NEPAL TIME: 
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Camp II Established Sunday, April 11, 1999 — 5:52am (PST)
 Hear Ed's Call from NepalClick for [RealAudio] [Windows Media](Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media) |
Hi, it's Ed and Viekka reporting on The Mountain Zone. It's the evening of April 11th. We're at Camp II at 19,650 ft. I'm looking out the tent door right now at the Southwest Face of Everest. We can see Cho Oyu, looking down on a beautiful sea of clouds way down below. We left Camp I this morning at 5:30 and climbed for seven hours to get to this point here. When we reached the high point that we got to yesterday, we were initially thinking of making a lefthand traverse, basically a hundred yard dash to get underneath seracs that were looming overhead. Once we got to our high point though as of yesterday, we decided that the risk was too great. We weren't willing to spend [satellite transmission fails] underneath the seracs so we continued straight up the glacier on the righthand side [satellite transmission fails]... snooping out the route and leading most of the way through steep snow [satellite transmission fails]... had big packs today, tents, sleeping bags, food, fuel... [satellite transmission fails]. We decided that lightweight Himalayan alpine style is definitely our plan.
Though we finally found a final key spot to pitch the tents and found ourselves [satellite transmission fails]. We can see the route above, it's very straightforward, no more maze of crevasses and ice towers to weave through but the route that we did today we feel was objectively very safe. There was no ice fall hazard from above, the only thing was climbing through crevasses and snow bridges which is very typical of glacier climbing.
So we're snowed in now, looking out the tent door at the sun shining its last rays on Everest and Cho Oyu. We had a little bit of dinner [satellite transmission fails]... Mountain House freeze dried Mexican-style rice and chicken dinner is [satellite transmission fails]... spending three or four days up here till we get Camp III established. [satellite transmission fails] So, talk to you tomorrow, thanks for following us on the Mountain Zone.
— Ed Viesturs, Mountain Zone Correspondent
| EXPEDITION DISPATCHES | |
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[Viesturs Photo Gallery]
