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The Corfield Summit Bid Blow-By-Blow
Sat, May 22, 1999—South Side Base Camp
"What had been a sunny, calm day was now becoming an increasingly windy... the snow was beginning to pick up, and indeed we could see that before very long, the clouds would move in, and it would snow..." —Charles Corfield
Corfield Summits
Wed, May 19, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"The team's descending to Camp II today, and the Sherpas are clearing Everest Camps... Pete has called an end to a very successful expedition!..." —Terry O'Connor
Athans Solos Nuptse; Corfield Above Hillary Step
Tue, May 18, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"I have one bit of good news for you after an early morning start... Athans has summitted Nuptse on a solo bid... Charles Corfield is just beyond the Hillary Step..." —Terry O'Connor
Nuptse Summit; Corfield Attempting Everest
Mon, May 17, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"After a number of days fixing line under the intermittent snow of a monsoonal flow... Our high hypoxic hero, Charles Corfield, is currently staging his run on the Everest summit tonight from the South Col... " —Terry O'Connor
Adjusting to the Khumbu
Mon, May 17, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"Why do we deal with peeling sunburnt noses and super-glued finger flappers? I believe it is for those moments of peaceful bliss that linger strangely with us. Those moments that arise as we watch snow slowly fall over the crevasses of the Western Cwm or the alpenglow burn upon snowcapped mountain shoulders..." —Terry O'Connor
Second Summit Bid
Thu, May 13, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"Peter, Bill, Charles, Jeff, and Kelly, as well as many Sherpas are all tucked in at Camp II...We leave wishing Charles success and good health on his summit bid and the others good climbing on Nuptse and Lhotse..." —Rich Lee
High Altitude Hygiene
Thu, May 13, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"Unfortunately, I dared not get any closer than absolutely necessary, so you will not experience it in any greater detail...The SPCC does a wonderful job of regulating environmentally safe disposal. What they unfortunately don't regulate is environmentally friendly USE!..."
—Rich Lee
News from the Late Arrivals
Thu, May 13, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"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..."
—Rich Lee
Pictures of Everest —includes Video
Fri, May 12, 1999
A team pictorial of summit day and the following rest days.
The Sound of Everest
Thu, May 6, 1999—South Side Base Camp
"Yours truly lost his voice yesterday on his way down from the South Col... Today, we are postponing at the South Col here, second wave summit attempt, and Pete and Bill and Jeff and Kelly are down..." —Charles Corfield
News Bulletin: Today's Summit Stats So Far
Wed, May 5, 1999
Press Release from the HMG/Ministry of Tourism & Civil Aviation (Mountaineering Section) Bhrikuti Mandap, Kathmandu.
Rooftop of the World—Can't Climb Higher
Wed, May 5, 1999 — Everest Summit (29,028'; 8850m)
Athans makes record sixth summit of Everest. "Hey Mountain Zone, this is Pete Athans. I'm at the very rooftop of the world..." —Pete Athans
The Attempt for Summit
Wed, May 5, 1999—South Side Base Camp
"We've been spending the night listening to the radio, hearing the latest updates from the team as they're making their summit bid... We haven't heard the latest dispatch from them, but we are anxiously awaiting the latest information..." —Terry O'Connor
The International Potato Peacemaker — includes Video Dispatch
Tue, May 4, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"The impatient mind often stretches to great imaginative lengths. Sometimes even devious ones...The blueprints for our Base Camp potato gun, currently coined the International Potato Peacemaker, are in the works..." —Terry O'Connor
Camp III and Summit Bound
Sun, May 2, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"It's our intention from this point to go up to the South Col tomorrow, and then begin our climb by roughly midnight and we hope to be on the summit on the 4th..." —Pete Athans
Summit Bid Underway
Fri, April 30, 1999 — Camp II (21,000')
"With a little bit of luck, we'll start at about 10pm...I hope to be on the summit by about 7:30...We have a number of agendas to take care of up there..." —Pete Athans
Storm Before the Calm
Fri, April 30, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"It fell with quite a thunderous rumble and left a bellowy and vaporous trail down the marbled slope... mother nature spoke as if to remind us all that the true challenge still lay ahead..."
