Leeds Metropolitan University

Everest West Ridge 2006

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John O'Hara

Location

Everest Road Head Base Camp

Time

24th April 2006

Day 13
Altitude: 5140m
Barometric Pressure: 541 mbar
Temperature: -15 Oc throughout the nights

Tomorrow morning we depart Road Head Base Camp and trek to Tilman’s Camp where the Main Everest West Ridge team are based. This trek will take approximately five hours, where we expect to get a closer look at the West Ridge of Everest at the Head of the Valley. Getting to Tilman’s camp has been one of the main objectives of the expedition and we hope to see some of the Main team there.

The three days spent at Road Head Base Camp have provided an opportunity to acclimatise to the stiff increase in altitude compared to New Tingri (4300m). We are all acclimatising at different rates and it is very apparent that we are at a severe altitude. We are higher then Mont Blanc in the Alps, which 30% of people do not summit due to the altitude, so as a group we are performing very well. We know that we are acclimatising well as the 200m trek to the toilet, now only takes 5 minutes in stead of the previous 20 minutes.

The conditions here are hostile and harsh; even the simplest activities require great effort and take much longer than at sea level. Even in the sun it is often cold enough to need the full down jacket and the wind is particularly biting. Although we are all much better at coping with the altitude than we were three days ago, this is still a very difficult environment and can only be imagined if you have experienced it. Tying shoe laces and going to the toilet have never been such an ordeal.

The view of Everest from Road Head Base Camp is fantastic and brings home the reality of the challenge that the Main team have chosen to take on. On arrival at Road Head base camp, some of the main team, who were resting from their few days on the mountain, came down to see us all, as they will not be at Tilman’s when we arrive tomorrow. This steady flow of Main team members continued over the few days we were here. It has been interesting talking to them about their expedition and how high the morale level is. They have put in the first tents at camp three today, which is good going. Initial feedback from the team members we met was that the nutritional products Leeds Met supplied, via Cadbury Schweppes, are going down very well and that the physiological support Leeds Met has provided is paying dividends, even at this early stage.

The development team arrived at Road Head Base Camp yesterday, after successfully summitting Lakpa Ri. All but two of the team members summitted, which makes this the most successful Army Development team expedition in the history of the Army Mountaineering Association. Talking to the team today it is apparent that they all put in absolutely everything they had and showed persistence in the harsh conditions. We look forward to hearing more of their exciting stories when we travel back to the UK with them and when they present their expedition to us at Leeds Met in the coming weeks.

We look forward to our challenge of reaching Tilman’s camp tomorrow, which is no mean feat, and ensuring that all the remaining team are successful in reaching their Everest.

Carnegie Visiting team 26 April

John O'Hara 24 April

John Allan 24 April

David Jackson