision was nearly made to go back down to Base camp. This would have put our climitisation program right off. On our third day at camp 2 if the weather was clear in the morning we were going to make an attempt to get to camp 3. We woke up to clear skies, and no wind, so we left camp 2 at 6am. It was pretty cold leaving camp but I knew that it would be hard to change layers once we started climbing the Lhotse face. We got to the bottom of the Lhotse face, took about 10 mins to eat and drink as much as possible.

The very first bit of the new route was a very steep blue ice. Some of our sherpas were coming down from camp 3 and said it was the worst part of the climb. I went last in the group as I was taking video footage. The start of the Lhotse face is at an altitude of 6,800m. I could see the rest of the team struggling up the first section and I knew it was going to be tough. I had to use the front points of my crampons to make my way up the blue ice. It was tough going and there was alot of bit of ice coming down from the climbers above. One big chunk hit me on the hand and it was very painful. I obviously couldnt do anything about it as I was holding on to my jumar and also onto the rope to get some tension in it so I could make my way up the rope. After about 15 mins or so of pushing hard on the steep blue ice, I came to a bit of a ledge. I made the ledge a bit bigger by kicking steps and was able to give my calves a rest. There was another steep part to go but it was a bit shorter, and then I knew the most difficult part was over. Climbing this sections would be easy at sea level, but at a height of 6800-6850m it is pretty difficult. Once past the first steep section, there was a traverse on a small ledge acrcoss to yet another section where front point crampon on blue ice was used to climb the less steep ground. As I was climbing these sections and doing the traverse, I did notice the anchors that were in didnt look very secure. You rely a lot on your foot placement and crampon work but if one of the anchors you could have a very bad fall. Its so important to also take care when cliping in your safety and jumar.

As we got higher the ground was easier but the high altitude made it really difficult. The lack of oxygen was really noticable. You think you can go fast but you are only taking a few steps and then need a break. It was a lot of hard work and my body and mind had to push hard to keep going. It also got hotter as the day progressed which made the climbing harder. Other people on the face were suffering and you could see that the affects of the altitude were really kicking in. I ran out of water about 2 hours from camp. I generally drink a lot of water anyway. I felt ok moving up the face and was going strong. I had a good breakfast, and some snacks before we started the climb. I knew I had the energy and strength to push onto camp 3. I felt like getting some snow and putting it in my mouth but knew it was the wrong thing to do. Pasang caught up with me and as I was having a small break he offered me some water.

I made it to camp 3 about 1pm. the views werent great as cloud had come in. I wasnt really in the mood for taking photos. I just wanted to get water, eat and rest. I got into the tent melted some snow, filled water bottles, made some lunch, and nested into the tent. As camp 3 is half way up the steep Lhotse face at a height of around 7,200m, Its pretty awkward to move around the camp. Our tents where on these small ledges built out from the face. If you want to go to the toilet, there is a safety rope running along the tents that you have to clip into in case you fall all the way down the lhotse face. Its happened before, a few years ago, a guy left his tent to go to the toilet and didn’t clip in and he fell to his death down the Lhotse face.

We didnt get out of the tent that much during the day. There was a lot of cloud and being at that height once the sun goes, it gets pretty cold. I cooked a lovely dinner, and settled in for the night. Didn’t have the greatest sleep as there were big chunks of ice underneath the tent that we couldnt flatten. Also the lack of oxygen will prevent you from having a great nights sleep. We did use our oxygen bottles on a very low rate to try to get a good night sleep but it didnt make much of a difference.

The next morning we left camp at 6am. It was really cold and we had to getting moving fast. I didn’t get a chance to check the temperature as my fingers and toes were too cold. I started moving down the Lhotse face quickly to warm up. It took me an hour to get down to the bottom of it. There were some parts that I took my time, in the abseiling sections and also when I was trying to overtake people coming up. One small mistake and you can seriously injure yourself in a fall or die.
We made it down to camp 2 around 8am and had a nice breakfast and rested for the rest of the day. The following morning we left for Base camp.

We were all delighted to have made it to camp 3. It was the hardest part of the climb so far but the most rewarding. Its a great feeling knowing that the next time we go up the mountain, we will be aiming for the summit. We have completed our climitisation, and have all the camps ready on the mountain. Now we have to wait for the weather to improve. There are a few things that we are looking out for. The high winds above the South Col have to die down, also as the end of the season nears it gets a bit warmer which will make the ice fall even more dangerous and more chance of avalanche in other parts of the mountain.

I will have more updates before we depart for our summit attempt. We have some spare time in Base camp while we are waiting for the weather window. Some of the other teams have gone down to local villages for a few nights. I prefer to stay in Base camp and am going for small walks and scrambles around the surrounding area. I did go down to Gorak Shep for a day to use internet.

Am just going to spend the next few days going through my gear, organising myself, relaxing, and try and get as prepared as possible for a summit attempt both physically and mentally.
Hope all is well back in Ireland. enjoy the photos. The video footage is much better but needs to be edited.
Cian

Camp One is in the far distance too, with row upon row of tents formed on the peaks of these waves. It’s a pretty anti-social place, as no-one wants to wander up and down, from peak, to trough, to peak, to see who else is in camp! In the near distance, on the right hand side of the valley, is Camp Two, which is similar to Base Camp, in that it is sited on a rocky morraine. In theory, it’s a bit more socialable, as it is easier to move from camp to camp, though the distance between the upper and lower portions of the camp and the altitude, mean that this is really only for the chattering classes!

Camp Three is similar in orientation to Camp One, with row upon row of tents. However, due to the steepness of the Lhotse Face, the tents are sited on long shelves of ice, with each row some twenty feet above the next! Again, this leads to a slightly anti-social feel, as we have to be clipped into safety lines, even on our own tier, so communication between other teams is generally reduced to shouts up and down the face. Being forced into such close proximity also means that the sight of someone quite literally hanging off a rope over a precipice to go to the bathroom is regarded as pretty normal behaviour, barely meriting a shrug!

Directly above and behind Camp Three is Lhotse herself, and to our upper right hand side we can see the Yellow Band and the Geneva Spur, both of which will have to be negotiated to reach the South Col, where Camp Four will be sited. Weather permitting, the Sherpas will be able to reach here in the next few days, thus completing another step towards our ultimate goal.

Upon our descent from Camp Three, back to Base Camp, we receive the sad news that one of the larger teams has decided to shut down their expedition and withdraw their team from the mountain. Expeditions of this nature are not entirely risk-free, so we can only express our sadness that a couple of their Sherpas had been injured, and respect the team’s decision. The group of disabled soldiers that we met earlier on was part of this team, so we can only share in their disappointment at not being able to continue and hope that they may be able to return at some point in the future.

Nick B, team member