|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Anderson's call from Everest LISTEN: [RealPlayer] [Windows Media]
You need a FREE media player to listen.Hello, Mountain Zone. We've spent the last 24 hours looking at every option we could, but with Lhakpa not feeling so good yet and really needing to get to a lower altitude and the need to carry things from Camp I up to Camp III — we've tried to enlist a few Tibetan porters to do that, but they took one look at the mountain and the wind and kind of laughed at us. As well as some pretty strong winds coming through Base Camp, kind of alternating with the jet stream off the top. I wanted to summit on the 31st, as most people know, and it just doesn't look like that is going to be possible, working on the schedule we are. We even tried to work out a way to go to Kathmandu and then come back again, but that doesn't seem too feasible. So with just three of us climbing and really two of us planning on going for the summit, inside of a week, with one of us still feeling pretty weak and sick, it's pretty disappointing to have to come back down again. I'm still feeling real well and healthy, but I don't really feel like soloing from the North Col to the summit this year. The one thing we have had, as far as the good news goes, is being on Everest when it's completely empty is a unique experience; it's like a completely new, virgin mountain that's unclimbed. I think the challenges are quite unique. It's been amazing getting up through the Rongbuk and on up to the North Col itself. The plans now are to pull out from Camp I and Base Camp and then scamper back to Kathmandu as fast as possible. The roads are still looking pretty good out of here and the jeep came in a few days ago. So I think that shouldn't be any major problem, yet, as long as it doesn't snow between now and then. And if we're real lucky, we'll be spending Christmas in Kathmandu. Just a final update to say people who [Unintelligible] and sent prayer flags with me. They've been taken to one of the altars with myself and the Sherpas and sent up in smoke into the plume of Everest. So they're currently wasting away along through the plains of Tibet, depending on which prayer flags which you sent with us. I'll keep you updated.
— Robert Anderson, MountainZone.com Correspondent
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
