Move to Camp 1 (almost...)

April 20/21

First of all a word on the lack of posting the past week. The remoteness sinks in when you are spending hours in getting a data connection. Have now become a half expert of BGAN Inmarsat modems which costs $10 a MB (but refuse to connect to an iPad...), have ventured to the highest hill in base camp and left the phone/ blackberry out in the cold for a few hours to find a signal ( worked once ..), and taken the phone up the icefall (found a good signal 2 hours in but not a place where you wanted to linger..). So today its the next option, a walk back towards Gorak Shep where the last mobile tower is located.

Yesterday / Saturday we embarked at 5am to head towards Camp 1 through the icefall. Despite the expectation that Everest is a mountain where one doesn't have to carry much we had fairly heavy packs (maybe 15kg) with food, sleeping gear, and some of the warmer layers that will stay higher up. While we progressed well the weather turned cloudy, indicating upcoming snow, in the first few hours. Two of the five turned around after two hours, while three of us continued with our Sherpa Padauer. The flurries turned into heavy snow so after two further hours we also turned around. Seemed the whole mountain was being evacuated as dozens of sherpa stormed past us from their work in setting up camps higher up. The risk of heavy snow is that the icefall becomes impassable as the trail disappears and being stuck in Camp 1 with limited food isnt a great idea. So back to Base Camp with the disappointment of having carried gear up a fair bit and taken it down again.

The rest of the day spent recovering. Not much energy left after six hours of effort closing in on 6000m. The day would have been equivalent to other mountain's summit days. Likely also rest on Sunday and then depending on the weather have another try on Monday. The mountain is still in control of the schedule.