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To Camp IV - Advanced Base Camp in the Western Cwm at 6,446m
As the expedition gradually moves loads of gear and supplies on up the mountain, a small team of you will push on up the Western Cwm planning to establish the route to Advanced Base Camp. The snow stops and the weather turns clear and cold. Although Camp III is at the entrance to the Western Cwm, an enormous crevasse cuts you off from it. Even though you examine it closely you can't find a snow bridge over it. Your team sets off across the soft new snow carrying three two metre lengths of aluminium ladder. On the edge of the crevasse you bolt them strongly together and lower the six metre ladder carefully into place across the great crevasse. I wonder if you will be the first to crawl across the deep gash on this frail looking link as Sir Edmund Hillary did in 1953. It sways a little as you crawl across one by one! You try to find a route into the centre of the Western Cwm away from avalanches that frequently sweep down from the hanging glaciers on the western shoulder of Everest. You wind in and out through a multitude of crevasses and thankfully find snow bridges in many places. But your route is gradually being forced out towards the edge, barred by some impossible crevasses, until you are close under Everest. The only escape is to pass quickly over the avalanche-strewn slopes close into the cliffs, and then head directly into the Cwm and out of danger. Night approaches and you turn back. In the soft evening light the great peaks that surround you glow like balls of fire against the background of a dark velvet sky. A great way to finish an exciting day. The next day dawns fine and clear. For the first time Tenzing, the leader of all the expedition Sherpas, ropes up and joins your lead party as you go ahead to complete the route to the site of the Swiss Camp IV. A couple of other climbers will follow behind with half a dozen laden Sherpas. The sun heats up and as its rays reflect from every snowy slope, the Western Cwm becomes an absolute inferno. The combination of heat, altitude and deep snow make it very tiring work. After a long hot battle you finally climb the last slope to the Swiss Camp IV where a pile of snow covered boxes and bags greets your eyes. Eagerly you dig out the Swiss rations - they are quite luxurious compared to your normal mundane food! Up above towers the Lhotse Face, and the wind is whipping snow off the South Col. The route to Camp IV is established. After a couple of hours rest your team starts down again, catching up with others who have dumped loads part way up. For the next few days, despite bad weather, the lifts of gear through the icefall and up the Western Cwm go on continuously, establishing the Advanced Base Camp.
Written from the descriptions in the books: |
