Just Keep Climbing

It certainly looks as if things are happening and we will be moving up the mountain tomorrow morning  to Camp 2…and then hopefully a lot higher.

Weather forecasts here are always prone to rapid change; and are often highly inaccurate regardless of which specialized agency you purchase them from. In 2005 all three agencies were predicting clear skies and 4 knot winds…yet in reality we were hit with a storm similar to the one that claimed many lives in 1996. Tragically we also had a casualty in our team that night…more from other medical reasons…however 8550m on Everest isn’t a pleasant place to be in a massive storm. We won’t be climbing if there is any chance whatsoever of a repeat in those conditions.

 At this stage it does appear there’s  a decent weather window appearing on the 19^th through to the early 20’s…and Henry wants us in position to travel to the higher Camps if all the stars align.

Unfortunately due the illness of two of the climbing sherpa’s , our summit team has been changed slightly, and both Tanner and Paul will climb a day or so later with Rob Casserley and Kenton Cool, who are guiding the famous Sir Ranulph Fiennes hopefully to the top.

I’ve been remiss to include details of our team here…but there are two film crews here covering “Rans” climb for charity…including a crew from ITN. It’s massive news in England and if you have time you may want to google the Telegraph site in the UK or the Marie Clare charity site for more details. ( A google on Ranulph is also interesting). There’s some great pics and footage of our more famous Englishman there.

Don’t worry, being a patriotic Aussie I’ve have treated him with the respect he deserves J. After stirring him about his cousin having a crack at that Qantas hostie who served up the very generous serving on that infamous flight, I’ve also had a 50 pound bet on who will win the most gold in the Beijing Olympics. (The bet was made after I enquired if he knew if England had boycotted the last 5 Olympics because I hadn’t seen them on the medal tally boards).  Anyhow, he is a lovely down to earth fellow and I sincerely hope he makes it.

Back to our summit team- it now will consist of myself (42 ); Simon Holland (39), Travis Holland ( 33) and Dan Bull ( 27)..all from Australia! Would be great to have 4 aussies summit at the same time. Then we have a sole representative from England- Andre ( 35).

We have all climbed really well together as a team; making sure each of us is ok at all times.  (Yes I’m the grandpa of the group…mmm).

We will each have a climbing Sherpa (on summit day) with us for the first time on the trip. It is here I should mention that our expedition is essentially unguided (except for Ran), with each of us having the experience and strength to climb together without guides or sherpa’s…and to carry pretty much all our own gear. This hurts a bit more, but hopefully it will be more satisfying in the end.

The general plan is for us to get to C2 tomorrow, have a rest day on Sunday. Then move to C3 for Monday nite. From there it will be to Camp 4 on Tuesday and either waiting a (very uncomfortable ) day there…or leaving  on the Tuesday nite for a Wednesday morning (hopeful) summit.

At this stage, the ropes haven’t been fixed above Camp 4 at 8000m ie the Sth Col. This is the main complication we are facing at the moment with our proposed summit attempt, and Henry is also looking for us to work/climb with a small but extremely experienced Swiss team…all of which are guides…if everything works to plan.

It may even be, that we climb behind a team of sherpa’s who are fixing “safety” ropes as we go. If we use this strategy, it will only be to try and avoid “crowds”…and it would certainly get us home a bit sooner!

Anyhow…time to go to get more organized and packed for a 4am freezing start tomorrow morning. Mmm…the joys of mountaineering.

The next 6 to 7 days are going to be very tough…and prove far more difficult to update you with all the details.

Now that the Chinese have thankfully p*$%#ed off, Henry’s Ice8000 website is now being updated by his wife Sue in Scotland. ( I think the address is simply www.ice8000.com  or uk  but a quick google will get you there). So please tune into this for regular updates.

I’ll also be calling home to Nicole, Chloe and Harry; and they may also post a message or two from me during this time.

I’m in great health and promise to use all my experience from many adventures to keep making the right decisions.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone for their love, best wishes and support so far. I can assure you it fills me with warmth every day. And given the right conditions, I’m confident it will provide me with the strength to climb higher and return safely.

Love, hugs and kisses to many…warm regards to everyone else.

Georgie