Wally Berg

Charles Corfield in the Khumbu Ice Fall [Click for bigger image]

Charles and I did get to the top at about 8 or 8:30am, and found of course much warmer conditions than at the same time of day that we last went to Camp I a week or so ago. The suns a lot higher now, up for more of the day, the Ice Fall route maintenance issue will be a big issue on our minds after we make our summit attempt. Temperatures here are barely below freezing at night, so we were... uneasy going through the Ice Fall, and it was very much on our minds that we've got one more trip through on our way down here in late May to get ourselves back to Base Camp.

Avalanche crashing on the Western Cwm [Click for bigger image]

It was an interesting day coming up the Cwm, it started hot and actually cooled off a little bit which was nice, although it was still a long hot walk! Because of the warmer weather the Nuptse wall was very active. We almost constantly heard rockfalls rumbling down, and literally a creaking of the glacier. It's amazing to me being up here in later May -- actually this is as late as I've ever been on the mountain, and things are definitely different with the warmer temperatures really moving things around each day.

An interesting thing going on now is the Ang Dorje Sherpa of the New Zealand team is on his way down right now (3pm) with six others, and we're rather concerned about them going through the Ice Fall this late in the day. I encourage you to keep your eyes and ears open and make sure they get to Base Camp.

It'll be an interesting rest day tomorrow; right now we all feel very good, but it'll be important to see how we sleep tonight. That'll be a good indicator as to how our high altitude acclimatization has been affected by our long delay down low at Base Camp.

-- Wally Berg, AAI Climbing Guide