Updates From Everest Tumpach What Can Go Wrong, Will Saturday, October 18, 1997 (Pangboshe, Nepal) 7:30 am, I am still at the "PYRAMID" because we have electricity here. It is very expensive to stay here. The weather below 7000m is better than above7000m. In the early morning, the sky is clear, but by 10am or 11am, the clouds move in and you can not see any mountains. It is very unusual weather this year. Even the locals are complaining. By 10pm, the sky clears again. George works on an update for The Mountain Zone. Thyangboche Monastery is behind him, and the summit of Everest is hidden in the clouds to the left. In a few minutes I am on the way to BC. I am only eight hours away. There are only the two Italians and the Japanese and Koreans left there. The girlfriend one of the ITALIANS is waiting here in the PYRAMID and she says they will come here today. Everybody else went HOME. I am still waiting for one of my Sherpas and four porters, who are supposed to be one day behind me, but so far we do not know when they will catch up with us. He has my film, boots, crampons and gas; so he better show up soon; our time is running short. Tomorrow I will know more what is happening on KHUMBU ICEFALL. Latest news addition --8 pm--at PYRAMID You guys will not believe what is happening to us. First, the helicopter did not fly Oct 12 due to bad weather in LUKLA. Then my Sherpa is somewhere with some of our gear and four porters. I made the decision to keep going because our time is running out. Then we hired three local porters from SHYANBOSHE airfield to PANGBOSHE only; they could not go any further. Waiting in Pangboshe with no results, I hired two YAKS and the damn things run away when you want to feed them. To top it off, my Yakman informed me that while he let the YAK eat, the YAKS decided to take a run for home and they ran away. He tried to stop them with no result. I do not now if he was joking or not, but when I saw his wet shoes I knew he was serious. I did not know if I should CRY or LAUGH. CHAVI, cameraman, and I were asking --WHAT will happen to us NEXT. You can pretty well say that we are HITCHHIKING our way to the Base Camp--only 1 day--6 hours- to base camp and the YAKS run away. I told you yesterday they were smart, but I did not know they were COLLEGE educated. My yakman promises he will bring them back, so we had no choice but to wait again. In NEPAL, you must wait for everything. We decided to do filming around LOBUCHE and the pyramid with the beautiful views on Mt. PUMORI, NUPSE, AMSHERKU, KANTEGA, LOBUSHE PEAK, Khumbu Glacier and the base camp. We went to LOBUCHE to film local activity and guess what, our Sherpa showed UP with three porters. We had smiles of frustration on our faces, but the HELL with the YAKS. Tomorrow morning we will continue with the porters. Do not dare ask US what will happen next. One thing is certain, we must be the only ones HITCH HIKING to the EVEREST BC. Tonight the two Italians returned from Mt. LOTSE. They were 200 meters from summit and the Korean YOUNG PARK had seem them. They said the weather is bad-very windy past 7500m. Their names are MARTIN SERGIO and DESTEFANI FAUSTO. They are both 14-8000m climbers. Martin has one to go and that is EVEREST. He has tried three times already and each time has had to return due to bad weather. Destefani has three summits to go. The Japanese and Koreans are only ones left on the mountain so we have to hurry to get through the Khumbu ICEFALL. — George Tumpach PREVIOUS UPDATE | UPDATES HOME | NEXT UPDATE