Beyond Base Camp

Beyond Base Camp - Paul & Denise Fejtek's attempt to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest and complete the Seven Summits for CAF Quest!

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. "
~Goethe

Climbing Mt. Everest is a demanding endeavor requiring a significant allocation of resources towards training, specialized equipment, permits, food, Sherpa support & other expedition costs, and of course time. We are honored to be guided by the well-respected, reputable guiding service Mountain Trip

and our Expedition Leader Scott Woolums. We anticipate spending about 2 1/2 months on the mountain (living in a tent) with the greatest portion of our time in Base Camp. The highlight will undoubtedly be the day the Everybody to Everest Challenge Team takes their final steps into BC breathing the thin air at 17,500 feet. Paul & Denise along with other climbers will have spent several weeks there at this stage making climbs through the Khumbu Icefall to Camps 1, 2, and 3 as part of the all important acclimatization process. Click on the map below to read details about Base Camp, the Khumbu Icefall, C1, C2, C3, C4, and The Summit.

Click on green dots on the map above to read details. Map courtesy of www.alanarnette.com

Click here to view the Expedition Itinerary with projected dates.

An overwhelming response was received after this cover story was published in the Outreach Magazine, the national publication of the United Brachial Plexus Network. Here’s one of my favorites from the parents of four year-old Nathaniel Carney of New Jersey:

Hi my name is Nathaniel. I have a broken arm just like you. I have a dirt mountain in my back yard. I bike ride down it almost every day. When I get to the bottom my sisters always say good job. I have five of them and one brother too. I did fall sometimes and get a bump but I just get up and ride again. I can't bike ride on the mountains you climbed but I think its way cool that you got to the top. I can't climb very good right yet but momma says it will come with time. Next year my dad will build a rock wall for me. I hope you can make the next mountain and when you do maybe your momma will say good job too.

Nathaniel

Click to read article

Base Camp - 17,500 feet

Base Camp is like a Formula One car racing depot. Satellite phones buzz in international tents as the worlds languages mix in thrilling accounts of the latest. Journalists, families and climbers exchange news and emotions between the mountain and the world. For no alpine peak fires imagination like Mount Everest.

You handle the latest tech gear, but wash your clothes in frozen lakes, where you crush the ice and work quickly before it freezes over again. Drying up, the damp clothes freeze into strange ice formations at night. The same happens to your wet hair. And your toothpaste. You finish your meal quickly for it immediately cools on your plate. You eat buffalo meat. It´s fresh until it starts to smell. Then you wait. After a few weeks the odors vanish. At that point your BC sherpa-cook start to include it in your diet again, as a very special buffalo jerky.

You listen to the frequent avalanches coming down Nuptse, Lho La and Pumori. You throw silent glances at the icefall and listen as it collapses with a horrendous crash. Base Camp is a place of hope, fear, frustration, conflicts and life-long friendships. Some climbers will experience their dream fulfilled, others will have to return home with an unfinished task. You´ll look around you and try to guess. But only destiny will know which fate is to be yours.

Khumbu Icefall - 18,000 to 19,500 feet

This place is similar to a huge horror-chamber at an amusement park. Only this one is for real. There are countless scary things that can happen here. A crevasse might open under you. An ice-pinnacle can fall on top of you. The entire area can collapse. It’s simply not a place for a picnic and most of us just concentrate on getting out of there as quickly as we possibly can.

Be sure to always clip in to the ropes. But also to unclip fast if an avalanche strikes. Should that happen, take cover behind a wall or a pinnacle. Jump into a crevasse as a last resort. The avalanche could be small, but hurl huge ice boulders at you. Watch carefully for ice pinnacles posing in a nasty angle. Definitely do not have your snack brake below one of these. They snap in a second.

