Tuesday, May 15, 2007
EverestSA2007 Update 9
The big push is on! The South African team, which includes my uncle and cousin, are making their big push for the summit in the next week, after having rested and finished their acclimatization lower down the mountain. Now its a case of watching the weather, and waiting!John got to Base Camp on the 10th, reuniting the team after their break at Shigar, and the team set off immediately with a whole team of porters to carry all their personal gear, and they covered the 11km’s to Intermediate Base Camp in 4 hours.
From IBC, they got caught in a big snow storm that lasted through the night, but didn’t stop them from reaching Advanced Base Camp after another trek of just under 5 hours.
We got an sms from Mike to say that their computer had crashed, so they have been having to get their weather reports from other camps, but that they were all feeling great, and that they are looking forward to just the right weather window to start their summit push.
On Sunday the 13th, after much debate, Andy decided that he would make a summit push with Lima Sherpa, who has 6 summits behind him, but that he would go without the rest of the team.Ronnie, Mike and John must have felt that there wasn’t enough of a weather window, which is why they have decided to stick it out a bit longer – I suppose that they aren’t as young as Andy, so either experience has held them back, or they feared that they might hold him back – either way, Andy has joined about 150 other climbers that are going for it.
So – our thoughts are with him. The last I had heard (07.05.10) some 26 climbers had reached the summit, so things must be getting very busy on the mountain!
If Andy has separated from the rest of the group, I don’t know where the SA record stands – they were going for the most South Africans on the summit at once, and the oldest SA member (yip – that’s my unc John who’d have that honour at 58) – but at this stage, the most important, is to make sure they all get down!
Labels: 2007, everest, south africa, summit push
