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The Journey up the Khumbu Glacier to Base Camp at 5,456 metres
'And then high above, towered the unbelievable peaks of the Khumbu region - mighty ice-fluted faces, terrific rock buttresses, and razor-sharp jagged ridges soaring up to impossible heights.' For two days you will plot and plan; sort out tents, ropes, cookers, pitons, and karabiners; organise your food and work out the right amount of fuel, check the Sherpas' equipment, and sign on a band of porters, half of whom are women. Now you are ready to set off on your journey up the Khumbu Glacier to Base Camp. As you wander up the valley and through the village of Pangboche the skies darken and threaten. You are spurred on and finally make camp in a deserted village as the snow is falling everywhere around you. When you awake next morning and peep out of your tents, the world has turned white. Some of the porters have no snow glasses; will they get snow-blind if they carry on? Maybe you will pick up handfuls of snow and throw it around in excitement like Sir Edmund Hillary did - just to see it twinkle in the soft morning sun! The climb up the Khumbu Valley is steeper and the snow is almost a foot thick. The sun shines brightly and the glare is intense. The porters without snow glasses are squinting painfully in the strong light. You make camp in a grassy dip beside the Khumbu Glacier as those without snow glasses struggle into camp with lowered heads and swollen, weepy eyes. The next day some are temporarily blind and cannot see at all, while others although bleary-eyed are willing to continue. A member of your party uses some spare lenses and black adhesive tape and string to create pairs of make shift snow goggles for the suffering porters. A day later you move out onto the Khumbu Glacier. At first you must climb over seemingly endless moraine heaps, until you finally reach the clear ice in the middle, where there is an easier trough to follow between the great seracs. Floating high above you now is the grim black summit pyramid of Everest with wind-whipped snow streaming out into the thin air. Will you ever make it to the summit? Finally you reach the site of the Swiss campsite of the previous year. Although it is a most uncomfortable place with rocks spread all over the hard ice, there are some flat places suitable for tents, and it seems the best available. At last you can take off your loads and start setting up a new Base Camp for your expedition party. You get a lucky break - the Swiss have left a big pile of juniper wood - enough to keep your fires going for a week. That will save you stripping more juniper shrubs for a while.
Written from the descriptions in the books: |
