Basecamp
May 22, 2008
The weather is good at the basecamp. It is snowing and most of the other crews have left basecamp. We are waiting for our sherpas. If the weather is fine, we will continue our way to the summit on saturday. We had another interview with the german radio station WDR5. It will be on the air on friday, May, 23, 16:05 and 22:05 on wdr5. Listen to it online on www.wdr5.de.
Waiting for better things to come! 21/05/08
May 21, 2008
We have been back to Everest Basecamp for almost a week now and decided to wait for the second weather window for our summit push. A lot of people have gone up yesterday and today morning, but we figured it is better not to be n the first rush. South Cole has been fixed for some days now and all oxygen, fixed rope and tents are up. The way to the summit is being fixed today (up to the Balcony) and the first summit attempt of the season from the Nepal side will be made tomorrow.
All that is happening while we are resting at Basecamp and enjoying the luxury of Everest Basecamp with its own bakery!
Depending on the weather we will try to go for the summit sometime end of May. It’s too early to say when exactly……but its starting to become a waiting game that is for sure!
Most of our teammates have left towards the top….one team will try Lhotse( 8516m) tomorrow and Apa Sherpa will try his 19th ascent of Everest on the 22nd.
I guess we will have more news by the end of this week….so please stay tuned!
We also just got a nice little surprise present from Kathmandu this morning and are very excited…..you will all find out a a given stage!
Gabriel
Interview with Gabriel Willmann on WDR5
May 20, 2008
Here you can listen to an interview with Gabriel Willmann on the german radio station WDR5.
Hier gibt’s das Interview mit Gabriel Willmann im WDR5 zum Nachhören.
Interview im WDR5 (mp3, 3MB)
Back at Everest Basecamp 16/5/08
May 17, 2008
We are now back at Everest Basecamp from our second acclimatization outing; this time to Camp 3 at 7200m in the middle of the Lothse Face.
It was really hard work getting up there, especially since the air is getting really thin at that altitude; more like one step and three breaths at a time! While Dr. Khurana took a rest day at Camp 2 to acclimatize, I carried the 6 remaining mice up the 50 degree face to the exposed site of Camp 3 on May 13th and back down again; unfortunately without nice views of the Western Cum., as it was snowing a little bit that day. But all went well and we feel strong!
Getting back to Basecmp is always an adventure coming down the Khumbu Icefall, but we managed to cross all ladders safely.
We got to know and meet our personal Sherpas for the summit push today and are very happy Hapka and Tenzing. Both two really nice guys!
We also tried out the new “Top Out” oxygen mask system that we will use, which is much more sufficient than the older Poisk model.
Weather wise it is again snowing a little today and there is supposed to be some more unsettled weather ahead, but we are hoping for a calm and sunny period in the near future to begin with our summit attempt of Everest. But for now all we can do is rest and enjoy Basecamp with our team mates from Asian Trekking. There is for example an Austrian climbing team with us lead by Walter Laserer (www.laserer-alpin.at) who will try to take the official Euro 2008 soccer ball to the top and kick it off….so lots of fun guaranteed!
Please also check out (www.seven-summits.at) about their soccer/UEFA project!
The biggest avalanche so far came down today from the Pumori side of the mountain….very impressive (see picture)! But so far we have been very lucky as it hasn’t been snowing very much, so no big avalanche danger along the route.
We had a very exciting morning today with two members of the Darlow Smithon group
(producers of Touching the Void) shooting a clip/interview with our 6 mice about our hypoxia research project on the Khumbu glacier(see picture). I think we have to start charging a special fee for our mice….so many people come and want to see them!
Anyway, the interview with the german radio station WDR went fine this afternoon (I hope!!) and whoever is interested can listen to it upcoming Monday after 16 Uhr or 22 Uhr on WDR 5 (www.wdr5.de with livestream) …..hopefully will be interesting!
Please keep looking and hopefully enjoy our Everest blog and the links!
