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Down from Camp II [click to zoom] (photo: Burleson) |
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Tibetan bread [click to zoom] |
Climbers arrive here the first time after spending a night at Camp I (19,500') and all successive times directly from base camp. It's a long, grueling hike through the Western Cwm which heats up in the sun like a reflective oven, and the last push to camp up Heartbreak Hill is "a SLOW 70 or 80 feet," says Wally Berg.
Before heading up the mountain, climbers rest and take stock of the weather from here. It's still three days to the summit with one night at Camp III (23,500') on the Lhotse Face and one night at Camp IV (26,300') at the South Col. The biggest gamble is predicting clear weather for the summit bid. If no three day window seems close, climbers will often descend all the way to base rather than put their bodies through an extended stay at 21,000'.
Up from Camp II [click to zoom] (photo: Corfield) |
Then you walk for some time more, and it finally starts to get a little closer and just before you get to Camp II there is a little rise that we call "heartbreak hill." Typically we put Camp II up at the top of this little rise that is mixed glacier ice and rock and rubble. It's only a couple hundred feet up there, not a couple hundred feet, it's only about 70 or 80 feet up heartbreak hill but as you can imagine, after the trip up from base camp, it's a SLOW 70 or 80 feet, it really is. Because you know that there is a cup of hot tea waiting for you at top, and you might even see a Sherpa or another western climber standing around up there waving at you, but it's a pretty slow slog up heartbreak hill to get into Camp II.
Camp II is effectively an advanced base camp the way the South Col route is climbed these days. We have a lot of amenities there including a Sherpa cook, and for that reason, it's a rewarding place to arrive to, and you feel very comfortable there. But Camp II is a funny thing, because I've watched on a number of expeditions over the years, I've watched how that those amenities can lull you into thinking that you're doing better there than perhaps you are. Your body is still very taxed when it is at 21,000' or even 21,500' at Camp II, and if you are objective about what is going on, and you watch yourself, you can see that; you sort of lose ground spending a few days there. What I mean by that is if you have developed a cough, or if you have some illness of any sort, it won't go away at Camp II. If you really look at how you're performing throughout the day, whatever you are working on, some science projects, or whether you are just walking around or getting ready to carry loads to Camp III or whatever, if you are really objective about monitoring yourself, you'll see that you kind of start to slip typically at Camp II.
So we use Camp II to acclimatize, we use it as an advanced base camp in order to live well pretty high on the mountain and get into position to go on to the summit. We try to watch it, and basically, after a few nights at Camp II, it's time to go back to base to where your body is going to be able to bounce back a little better; you're going to have a better appetite; you're going to eat more. The food at Camp II is very good. If you watch what's going on you'll see that your appetite usually does decline there.
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