Check the ropes and the screws before entering a ladder. Cross the ladders slowly and carefully. Try to fit your crampon between two rails. Sometimes, a nearby avalanche or heavy wind sets the ladder in motion. Just stay calm and focus on each step and you’ll be fine. It helps to lean on the ropes, either backwards or forward, depending on the angel of the ladder. The ropes are slack, so leaning on them stretches them and provides a better balance. Even more helpful is if your climbing buddy stretch the ropes for you while you cross the ladder.

Occasionally, you will encounter a large wall of ice. Those walls are usually roped, use your jumars. Climb the ropes by kicking your crampons into the ice and then lean on your legs. Don’t hang on the rope, it is exhausting and dangerous. Climb the icefall early in the morning. Climbers usually head out at 4-5 AM. Don’t leave BC later than 6 AM. The icefall thaws later in the day and avalanches become more frequent.
(Climb time: 5-8 hours not acclimatized, 3-5 hours after acclimatization)

Camp 1, Valley of Silence - 19,500 feet

This is a vast, flat area of endless snow, deep crevasses and mountain walls frequently washed by avalanches. Here we set up camp 1. At night we listen to the deep, murmuring cracking sounds under our tents. It is the crevasses opening and closing deep down in the glacier beneath. You keep your fingers crossed that it won’t happen right under your tent. At least not just now, while you are in it. Pounding headaches torture you. But it is here that for the first time, just a few steps around a corner, we gain first close sight of Everest.

Climb this area clipped to the fixed ropes, since crevasses lay hidden everywhere under the snow. You could remove your crampons on this climb. Sometimes, weather can turn this usually easy part into a difficult one, due to deep snow and whiteout. Always start out in good time. Stay away from the walls, they avalanche frequently. Later in the season (end of May) this snowy area starts to rotten and can turn quite nasty.
(Climb time: 4-7 hours not acclimatized, 3-5 hours after acclimatization)

Camp 2 - 21,000 feet

After an endless, slow march through the silent valley, you reach at last a rocky patch, at the foot of the icy Lhotse wall. This marks camp 2. This place is absolutely stunning. Clouds roll in from the lower ranges of the Himalayas, up the valley and into the camp. While acclimatizing, we spend time looking for cool old climbing gear; left here by all of Everest's climbing history. This is also the last chance to get a decent, prepared meal. We eat all we are handed because soon we’ll be surviving on freeze dried only.

Don’t camp too close to the Everest face, since it avalanches once in a while. Although tempted to idly hang around camp, bring yourself to take walks to the Lhotse face. It will speed acclimatization and relive altitude problems. The walks force you to breathe deeper and faster, thus saturating your body with more oxygen.

Camp 3, Lhotse wall - 23,500 feet

Imagine sliding a fun, icy slope on a sunny winter’s day. Only this one is 4,000 feet high. This is not a place to play. The dangerous part is to hang on to rope of dubious strength and to change carabiners between the ropes. You might feel not too clear in your head, especially upon coming down, but it’s crucial to concentrate. One slip and you are gone. Occasionally, you will hear a howling sound and watch rocks catapult down the wall. Blocks of ice sometimes come falling behind climbers. Watch your head, lean on your legs (not the rope) and rest on the lines only occasionally.

The camp here is a true eagle's nest, carved into the steep wall. Going to the toilet at night is a tedious task to dress and secure oneself. But the view is grand and by now you are well on your way to the summit. The climb will be either easy or hard, depending on weather. A dry, cold season means sheer, blue ice. Maintain your crampons sharp. Deep snow makes the climb easier, but increases the risk of avalanche.

After C3, you will traverse the wall towards the Yellow Band and the Black Turtle. These are rocky sections on the wall, secured by a tangle of old and new ropes. Check the ropes well and watch for rock falls from climbers above you. Another traverse takes you to the foot of the last wall to C4. This part is steep but not very high and soon you’ll put your nose above it’s edge, thus entering the land of the spirits – the Death Zone.
(Climbing time: 5-8 hours not acclimatized, 4-6 hours acclimatized.)

