April
1999
THIRD POLE EXPEDITION
April
- June 1999
Thursday 29th
April 1999
Ready
for the summit…
Apart from the weather conditions, which are not especially favourable
- the wind is currently bearing down on Everest, which is not at all
conducive for climbers to start making their way up towards the summit
- the team of Belgians at the Tibetan base camp is fighting fit and
raring to go.
Hubert who had been suffering from a serious chill for a week, has
now almost entirely recovered and the climbing gear has all been checked
and rechecked: everything is as it should be. Thanks to the fact that
they were among the first climbers to arrive on site, the equipment
caches at high altitude are all in place - and hopefully nothing will
have been pinched by other teams. Alain sent us the following thoughts
on that subject : "Manaram and I took a two-man tent up to the
North Col (7 000 m). The tent has two little ground mattresses, two
very light sleeping bags (prepared by Lestra Sports), a stove, two
saucepans, 4 gas cartridges and some food. Plus more equipment, clothes
and food for continuing the climb, including an oxygen tank for each
of us (for 6-7 hours maximum), a pressure regulator and face-mask.
We intend using this back-up is we need to, or in case there's a problem
in the final 500 metres of the climb."
As for the stash at 7 800 metres, he added : "This is a small two-man
tent. We secured our two tents (we went up with Pascal and Joao):
in fact, 'secure' doesn't really say it, because the wind suddenly
began blowing, making us realise just how lucky we'd been thus far
to work in bearable conditions. We anchored the tents using pitons
and ropes and left them flat on the ground without putting up the
tent poles. We also left a little note with the Montagnes du Monde
logo so that the sherpas with the big American commercial expeditions
(there are two of them) don't simply come along in a few days and
put theirs on top of them simply because their leader told them to
pitch the tents anywhere…"
So all that remains is to wait for the wind-god Aeolus to be in the
right mood. This brief break in proceedings has enabled the Belgians
to send us a few stories about what's happening at the base camp and
about the other expeditions. Hubert, for example, was amazed to
watch an expedition leader (a large American commercial expedition
that stopped at the ABC), who was teaching his clients how to put
a crampon on, how to use a harness, what a jumar is used for, how
to climb up a rope and how to use a Petzl grip. It's incredible
to think that all this is going on at the foot of the world's highest
mountain and that these tourists will soon have to face the death
zone. A Polish lady climber who came to visit the Belgians (she has
already made several attempts on the summit) declared that to become
better acclimatised, she had decided to go off and sleep at 7 800
metres with a tank of oxygen. Speaking of oxygen, the Belgians have
quailed at how much the capacity - and the size - of tanks has increased.
There's no problem with the weight : when you pay 60 000 dollars to
"do" the summit, it seems you have the right to demand a bevy of porters
to attend to your every need.
Reading all this, you begin to wonder what other tricks of the trade
the organisers of commercial expeditions are going to come up with
to make it easier for their tourist clients to make it to the summit
of Everest…
