Well after possibly one of the best nights sleep at BC (all of the team commented on how well they had slept) I decided that after some washing I'd pop down (I like using the word 'pop' because three weeks ago I couldn't have thought of a more unsuitable word!) to Gorak Shep to catch up on emails etc.
David said a couple of interesting things at breakfast: firstly, that approximately 30 climbers have returned home so far having either decided that Everest is not for them or they have been medically evacuated. So that's around 8-10% of the climbers here. Secondly, that the icefall appears to be much more unstable this year (just my luck). Apparently in previous years the route has only had to changed two or three times because of avalanche. This year it seems to be an almost daily occurrence.
Yesterday three or four of us thought about going down to Gorak Shep today but come this morning it was only me (is it something I said - I've not even told my 'high protein lozenge joke for the Khumbu cough yet'!). I have to be honest and say after five weeks, which incidentally means we are half way through the expedition, it was really nice just to have some time to myself outside of the confines of my tent (now I'm starting to make it sound like a prison cell).
I was able to really enjoy the walk down, going at my own pace, taking the scenery in and lost in a world of my own thoughts. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me as I saw a couple of Blackbird and Thrush sized birds with really beautiful red and multi coloured plumage.
Now this is going to sound awful but it was quite entertaining to see trekkers struggling up the trail hunched over their walking poles and not having the energy to say hello or to even raise a smile! Mind you I'm sure that's what we looked like three weeks ago and no doubt will look like on our way up to camp three. Time wise up and down was an hour and a quarter, virtually the same as last time, but it felt easier so hopefully there are a few more red blood cells inside me now.
Now on Friday at the bottom of the post you may recall that I mentioned an avalanche that swept across the width of the Western Cwm ( you may recall I've self imposed a 48 hour embargo on bad/ potentially bad news).
On Friday we were walking up to the Bergschund below the Lhotse face when at around ten am we heard the typical sound of an avalanche off behind to our right. Turning around we could see an avalanche cascading like a large waterfall down the side of Nuptse, probably two thousand feet above the Western Cwm. We all watched mesmerised by its size only to see what now looked like a cloud of snow and ice travel across the entire width of the valley and up the other side by about 500 feet, probably more. To give you an idea of time scale, whilst watching it travel down the side of Nuptse, I realised it was going to be huge and had time to take my rucksack off, get my camera out and catch a picture of it travelling up the other side!
Naturally we thought of people travelling up to Camp Two and hoped all were safe. What we hadn't appreciated was that the Lhotse team (led by Adele Pennington of JG) and her two team members had travelled up from BC that morning to Camp One. The avalanche was so huge that it took out nearly every tent at Camp One by virtue of the blast and snow debris. Thankfully Adele, Ron and Scott were all safe and well. They were outside the tents but were able to hunch down and shelter in the lee of them. It is a great testament to the strength of the Terra Nova heavyduty Hyperspace tents that Jagged Globe choose to use and how well our sherpa team have erected them just in case of such an eventuality that they survived unscathed except for one broken pole.
When we dropped off our walking poles yesterday all of the other tents were completely devastated including those just a few metres away from ours. Adele and her team wisely decided to carry on up to Camp Two and whilst obviously very shaken, we're able to enjoy a late lunch in the Camp Two mess tent.
As far as we know there were no fatalities however Pasang was returning to base camp that day and ended up rescuing a Sherpa who had been blown off a ladder into a crevace by the avalanche. It's thought he had some rib injuries and was helicoptered off to Kathmandu. Pasang never got his rest day in BC instead he returned to Camp Two only to find he had a squatter in his tent - either Ron or Scott!
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