April 9: Bruce matthews: Base Camp

[bruce matthews]

We are down to one computer so posts are going to be sporadic!...I will also try and
get a descent picture of base camp to show what I hope will describe Base Camp.

We arrived at Base Camp yesterday at around lunch time...lunch consisted of mushroom soup, grilled chicken and cold slaw and fruit salad.There are always cases of Coke, Sprite and Beer available as well as pringle chips, biscuits fruit juices and naan bread. Supper was much the sam in that it was a three course meal. Most members of the expedition who have done other climbs are amazed at the fare and accomodation etc. Unfortunately, our pool tabe met it's demise on one of the passes and is now shattered. However, the ping pong table is set up in its own tent next to the entertainment tent which has two tv's, games, dart board etc!

Base Camp has been described by some as bleak...and then by those returning to recover from higher, as paradise! The camp is situated at the end of the Central Rongbuk glacier and runs North fromthat point. Everest is behind you and the camp slopes downhill. As it is a morain, it is like being on a large dried river bed with mostly stones and sand and very few big rocks.If you can visualise standing up at 7Summits-Club camp, up against the high end of a rocky glacier, the base camp runs down the west boundary for approx 1/3 kilometers and narrows a bit at the bottom. The North boundary and South boundary are roughly 500 meters each and the east boundary about 1 kilometer. It is large abd there are presently 13 different expeditions. I walked the boundary yeterday and that was 3 kilometers and took an hour...this indicates how slowly one needs to move her to adapt.

Last night I had my first taste of altitude sickness. I went to bed at around 8:30 with a mild headache that persisted all night. However, it subsided and was gone after breakfast. Last night the temperatures dropped to 0 degrees celcious in my tent and lower outdoors...using a bottle for the first time inside the tent to urinate was an experience!!

Today we did a 8 kilometer walk down to the old Rongbuk monastry and the gain on the return trip was 200 meters. We are still having the most amazing weather with magnifiscent views of Everest still clear. Today however, ther was a slight wind of about 20 miles an hour.

We have another rest day in Base Camp tomorrow and will then walk up to Intermediate Base Camp on Wednesday. We spend the night there and then return to have nanother night in Base camp before takeling the big walk up to Advanced Base CAmp.

I will do my best to get back online tomorrow and to post some recent pictures of Everest and Base Camp.

Bruce