Trudging through snow, it was a hot slough to Camp 1 today for our Team A, which now consists of Allan, Mark, Michael, Raul, Stephen and Sumit. Pemba the camp cook also made the climb to support the climbers.
Yesterday, Jangbu and Chirring, checked the new ropes set by another team up to the Yellow Tower. That expedition managed to set the route to Camp 2, however, due to the storm no new ropes have been set past Camp 2. This means our guides have a bit of work ahead of them to finish the rope setting for coming expeditions.
The plan will be to climb to Camp 2 tomorrow, return and sleep back at Camp 1. Fortunately there’s no wind and the snow has reduced to about 0.5m.
Below at base camp, the rest of our climbers are resting. Despite the snow around camp, the guys managed to pull off a game of snow cricket yesterday! Jack, Tom and Noel had to give up a double summit on Island Peak due to the snow and arrived early into base camp.
Similarly, Lakpa, Christine, Candace, Greg and Pasang have skipped climbing Lobuche East and are currently trekking in the region to acclimatise. Anthony Darbyshire (U.K.) arrived into camp today for his climb. Chris Szymiec (Canada) and his team of Jeffrey Previte (USA), Charles Lewinsohn (USA), Paul Hoskinson and Christian Walsh (USA) are trekking from Lukla and are expected soon into base camp. Behind them is Sharon Cohrs (Australia), who is at Monjo now and is heading up to support her husband Allan.