After about 10 days of trekking we have arrived at our based camp at 5500m (18,000') high in the eastern Himalaya on the boarder with Bengali India. Our start in the flat planes near Bhadrapur brought us through tea farms, paper tree and bamboo jungles, several alpine passes and eventually, a stark, beautiful, glaciated valley. Our objective is now in sight from our base camp on the Southwest route of Kanchenjunga. Base camp is perched on a steep, high but relatively protected rocky ridge just to the side of an enormous icefall that is constantly grumbling and collapsing with enormous roars randomly throughout the day. Janu, a beautiful mountain, also looms large over us and sheds fresh snow every time Chris jokes about running up it to train. We were greeted with a foot of snow and an electrical storm the after night we set up our camp which suites us all fine as we'll need a few days to adapt to this very high basecamp before putting in a camp 1. April 17th is an auspicious day to hold a Puja ceremony so we won't open the route until after that anyway. We're fortunate to have two lamas with us, one of our kitchen staff, Chiri was a lama for a dozen years and climbing sherpa Chiriring for two years. We also have Pema and Ang Dorji joining us again and our favorite BC chef, Dome. Let the glamping begin.
On our team are Chris Burke (http://chrisjensenburke.com/blog/) you might remember from previous adventures on K2 and Annapurna. She is on track to be the first Australian and New Zealand woman to summit all 14 8km peaks
Lakpa Sherpa, one of the most amazing ice, rock, alpine and high altitude mountaineers on our little planet and
Chris Warner a former 8000m mountaineering guide, climbing gym entrepreneur, speaker and truly wonderful story teller. Chris and Chris are far more thoughtful, entertaining and skilled climbers than I am so I suggest following their blogs over mine if you plan to follow yet another quest for type 2 fun on the 3rd highest peak in the world. I'm sure watching these climbs unfold seems egotistical to some, repetitive to others but every adventure finds a lovely cast of characters, an opportunity to live very simply, new ways to test the mind and body, and see how many days in a row we can go without bathing. I feel so blessed to have adventured to the most remote corners of the world with inspiring and amazing people. Even more to have family and friends back home and around the world that keep encouraging and inspiring more adventures and sharing their cultures.
Base camp is just starting to take shape. Simone, Tamara and their Italian team are already here. A Japanese & Korean expedition and international hodgepodge from the 7 Summits expedition, which includes the Sherpani, are a day or two behind us. We, of course, have arrived early to claim the high rent district that will save us a dozen meters when we start climbing.
*Nerd alert*
I'm not paid to mention any of this but I'm inspired and appreciate that my work and adventures overlap in fun and interesting ways and my colleagues put up with my extended periods of absence and get to see the stuff we help make in action. Simone already has a drone attempting to stagger around camp in the thin, snowy air as they film for their traverse of Kanch. If I can get mine out of customs back in Kathmandu, I plan to survey the icefalls and glacier crossing above camp 1 and 2 before we even get there. I also have a neat, inexpensive, little "C.H.I.P." based prototype kit I've assembled to get us daily news, weather and wikipedia articles via free L-band satellite broadcasts. Our "outernet.is" is up and running at base camp and anyone with a wifi phone, tablet or laptop can connect to it and check the weather, news and books as long as this little computer, antenna, solar panel and battery survive the elements. I think this will prove to be a really neat, inexpensive educational product for less connected communities and schools when it is out of the amazingly fast prototype stage. It makes for a really cool project kit right now. My latest nerd crush, though, is this Android Wear 2.0 LG Sport watch; it is the best heart rate monitor I've used to date, music/podcast player, GPS, altimeter, and flashlight in one tiny device I've seen yet. It keeps me from being left alone with my own thoughts for extended periods of time, for which I'm sure everyone is grateful. And it tells time.
As always, you can follow our progress and my semi-daily status and send me short messages via my sat beacon:
@why_mutate_dup on Twitter and FB
Remember, devices get dropped, batteries die in the cold, we get caught up in keeping warm and staying safe; no news is good news.
Thanks to @ARMCommunity for the support and technology that drives my training, safety, communications and photography. Also, thanks to @vindurhao, our sherpa and I love the gear. Who says you have to look like a dirtbag climber at base camp?
Playing with the 360° camera (load this in to FB or Google Photos to use interactively):
Beautiful high pass above Yamphudin:
Acclimatization day hike above Ramche:
Base camp:
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