Dave Hahn

Pause for a break at Camp II if you like, but it is possible that by there, you are anxious to push onward because you now feel like you're getting somewhere. When you are strong, it takes maybe four hours to get from BC to IC and then about that again from IC to ABC. Camp II is halfway for that second leg. As you push up the medial moraine, it starts to narrow a bit, perhaps down to 200' in width. The "teeth" on either side begin to get smaller, and their form is less pronounced until the glacier just forms twenty foot high walls on either side of the corridor.

Their are now some cracks and crevasses across the moraine, but simple ones to see and avoid. Again, if that crack didn't bother 1,000 yaks, what have you to fear? Turn up your Walkman if you like. But stop somewhere in this area and load up on calories because you are getting pretty high and going a good deal higher in the next hour or two.

The glacier starts a right angle turn up ahead and you begin to see the entire Northeast Ridge of Mt. Everest, a big deal for certain. Just right of the base of the NE Ridge is a pass to the Kangshung side of Everest. That pass is straight ahead of you before you make the glacier's turn, but the Sherpas say it isn't very simple to walk through. Look it up on your Brad Washburn/National Geographic Everest Map for a name; it is significant because as you are making the turn, Makalu is perfectly framed through the pass. The fifth highest mountain in the world appears as a forbidding black pyramid. Don't use too many brain cells on Makalu though, when the first highest mountain in the world is now looming like a pile of Sumo wrestlers just in front of you.

It is a weird angle to view Everest's summit from, everything is foreshortened. The classic steps of the Northeast Ridge appear squashed together. The view is actually dominated by the "pinnacles" of the NE Ridge, their own 8000 meter peak a mile from the tippy-top of Everest. That is where the North Ridge joins the NE Ridge and you find you can now see the entire North Ridge from the North Col at 23,000' to the Camp V area at 25,700' to the pinnacles. In fact, you realize at this point that you can see a heck of a lot of neat things, but you can't seem to see the thing you now most want.

Where the heck is ABC? The going gets more continuously uphill and the moraine gets narrower. Plug away for another 45 minutes and you will see the tents of ABC. Naturally, the first tents you will see at ABC are someone else's ABC. There are only about 16 ABC's up the East Fork of the Rongbuk right now, and if you are looking for ours, it is darn near the top and last one you will come to. Must be 100 to 150 tents of all shapes and colors up there right now, with strings of brightly colored prayer flags everywhere with ropes and cords tying everyone's tents together and to the hill.

One nice thing, when I first began coming here in 1991, I remember being a little shocked by how much trash there was mixed in with the rock of the moraine. That is gone for the most part. Some of the folks like Russell, who come every year, organized clean-up projects that got that junk picked up and yakked out. It is much cleaner now, despite the amazing number of people. The Tibetan Mountaineering Agency now sends up a string of yaks each week of the busy season, just for garbage. Good to see.

But again, as you walk into those first tents at 21,000', it might be good to see your own tents. No chance. Perhaps you are whupped and exhaustionized and now remembering that the IMG American camp is several hundred feet still higher than these. Lots of people are probably looking at you now as if they've never seen someone so tired before. You stumble through little tent complexes and in through people's dining areas. "Howdy... oh me, I'm from, uh... Canada I guess... oh yeah, that is an International Mountain Guides patch on me, yep... American I suppose is more like it... say, did they move our camp higher?"

Trudge on, look like you mean business. Say Namaste here and Bonjour there and give out with a few Russian style waves and Japanese gestures, and before you know it, there is Pemba, like he saw you coming. And he rescues you with a cup of hot Tang or lemon juice and a smile, and you are at Advanced Base Camp, ready to climb. And when you climb, you'll see that even another 15 minutes up the steepened moraine, there is one more camp. The Chinese/ Slovakian team are up there on their own... tough guys. That last 15 minutes must be grueling after you've already seen everybody else kicking back with their cup of Tang.

— Dave Hahn, International Mountain Guides' Expedition Leader

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