Namaste from Nepal!

Namaste from Nepal!

Life has been very interesting up here in the Khumbu for the past few weeks. Right now we have all descended to Dingboche (at 4,350 meters) for a few days rest at a lower elevation.

Our long delay in updating this site has been due to the many restrictions placed on all teams at Everest Base Camp regarding communication via satellite phones or email. Basically, the Nepalese Army has a couple of dozen military staff stationed in Base Camp. All satellite phones, satellite modems, computers and video cameras have been confiscated and/or severely restricted in their use (some can be used for certain purposes under direct supervision of the military staff while in their camp). This is being done in order to prevent any unauthorized transmissions that could possibly interfere with the Chinese Olympic Torch Everest Expedition taking place right now from the Tibetan side of the mountain.

However, we are now outside of the Base Camp area and are free to update via the public email service here in Dingboche.

The biggest development in our team’s progress has been regarding Rob Hill and his climb. Unfortunately, Rob experienced a relapse of his Chrones disease. Our team physician Dr. Clarke Lewis spent 4 days treating Rob down in Gorak Shep, and later in Lobuche. After 4 days the decision was made to fly Rob out for tests and supervision in Kathmandu on April 14th. After flying out, Rob came to the decision that he would not be able to continue on the climb this year. We were all saddened to see him go, but everyone realizes that continuing to climb a mountain such as Everest requires full health and energy. Dave Sarkany, along as videographer for Rob Hill’s climb, has also left the mountain with Rob.

This has put our climbing team down to 6 – Wayne Browning, Darrel Ainscough, Sebastien Sasseville, Erik Bjarnason (Erik says ‘Hi to Mom”), and Guides John Furneaux and Brian Jones. All are doing very well and acclimatizing fine.

We had a very successful Puja ceremony on April 13^th. This was a 4 hour ceremony led by a Lama at our camp in order to bless our team members, Sherpas, equipment and all aspects of our climb. Once this was completed, we could continue higher up the mountain. Since then we have been up and down the Khumbu Icefall a few times now, with most of the team having spent 2 nights already in Camp I.

Our plan now is to rest and enjoy the relatively “thick” air down here for a couple of more days before heading back up to Base Camp. After a couple of days in Base Camp, we’ll move back up to Camp 1, then on to Camp 2 for a few days of acclimatization. We’ll follow this routine for a couple of more weeks, then should be ready to head on to the upper mountain and prepare for our summit attempt by mid to late May.

We may not be able to update here for quite a while, as the communications restrictions in Base Camp apply till May 10^th, or whenever the Chinese summit with the Olympic Torch. If their team summits earlier then May 10th, we should have all restrictions lifted though.

Thanks again for following our climb and for thinking of us over here! I'll try to have updates if possible sent by phone through our office, so feel free to call Linda in Vancouver to find out any news about your Everest climbing friends and family members. In the meantime, no news from us means good news!

Best regards from Everest,

Brian Jones
Canada West Everest 2008 Expedition Leader