Gabriel
Dr. Khurana decending a vertical ladder on a serac
Gabriel on a ladder which spans over a huge crevasse
Huge avalanche towards Everest Basecamp from Pumori
Clip shoot on the Khumbu glacier
Mice at Camp 3 at 7200m
Back in the basecamp
May 9, 2008
We arrived back in the basecamp. Tomorrow we are taking one day off. The next day we are planing to go up to camp 1. One day later we are heading to camp 2 and if the weather is good enough, we go further to camp 3 (7300m), where we stay over night. It is snowing and the weather forecast is not very good, but we feel fine and our mice too.
Olympic Torch on Everest! 08.05.08
May 8, 2008
now that the olympic torch has reached the summit, we will be heading back to Everest basecamp from Dingboche today and hope that all restrictions will be lifted.
It’s a nice and sunny day today, no winds, so lovely hiking conditions!
Next update when we will reach EBC in 2 days!
The Olympic climbing break, 01.05-?
May 7, 2008
Due to the planned olympic torch ascent to Everest from China, no climbing is permitted from the Nepal side of the mountain until May 10th.
This meant for us that we headed down to Dingboche at 4400m to recover and relax from the effects of high altitude. We also wanted to stay in climbing mode and decided to climb Island Peak 6189m.
We therefore left Dingboche on May 3rd and hiked to island Peak basecamp. The night ended up being very short, as we choose a radical approach to the summit. Getting up at 1am in snowfall is no fun, but we were rewarded with a beautiful view of Lhotse and Makalu after climbing the steep headwall and razor-edge ridge to the top.
Now we are back in Dingboche after a 18h day yesterday and will hike back to Everest basecamp in a few days.
We feel good and really look forward to the upcoming climbing and research on Everest and hopefully the real climbing will start soon!
First of all we want to apologize for the rather slow updates, but life at basecamp this year is very different than in other years- no internet and very restricted phone access.
We arrived at basecamp after a 9 day trek via the Gokyo lakes and Cho La pass. A truly beautiful hike in! Basecamp is an interesting place; equipped with a bakery and disco amongst all the tents and prayer flags!
We rested for 2 days and got organized for our acclimatization climb up to Camp 1 and 2 through the infamous Khumbu-Icefall. It looks very dangerous and scary!
Before we set off for the Icefall at 4am we made a prayer at “Lhap-so” (Tibetan prayer flags) and went into constantly moving chaos of ice. The condition of the icefall this year is very good compared to other years-still several dozen ladders-both horizontal and vertical have been placed by the “icefall doctors” over crevasses and seracs.
We reached Camp 1 after 6h….rather breathless and spent 1 day getting adjusted to the altitude. Also did our color vision test every night and looked after our lovely 16 white crawling companions.
At Camp 2 the altitude definitely takes a toll on you. Just getting out of the tent is difficult. This year soldiers along with a signboard prevent climbers from going further (to Camp 3) until May 10th. Just a special year to be on the mountain!
The Lhotse-Face looks stunning from Camp2….very steep and blank with blue ice shimmering through due to lack of snow.
Anyway, the shower back at basecamp felt very good as we made the most of our acclimatization trip to Camp2. Back at our base, we worked with 8 of our companions successfully and now hope for interesting and good results!!
Research tent in the basecamp with sponsor banner.
Dr. Willmann and Dr. Khurana with micecage.
Summit reach of Island Peak (6189m).
Dr. Khurana crossing a crevice on a ladder.
Saturday April 26, 2008 Basecamp
April 28, 2008
We arrived yesterday in the basecamp (5300m). Tomorrow we will climb through the icefall (over 63 ladders) to camp 1 (5800m). The next day we will continue to camp 2 (6400m). We are planing to be back at the basecamp on May 1st.
Kathmandu-Namche
April 18, 2008
We all arrived in Namche yesterday, the weather is beautiful and the views of the surrounding peaks are impressive. Our research objects are also well off and hopefully getting acclimatized as well as we do. Today we took a little hike to the village of Khunde and visited the local hospital, where Dr. Pokharel will do his study over the next days. We will make our way towards Gokyo tomorrow stopping along the way in ladges.
It’s really amazing seeing all porters along the way, who carry incredibly heavy loads!
We will also start with our color vision testing today and hope for an interesting outcome.
Gabriel
