JANUARY 2005--Christmas, New Years and the Flat Arch 50 came and went all too quickly. There are now less than three months until I leave for Tibet and no major landmarks between now and then.

If I am not working, I am thinking about Everest! Karen has been kind enough to let me take over one room for gear preparation. The equipment list, compiled from several personal lists and many Web sites, is being whittled down and prioritized.

Currently the high priority items are tents and stoves. We need several tents for the various camps. The location of the camp, the time that we will spend in it, the length of time it has to remain in place and the height to which we have to carry it all come into play. Between the four of us, we already have eight suitable expedition tents ranging from a two-person single wall to a three- to four-person double wall tent.

Of course, as with all the gear, we have to decide if any tents can be procured in Katmandu in order to save on shipping them as excess baggage. At one point, we discussed shipping some gear beforehand, but high prices and long time delays have led us to drop that idea. As a final caution on the subject of tents, we need to have a couple of spare tents as there is a high likelihood that tents left in the high camp will be destroyed by the wind during the week or two that they are left there.

Stoves--a hot subject
Stoves must be matched to the fuel available. I am not complaining, but it is a fact, that in this modern world one cannot transport fuel on airplanes. Thus we need to use stoves compatible with the fuel available locally. The climbing bazaar in Katmandu has ample supplies of gas canisters of a propane/butane mix that are suitable for use at high altitude where the low temperatures, low air pressure and thin oxygen make many stoves work poorly. And Kathmandu is also where we can find the burners to fit those canisters. Next up on the gear list are a reliable camera, lightweight climbing harness and eye protection, dark goggles, clear goggles, glacier glasses and sunglasses

Let’s talk about the route.
On the north side of Mt Everest, the Tibetan plateau stretches away into central Asia. It is the highest area of land in the world, pushed up, along with the mountains themselves, by the Indian subcontinent which is slowly but inexorably crashing into it from the south.

One of the multitude of tiny side effects of this cataclysmic collision is that there is a gentle approach to Mt. Everest from the north that allows the climber to reach base camp at 17,000 feet and advanced base at 21,000 feet with an ease that belies the altitude.

From advanced base camp, the route climbs steep ice slopes and cliffs to the top of a ridge called the “North Col.” “Col” is an old English term for a low point on a ridge; many of the names in the area reflect the early exploration by British mountaineers a hundred years ago.

The top of the North Col is 23,000 feet. While it is exposed to the wind, there is generally an accumulation of snow to build protective walls around the tents. This is Camp 1.

From the North Col, one turns sharp left and follows the ridge up a long snow slope. As the ridge runs into the main massif of Everest, it widens and becomes rocky. Continuing up the steep rocky mountainside the next camp can be placed when it begins to level off at various small ledges wherever room for a tent can be found.

This camp, Camp 2, in my lexicon, is at about 25,000 feet. From Camp 2, keep climbing up the rocky mountainside and angling to the right, toward the summit itself. The final camp, Camp 3, is placed among the rocks at roughly 27,000 feet.

Strong winds are a given at Camp 3
Each climbing group looks for a tent-sized patch of ground where they can anchor their tent. There is little snow here; the winds blow it all away, so you cannot build a nice cozy snow wall around your tent.

There are a lot of loose rocks but little energy to collect or build with them; tent pegs aren’t much use among the rocks. Teams will carry a load up to these camps, set up a tent, tie it down, sometimes place a cargo net over the top to hold it in place and then retreat back down the mountain, hoping the tent is still there when they come back a few days later to sleep in it.

The location of Camps 2 and 3 are poorly defined, there being no good spots but many poor ones. This does allow for some flexibility in placing these camps, some parties opting for higher camps to shorten the summit day and some for lower camps to ease the task of carrying them up there.

Only 2,000 feet to the top
If you have been following along with the numbers, you will see that the final camp is at around 27,000 feet. This is higher than everything but a small handful of Himalayan mountain tops. It leaves 2,000 feet to climb on summit day.

While the fine details of our plan will evolve on the mountain, I suspect that we may place our camps a little on the lower side. Doing so reduces the loads that have to be carried, since we don’t have the resources of a large expedition, even though is results in a longer summit day.

It is exactly these variations and trade offs that make climbing a mountain an interesting game. Retaining the freedom to make these decisions is the difference between a small group such as ours and being a member of a larger expedition.

The whole of the north and northwest ridges are exposed to the winds with nothing between the mountain and Siberia or Japan. Everest is so high that the jet stream can touch down on its upper slopes. When we arrive at base camp in early April, winter has just departed but it is still cold and windy. Throughout the early stages of the expedition, setting up camps and acclimatizing on the north side, we are exposed to cold winds and low temperatures.

Our plan is to be ready by mid-May. Two thousand miles away on the warm tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, things are warming up and the big wet clouds of the Indian Monsoon begin to form.

By mid-May the monsoon weather is moving west from the Bay of Bengal bringing, you guessed it, monsoon rains and thick clouds. As this huge annual weather formation approaches the Himalayas it pushes the jet stream north.

For a brief two week period in mid- to late May, the mountain finds itself sandwiched in a sliver of fine weather between the jet stream to the north and the monsoon to the south. Somewhere in those two weeks is a possible summit day. We hope we are ready!

Only a two-week window to summit
When summit day arrives we leave at midnight and climb up ever steeper rocks through the “Yellow Band” until we crest the northeast Ridge. Then we turn right and work our way along the rocky ridge overcoming small cliffs known as the first, second and third steps until we are at the base of the final icy pyramid that is Everest’s summit.

The second step is the obstacle that proved a great problem to early attempts and was not surmounted until a big Chinese expedition in the 1960s bought up a ladder to help climb a sheer 20-foot wall. That 20-foot wall has still not been climbed without the use of artificial aid. Once on the summit you have to get down, not an easy task judging by some sobering statistics that I have seen!

A huge part of the climb, especially summit day, is the mental strength and determination to keep climbing upward. But that willpower has to be wrapped in a heavy coat of common sense and caution.

As such, everyday tasks have taken on an additional twist. With every decision I find myself in a quandary. Should I make a safe, cautious decision thereby mentally preparing myself so that I don’t get into trouble on Everest or should I practice strong, determined, goal oriented decision making so that I have some chance of going for the summit? If you see me day dreaming in the near future it is because I am pondering just such a question!

To contact Crane, e-mail him at info@teamkarma.com.

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