Third Update from Xtreme Everest

NOTE: In the third dispatch from the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition, the team makes their first forays into the Khumbu Icefall, first and in some ways most dangerous obstacle on the path to the summit. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release, and camerman Michael Brown tells us what it's like to return once more to the icefall. For the complete story, download the Expedition Update in PDF.

“Today was the day when we entered the Khumbu Icefall, and therefore started the climbing of Everest proper.” So writes Roger McMorrow, breathing systems researcher for the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. “It felt good to put on the crampons, large climbing boots and harness. To hear once again the crunch of ice underfoot was a delight.”

But entering the Khumbu Icefall is never a delight, pure and simple. The climbers make practice ascents through the Icefall to test their skills, their equipment, and their commitment. This is the perhaps most dangerous obstacle on the path to the summit – aside from the extreme altitude itself. And this is the first challenge that faces those who would climb to the upper reaches of Everest, whether for personal accomplishment or professional need.

For Michael Brown, mountain photographer and co-director of MacGillivray Freeman’s film Return to Everest 3D, it’s a bit of both. “Our team is carefully planning our trips through the ice fall, to keep them at a minimum,” Mike tells us, who has already climbed Everest three times. “All told I have been through this ugly place on 22 adrenaline-filled journeys. And this year there are three or four places that make me really nervous.”

The route through the Icefall changes every year – and even within any given climbing season, since it is created by ice from the highest ridges of Everest spilling over sheer mile-high walls, tumbling in slow motion that can, at any time, turn catastrophic.

“The places where avalanches have been are sometimes marked by huge ice boulders making the debris flow,” continues Mike Brown. “The boulders are big enough to stick above the fresh snow, as big as refrigerators or TV sets.”

“As we climbed I could clearly see the routes of my three previous climbs of the mountain. The wind was tearing at storm clouds that tried to cover the summit again and again only to be ripped away. Everest is huge and defies the imagination with its vastness. It is not an easy climb, and we are about to try it again.” ...

{What's missing? Download the Update and find out!}

Movies to match the mountains

But it’s not all suffering and deprivation for the trekkers at Base Camp. The first evening after they arrive, Kay sets up the DVD player and shows them a movie – Everest, the IMAX film produced by MacGillivray Freeman in 1997. “It’s a great way to show them just what the climbers are going to be going through without having to stay up late, or concentrate, or interact. We’re planning to do it for every single trek group.”

Ironically, as Kay tells us, “The reason I’m involved in this project is because of that blinkin’ movie!” She saw Everest in London when it came out, and the next morning told a colleague at the hospital where she worked, “I went to this movie last night, and it was brilliant, and I’d really like to go to Everest.”

Her colleague told her he was going to organize an expedition there, and if she was really interested she could be his base camp manager. “I said oh, yea, that’s really going to happen – so I pestered him for about three years, and there years later here I am!” Her colleague? Hugh Montgomery, the research leader of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition.

“So it’s all the fault of IMAX,” sums up Kay Mitchell, “that I’m standing in the snow in the middle of base camp!”

But that's not all... download the Expedition Update for the complete dispatch from Xtreme Everest 2007.