You are here: Everest Home >>South Col Climb >>Dispatches >>Dispatch

Undertaking the Challenge of a Lifetime
Base Camp - Wednesday, April 26, 2000
Get the Latest Weather

DISPATCHES

Tejas

Hear Vern's Call LISTEN: [RealPlayer]  [Windows Media] (Requires a FREE media player to listen)

Hello Mountain Zone, this is Vernon Tejas, of Alpine Ascents, at Base Camp on Everest. We are resting and we are recuperating. Talk about fun: we had a hot shower. The Sherpa Ong Chu, in particular, hooked up a bucket and filled it up with hot water off the stove and has a little hose running off of it and that little hose runs it down onto our bodies and we get really nice and clean. It is a luxury that I've never had in the past in the mountains, but — boy, I tell you what — it sure is habit forming. We all enjoyed it and not only that but we're getting our clothes washed. We had a little sun in the morning and we had the clothes out drying on top of the rocks and on top of the different, little buildings we've made and tents and things.

Hopefully, we're getting back into a situation where we're 100 percent go and head out of here. It snowed again today all afternoon it came down and it was not pleasant, but it sure makes things look beautiful. For the most part, most of us have been tent bound and the whole city here at Base Camp has gone buggy. So think about us when you are out there mowing your lawns with us under several, several centimeters of snow right now. But that's okay.

The pulse rate on average have come up. We are now at 82 for the group and, excuse me, that is oxygen saturation is 82 for the group, and our pulse rates are now down to 76. So that shows we are indeed acclimatizing. It has been fairly warm at 24 degrees Fahrenheit and we're back at Base Camp, as I mentioned, and that is about 5400 meters above sea level.

We are eating well that is one of the things that altitude generally makes you lose your appetite, but now that we've come back down we're eating like horses: packing it away. Old Ong Chu, our cook, has whipped up omelets and pancakes and French toast. You stack that up, put a little maple syrup on it, you are bound to gain some weight and that is what we need right now because we are getting ready to undertake one of the most challenging things we've done in our lives. Again, think about us and pray for some sunshine. We'd sure appreciate it. That's all for now and goodbye to you all from the high Himal. Ciao.

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

Email this story to a friend