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Keeping in Control at Base Camp
Base Camp - Friday, April 28, 2000
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Prittie

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Hello Mountain Zone, this is Willi Prittie reporting from Mount Everest Base Camp for the Alpine Ascents International Mount Everest Program. Today we had another day of rest and acclimation at Base Camp. We're kind of trying to burn a few days down here so that we won't be in position too soon on the mountain. Things have been going very, very well for us.

In consultations with Lhakpa Rita, our Sherpa sirdar, today pretty much all of our supplies: food, oxygen, fuel, tents, climbing equipment, ropes — everything — are pretty much ready at Camp II for the entire rest of the expedition. So in the next couple of days we will be heading up for another acclimation foray, which we'll be spending some time at Camp I, Camp II, and also over-nighting at Camp III before we head to Base Camp. But for the moment, we're still trying to keep ourselves under control, and making sure that we spend plenty of time laying a good acclimation base, and making sure that we don't get up too high too soon because that generally means there will be much colder conditions that we'll have to deal with.

Today some of the group lounged around and read; some of the group took acclimation hikes; some of us went out into some ice pinnacles nearby Base Camp and rigged some ropes and did a little bit of steep ice climbing. There were a couple of us that were re-reminded that 95-degree overhanging ice, at almost 18,000 feet, does in fact leave one breathless. It was a very good day, generally, weather-wise, although we had some heavy clouds that came in early. It was -5 Celsius first thing this morning, but things cleared off and it was predominately a sunny day that we again enjoyed here at Base Camp. Also a few stats for those of you who are following, the average 0₂ was 85, and the average pulse for the group was 75 today.

Also got a couple quick messages here: we have a 'hello' to Jessica O'Donnell and her first grade classmates at the Olive School in Novato, California. They are following our climb every Monday and thanks for your support. The second message from Stacy to Emily Russian and Anne Helen's son: thanks for your support and following our Everest expedition.

We'll be sending in soon a gallery of photos of some of the most important expedition members for this group: and that's our Sherpa staff. And we really wanted to give a big 'thank you' to all of our Sherpa staff who have been working very hard; they've all made about five round trips to Camp II, carrying loads at this point. They're an immensely experienced group, as we've said earlier, and I would really like to reemphasize the fact that without an awesome Sherpa staff like this, and a really great sirdar to keep things organized well, most Western expeditions would never get to first base on a mountain as big as Everest. We're very, very happy and very proud to be able to present not only the photos of all of our Sherpa staff, but also a brief bio of where they come from and who they are and what experience they've had. So look for that soon on the Mountain Zone. That's all again from Base Camp and we'll be talking to you again tomorrow and let you know how things are here. This is Willi Prittie signing off.

— Willi Prittie, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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