Greetings Mountain Zone, this is Rich Lee, M.D., reporting from Base Camp. We arrived here on May 6th to the news that Pete and Bill had summitted successfully.

Our trek to Base Camp was organized by Dr. Betsy Holland from Sausalito, California. Betsy is a talented radiologist and close friend of Charles Corfield. Betsy planned the trek to coincide with Charles' 40th birthday and the expedition summit attempt.

In honor of these two special events, Betsy designed and commissioned a special set of hats for Charles and the expedition members. The hats had a special meaning for Charles and those who remember his summit attempt in 1998. Last year, Charles and Eric Simonson found themselves on the South Summit, ready to fix the Summit Traverse and Hillary Step except for one detail...not enough rope! Betsy made enough of these hats so that anyone in the expedition need simply look at another member to be reminded not to repeat last year's 'incident.' The hats, which say, 'got rope?' and 'Millennium Everest Expedition' are clearly the coolest in the Khumbu this year.

Also on our trek to Base Camp was Sue Thompson from Yorkshire, England. Sue is a trekking guide, translator, author, and the partner of Bruce Herrod, who perished at the base of the Hillary Step after reaching the summit late in the day on May 25, 1996.

In 1997, Pete Athans respectfully removed Bruce's body from the climbing route and returned his camera and ice axe to Sue. From that camera, Sue developed Bruce's spectacular summit photo and brought along a laminated copy to be placed on Bruce's chorten, located on a scenic hill near Gorak Shep. The trek for Sue was surely an emotional one, full of powerful images and meetings. She will be writing about her journey in a future Saturday edition of The London Daily Telegraph.

I came here to try to be of some help at Base Camp. I am a family physician from Stanford University with an active interest in medical problems at extreme altitude. I have provided some advice to members of the 1997 and 1998 expeditions that were cybercast on The Mountain Zone and this year is my turn to 'practice what I preach.' So far I have resolved several cases of gastroenteritis (including my own) and treated several interesting skin problems. My most challenging cases have been combined bronchitis/laryngitis in two climbers who unexpectedly ran out of oxygen while high on the mountain. I am amazed that neither climber came down with High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). Both climbers are now back on the mountain and doing well.

Last night we had a superb, authentic enchilada feast planned and directed by that renowned chef, Bill Crouse. The fare included beef, chicken, crab, and meatless enchiladas topped with a choice of salsas and finished with a fresh-baked apple tort (coffee liquor topping optional). The companionship and conversation at this dinner, like all the dinners here, are exceptional—from philosophy to life experiences to creative limericks—thoughtful words from thoughtful people.

This morning we all got up at 4:30am to see off our second wave of climbers. Charles has recovered very well from his respiratory illness and is heading up for the summit of Everest with Sherpas Dawa Sonam, Chhewamg Nima, and Nima Tashi to finish up the list of science projects (and yes, they've got rope!). Peter, Bill, and Jeff are heading up to climb Nuptse, then Lhotse. All are in good health and, as always, good spirits.

I spent today with Base Camp cybercaster and future physician Terry O'Connor trying to diagnose and treat an ailing generator and high-speed satellite phone. My surgery on the generator was successful, albeit not an easy one of correcting air/fuel mixtures at over 17,000'. Terry's job is much more difficult (though not as smelly) and so far, he is still frantically trying to link with the cosmos at ISDN speeds. Unfortunately, our suffering is also your suffering, since the slower M-sat terminal does not allow easy uploads of spectacular images. We're working on it, please be patient. We have had some help from the well-equipped Everest Extreme Expedition of NASA/Yale University, but their bandwidth is often consumed with two-way, tele-medicine conferences.

As the evening (and temperature) falls, we hear from all our climbers at Camp II, and they are doing well. Their final requests for supplies to go up tomorrow include shavers and sweet-hot mustard. Another day in the Western Cwm....

This is Rich Lee (slow typist with freezing fingers) signing off.

—Rich Lee, M.D., Base Camp Physician

DISPATCHES