DISPATCHES

Heilprin

With that in mind, the K2000 American North Ridge Expedition may lend its relatively vast resources by "adopting" two of the other three international teams here on the north side of the 8616-meter (28,267-foot) Himalayan monolith that straddles the Sino-Pakistani border.

The four-person Mexican/Spanish team, which includes one American already, is digging out our three tents that got buried at Camp 1, during the past week's snowfall. They also are chopping out their own space for a tent, in place of our cache, on the narrow ice ledge. Their effort, starting before dawn, comes as a surprise.

"With the way they seem to want to cooperate with us, we ought to find a way to just adopt them," says K2000 expedition leader Jeff Alzner, who was in radio contact with them Friday afternoon before helping cook pizza for dinner.

Standing around at 5120-meter (16,800-foot) Advanced Base Camp, Alzner adds that the four-person Japanese team is on "half-rations" due to a food shortage and might need some help within a week or two. He says we might as well adopt them, too.

With limited resources of their own, those two international teams hope to hitch a ride on our ropes.

But the notion of outright adoption leads to some lighthearted musings among team members.

"Do they have to have their shots first?" asks Fred Ziel, one of the expedition doctors, who also raises the possibility of just eating the sinewy Japanese team outright. But, he continues, "I don't care much for Japanese food."¹

Snowfall each day, since June 30, is damaging the Camp 1 tents, some of which probably will need replacing. The fixed ropes that lead almost to Camp 2 also must be dug out.

All the loads carried up by the third international team here — the Chinese-sponsored "Tibet High-Peak Expedition for Conquering All the World's 14 Peaks Above 8000 meters" — are buried where they were deposited next to our tents at Camp 1.

And the Japanese team's Camp 1, on a less protected ledge, also is affected by the storm.

A late afternoon avalanche that spilled onto the route missed one member of the Mexican/Spanish team by just five minutes. Over the radio, Araceli Segarra, the first Spanish woman to reach the top of Mount Everest, says they were closely watching him get off the ice slope — and that he might need to change his underwear due to the prevailing conditions.

They risked the round trip to Camp 1 despite our attempts to stifle their enthusiasm. An early morning group — Alzner, Ziel, Paul Teare and Gill James — climbed to the base of the route to restock a cache and critiqued their decision to ascend the fixed ropes.

On Day 8 of the storm that has made climbing the North Ridge unsafe due to avalanche danger, there is more reading in tents, gazing at towering peaks and clouds, emailing on limited solar power and bawdy conversation over meals.

Unfortunately, it will be at least 10 more days before the expedition can partake from the beer-making barrel labeled "Dr. Fred's Liquid Bread," which is marked with a skull and crossbones, and sports a condom to seal the airlock.²

And, by the way, despite some lingering group tensions, it is still snowing here at "Tranquility Base."

Footnotes:
1. See Fred's previous dispatches for more insight into him!
2. Ibid.

— John Heilprin, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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