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Khumbu in Good Shape
Base Camp - Saturday, April 15, 2000
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Tejas

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Hello Mountain-zoners, this is Vern Tejas with Alpine Ascents on Everest. Today we woke up this morning and there was five centimeters of the fresh, white fluffy stuff on the ground and there was yellow [Unintelligible] chunks in the sky. What a way to wake up, the highest mountain on earth looming overhead and were we feeling wonderful, all cozy in our bed. I’ll tell you what, these rest days are wonderful. Most everybody’s starting to feel better, we had a little bit of headaches this morning, still trying to get used to that rarified air but I think everybody’s coming around and that’s what acclimatization is all about.

One of the big happenings today with several of the different groups that are here to climb on the mountain all got together and decided what they were gonna do and when they were gonna do it so that we can coordinate our efforts and not be walking on each other. The icefall looks to be in very good condition — the Khumbu — as over the last few years it has gotten a little more benign, it’s not quite so dangerous to go through, not as many crevasses, but we still hear rumors that there are four ladders tied together over one crevasse. It should make for some pretty interesting traveling.

For those of you interested in numbers, our average O₂ stat for the group is 82 and our pulse is 75, average. There was zero wind this morning, with zero direction and it was 22 degrees Fahrenheit, or -5 Centrigade. Our approximate altitude is 5385 meters, that roughly converts into 17,667. Our latitude is 28 degrees north and 00.406 minutes. Our longitude is east 86 degrees, 51.734 minutes.

And for all those young-ens out there: tell me how you use longitude to find your location on the face of the Earth.

Well, stay tuned, we’ll talk to you soon. Tomorrow’s a special day — we have puja, which is a blessing ceremony, a Lama has come from Pangboche and he’s going to bless our Sherpa and hopefully make our climb a little bit safer. So we’re looking forward to that. Tell you all about it tomorrow. Hasta mañana, we’re clear from the Khumbu.

— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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