—Terry O'Connor
Anxious to Climb
Tue, April 27, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"It's a beautiful night. All the clouds that were around earlier have all dissipated...In the event that it stays windy, we will be going over to our Camp I on Nuptse, putting in a cache of rope, food, fuel, tents..." —Pete Athans
Same Mountain, New Adventure
Sun, April 25, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"The Icefall is in kind of critical shape right now...The arches had completely collapsed—another one of those transient moments in life" —Pete Athans
Rest Days Ahead
Sun, April 25, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"We'll be getting ready for our summit attempt and checking, not only our communications technology, but also our oxygen gear and down suits..." —Pete Athans
New Faces at Camp
Sat, April 24, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"Our next phase now is sorting out our packages for the summit work and also keeping an eye on the weather forecast to see when a good weather window will come..." —Charles Corfield
Thousand Feet of Gain
Wed, April 21, 1999 — Camp III (23,500' 7100m)
"It's nice to feel we're actually up high on the mountain looking over the top of Pumori...we were able to get over to a place that no one had been to in more than 20 years..." —Pete Athans
Icefall Bound
Mon, April 19, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"A dim halo, the sun's early imprint upon the snow-coated skyline, already hung upon the cirque of towers surrounding camp. Stars were still visible, however, and one could see Scorpio's serpentine outline hovering languidly over Nuptse's southern shoulder. It was quite the morning to begin the first push up the mountain..." —Terry O'Connor
Looking to the Upper Camps
Sun, April 11, 1999 — South Side Base Camp
"The temperatures this climbing season seem to be a few weeks ahead of usual, and this may reflect the warm, dry winter...So we just want to give it one more day before we head on up and do our lap to establish Camp II..." —Charles Corfield
Old Friends and Pujas in Base Camp
Fri, April 9, 1999 —South Side Base Camp
"It's wonderful to be back here in Base Camp...just kind of enjoying the blessing ceremony and each other's company and the fact that they've been able to get the logistical and physical things together so they can get to Base Camp..." —Pete Athans
Settling Into The New Neighborhood
Mon, April 5, 1999 —South Side Base Camp
"The first full day in Base Camp and we took care of a lot of different types of details: organizing everything from our very high tech communications tent to our very low tech food tent, which is full of Snickers Bars and junk foods that we'll of course be very happy to consume in a variety of places..." —Pete Athans
A Difficult Walk
Sun, April 4, 1999 —South Side Base Camp
"It was in some ways very difficult to walk by that place...It just reminds certainly all of us here, who come to climb and perhaps all of you out there, that life, often times, is subject to change and often times very quickly..." —Pete Athans
The Road to Base Camp
Sun, April 4, 1999 —South Side Base Camp
"We took the old Pumori Trail, which is a considerable improvement on the route from about two years ago, and it took quite a long time to get into camp...our Base Camp sirdar, has established just an incredible Base Camp here. It is just beautifully laid out..." —Charles Corfield
Visiting a Friend
Fri, April 2, 1999 —Lobuche, Nepal
"There is an area where there are sherpa chortens and indeed, now a memorial chorten to Scott Fischer...The world is a poorer place without Scott's presence in it..." —Charles Corfield
Well Wishes From Lama Geshi
Wed, March 31, 1999 —Dingboche, Nepal
"He gave us all greeting cards in which he wrote in Tibetan "good wishes and good luck"... all the people who have carried a card from him to the goddess of a particular mountain, have all made their summits so far..." —Charles Corfield
A Gamow Bag Away from Base Camp
Tue, March 30, 1999 —Deboche, Nepal
"Even more graciously, volunteered Charles to go inside the Gamow Bag for a demonstration... Charles was duly taken down from 12,000 feet to 6,000 feet, and then decompressed again. He seemed to be just as irascible afterwards as before..." —Charles Corfield
Puja With Panache
Mon, March 29, 1999 —Namche Bazaar, Nepal
"This shungha has wood-block prayers printed upon it and then a geometric series of strings dashed around it to give it a little bit of panache there..." —Pete Athans
Tara Puja in Namche
Sun, March 28, 1999 —Namche Bazaar, Nepal
"Our ceremony lasted about an hour and a half, and included a lot of cymbal-clanging and drum-thumping... to bring about the good wishes of the spirits that reside not only on the top of Everest, but on the sacred peak of Khumbu..." —Pete Athans
A Little Shopping in Namche Bazaar — includes Video Dispatch
Sat, March 27, 1999 —Namche Bazaar, Nepal
"So after a certain amount of odgy-bodgy, we pressed on, to a great amusement to a couple of soldiers there at the guard post who thought the whole thing was a riot..."—Charles Corfield
Athans Can Climb But He Can't Hide
Wed, March 24, 1999 —Lukla, Nepal
"A little card that was delivered with it had the names and bank account numbers of all the people from Everest Anonymous to whom I owe about a thousand bucks each..." —Pete Athans
Casting Out Obstacles
Tue, March 23, 1999 — Kathmandu
"There were some forty monks involved, saying prayers and putting blessings on the expedition... Sure enough, the following day, where we had been having problems with the weather... our charter of army helicopters came through..." —Charles Corfield
Ministry Briefings and Helicopters — includes Video Dispatch
Mon, March 22, 1999 — Kathmandu
"Thai Airlines flights have been forced to divert to Calcutta and it looks like they can't make it in during the day. They will wait till the evening for the air to clear somewhat and come in..." —Charles Corfield
Expedition Chores in Murky Kathmandu
Mon, March 22, 1999 — Kathmandu
"They too are facing the interesting logistical problem of getting about two tons of broadcasting equipment up to Lukla and ultimately Thyangboche..." —Charles Corfield
Permits and Candy Bars — includes Video Dispatch
Fri, March 19, 1999 — Kathmandu
"We get our battle plan together, for getting everything from our permitting, our royalty paid and all that to making sure we have enough snickers bar boxes going up to base camp..." —Pete Athans
Smelling Good in Kathmandu
Thu, March 18, 1999 — Kathmandu
"This is Charles reporting from the rooftop of the Hotel Tibet in Kathmandu... here we are late afternoon, doing a dry run on the sat phone..." —Charles Corfield