Heavy Snow...Uncertain Future on Everest

Days 50, 51 & 52/May 10, 11 & 12, 2009 (Sunday through Tuesday)
Keith vs. Yak, & Monitoring (and worrying about) John from Afar

By Scott Parazynski

The thoughts of thicker air, warmer temperatures and a sit-down toilet were powerful motivators to depart EBC for Pheriche after breakfast. Keith, Petia, Kamen and I were headed to the Himalayan Hotel, well known for its warm dining room, yak steaks and French wines…

Keith was stoic and kept up a very nice pace, despite the dynamics of his wife’s backpack, which comically kept kicking him in the butt with each step downhill. At one point he threatened to throw it into a crevasse, but he eventually opted to burn it once he returned to Reston…

Gorak Shep. Lobuche. Dugla. Finally Pheriche. It’s a long and oftentimes steep downhill trek to our R&R location, but I felt strong despite the heavy snowfall as we neared the village. Guarding the outskirts of Pheriche was a rather large and horned yak, who allowed me to pass without incident. Keith, perhaps 25 paces behind me, was not nearly as lucky.

The yak began to snort and revectored himself directly towards Keith. With my winter hat flaps and jacket hood down against the elements, I didn’t immediately hear Keith’s call for help --- meanwhile, Keith was eyeing a hole in a stone wall he might have to jump through to avoid confrontation!

A louder call for help did raise my attention, and waiving my arms and making commotion did eventually clear passage for my friend. Once at the hotel, a tired Keith enjoyed yak steak for dinner.

Meanwhile up on The Big Hill
Although the majority of us IMG climbers elected to descend the mountain on Saturday due to worsening weather and a potentially ugly forecast, one of our teammates and his guide, John Golden and John Shea, opted to take a chance for a summit window on May 11th. “J&J” planned to go directly from Camp II to Camp IV, normally a feat reserved for Sherpas --- but they were strong, and they would be using supplemental oxygen from the base of the Lhotse Face to speed their ascent.

Another very strong guide, Justin Merle, had been on his way up for an acclimatization rotation, and he too opted to try for an early summit. Sherpas Phunuru and Mingma Tenzing would round out their team. [Remarkably, Mingma Tenzing had just fixed the route to the summit 6 days earlier, involving the installation of many hundreds of feet of rope and countless ice screws and pickets!]

Although we were on the downhill track, we could hear half of the conversation as IMG Base Camp monitored the guys’ progress up the mountain (we had no direct line of sight to the upper mountain on our trek). Camp III: no problem. Camp IV arrival around mid-day to rest, with some wind and snow. At planned departure time ~ 8pm, winds were 30+ miles per hour, and forecast to get worse. Sadly, the summit bid was off. Thankfully all climbers were healthy, and they could descend safely in the morning --- plenty of oxygen to keep them warm overnight.

After a search the following morning (Monday) to locate the origin of the fixed lines up the mountain --- not easy, even with a few inches of fresh snow --- the team began their descent. Along the way, a climber was injured, and a long, painful descent began… Sitting in a warm lodge miles and thousands of vertical feet away, our group of four felt helpless to aid our friends --- but we willed them a speedy and safe descent to Camp II. This morning (Tuesday) they are thankfully working their way all the way down to the safety and help of Everest base camp.

What does the future hold?
A thick wet snow is falling here in Pheriche on Day 52 of the expedition, and uncertainty exists as to when we can easily return to EBC, when the weather might lift to allow teams to recommence their summit bids, and when we might get our chance… Snow up high means fixed lines will likely be covered, as will have our bootprints from multiple prior forays up the route. All 20+ climbing teams will be poised to go at the first hint of promising weather, which might result in crowding and bottlenecks. Meanwhile, the end of May and the approach of the monsoon season is less than 3 weeks away.

Uncertainty exists, but we’ll eventually prevail…