Camp 4, the Death Zone - 26,300 feet

Camp 4 sits on a plateau resembling a moonscape. You are at the edge of the atmosphere and the sky owns a strange, dark blue color. It is surely the closest you can get to space on earth.

Only a small climb above camp, you look down the Tibetan plateau with it's vast brown plains, white glaciers and the other alpine giants - Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu -in the distance. It's all magic and unreal. Yet, this is also the place where the media, fame and fun of BC definitely are gone. Only fear remains on everyone's face. People don’t talk a lot. Resting in your tent, feeling weak already, you try to get some sleep as night falls outside. In a couple of hours you will start to put on your gear for the final part of the adventure - the summit push.

The wall towards the summit is steep and dark, you are in the death zone, because at this altitude your body tissues are quite literally dying from lack of oxygen. You also can’t help thinking that within the next 48 hours, there is a very real risk that you might not live.

Go over your gear in daylight. Have everything neatly organized. Drink at least 3 liters of fluid or more if you can. Bring another 2 liters of hot fluid on the climb. Get your ice axe, headlamp, and oxygen cylinders and mask ready. You will feel great as long as the day is bright but lose spirit fast when night falls. The cold, scary darkness outside is anything but inviting. The wind viciously attacks the tent canvas and you can only hope it endures the beating. You will probably not be able to sleep a wink. Take it easy. As soon as you start out on the climb you will feel much better. Fear is always worse than reality.

The Summit - 29,029 feet

Finally, the hour is come. At about 11 PM we put on the final gear and step out in the night. There, in the distance, we can see a worm of light slowly moving up a dark wall. It’s climbers head torches flickering in the dark. It’s completely silent. Nobody talks. If you do, you whisper. It is absolutely terrifying and you climb and climb, awaiting the first ray of dawn. It’s desperately cold. It's steep and at parts very icy. The ice axe and the crampons cut skin deep into the ice. You need to pee. Forget it. Someone turns around. "Can’t go on, good luck".

A cold, white moon rises from below, but you hardly glance at it or even the bright twinkle of Universe above. The adrenaline keeps your body moving. And then, suddenly, after hours and hours of despair, you notice a thin blue beam of light at the horizon. Sunrise! If you are lucky, now is the time for the fabled mountain ghost. The mountain projects itself onto the morning fog. The shadow towers in front of you like a giant mirage. Beneath lies the world in all its glory, glowing in the rising sun. You feel the warmth and all hope returning.

You kick your feet to battle the oncoming frostbite. You are at the Balcony, having a short rest, changing to a new oxygen bottle. A ridge lay ahead, and just above you, not far at all, is the South Summit. You begin to enjoy the view, and the possibility of success. Finally, you step up onto the small plateau of the South Summit, and there - just around the corner - is the Everest summit itself!

You have watched it so many times from the distance, and suddenly it is so strangely close. You can almost touch the white tail of snow.

When you reach the South Summit you are just a couple of hours from your dream come true.

But there is one more obstacle in your way. The Knife Ridge. You will grasp your breath upon seeing it. It is steep and looks truly nasty. The ridge towers almost freely over Nepal and Tibet, it’s sharp and very steep. Hillary Step is in the middle somewhere, a rock climb in the sky.

You step onto the ridge via a small, half open tunnel from South Summit. You climb with your crampons at a sharp, crooked angle towards the side of the ridge. Occasionally, the snow gives way and you slide down for a hairy second. This is not a place to climb without fixing ropes. Clip in carefully, focus on each step and keep moving.

After the step, you will spot white, strange wave-formations of frozen snow pointing out from the summit. Keep climbing towards them. This section is usually unroped, yet not too steep. Still, be careful and use your axe. You might eagerly look for the summit now, yet all you’ll see is a white edge on the horizon. You will not know how far you have left and feel frustrated and tired.

Then you reach another white edge, but this time – it doesn’t continue. Behind it, there is instead a slope down. You are peeking down at the North side of Everest. You have reached the summit, friend.