Watch the video below for some good Khumbu icefall footage from today!
Link to youtube clip
The day most of us had been waiting for had finally arrived. We’d get our climbing gear ready and head for the Khumbu icefall. Hard to put words on this maze of ice towers shiny as diamonds and deadly as poison if you don’t watch out.
The route had been marked by the icefall doctors with bamboo sticks though Tim didn’t find the entrance initially. Scott at first and a sherpa Tim called from our camp then pointed us in the right direction.
From there it was initially all straight until we hit the first fixed ropes. Gets you pumping quite a bit when you maneuvre yourself up. So far without using jumars. The views of the glacier behind and above you are just stunning.
Altogether, we managed some 170m altiude gain from base camp or about 20% of the overall icefall we have to cross to reach camp 1 @ 6,000m.
The way down was easy and hot! We bumped into a Korean climber I had read about … he lost all his fingers to frostbiteon his last Lhotse attempt. Now he is back to settle some bills with the mountain I guess. Respect to his attitude!
Tomorrow is puja day. So bhuddist prayers and local cheng (low vol locally brewerd moonshine / rice wine). Don’t expect too many mountain pics ;o)
