원정 개요

Email to Miss Hawley from Joseph Acero - 8 Dec 2005

Details on the Mountain

Camp 1: I slept at C1 the nights of Nov 13 and 14. The recorded altitude on my "Brunton ADC Summit" device was 17,600 ft (although I know this fluctuated quite a bit with the barometric pressure throughout the trip).

Camp 2: I slept at C2 on Nov 15. My recorded atitude was 18,500 ft (5600m). There were also members of a Korean team (who went down the next day) and I believe some British (not sure which expedition, however). We left for C3 the next morning and were alone on the route the rest of the way up above C2 to the summit.

Camp 3: I slept at C3 on Nov 16 and 17. My recorded altitude was 20,300 ft (6200m). We had very high winds both nights which only subsided a bit during the day.

Summit: On the 17th, we left C3 a few minutes after 8 am. We reached the summit at approximately 1:07 pm. We stayed on the summit approximately an hour. The wind was high and we were concerned with frostbite so we tried to hurry down. A few questionable anchors made the rapelling down slow. The last big section/pitch into C3 I really crashed physically and it took me an hour to cover ground that should have taken about 15 minutes. The weather changed with wind blown and actual snow falling and I'd become hypothermic. I believe we got back into C3 and completely into the tents approximately 5:30 pm although I confess I was not completely with it mentally and did not record the time in my journal. We left C3 the morning of the 18th and proceeded all the way to BC in one very long day.

Return

We broke BC on Nov 19. I stayed with Nima Tashi in his family home in Pangboche on Nov 19, 20 (when I met Eric Larson and Mark), and 21. I left Pangboche with Namgel on the morning of the 22. We stayed in Namche on the 22 and Lukla on the 23, returning to Kathmandu on the 24th.

Health, Etc

Other than Khumbu cough, I had zero health problems. Nima Tashi and Namgel were healthy the entire trip as well.

We did not have one emergency bottle of oxygen with us and had it in position at C1. It was never used. Jim Williams was kind enough to make it available to me; he stores it in Nima's home in Pangboche where it was returned.

My wife and I maintained a full blog of the expedition (I called daily via satellite phone).