Fifth Update from Xtreme Everest

NOTE: In the fifth update, the IMAX team arrives at base camp to continue their filming of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release. For the complete story, download the PDF Update.

After the two-week trek up from Kathmandu, the MacGillivray Freeman film crew arrived in Everest Base Camp safe and strong. Araceli Segarra and Jamling Norgay led the Return to Everest team back to the familiar grounds of the 17,600-foot encampment, which they last saw eleven years ago. But time had wrought its changes.

“Base Camp is different than what I thought it would be,” said producer Shaun MacGillivray. “In 1996 there were maybe seven or eight expedition camps here, but now there are as many as 1000 people in at least 30, possibly 40, expeditions. It feels like a city.” And like a city, small businesses have cropped up – there’s a massage tent for weary climbers and even a bakery for fresh bread. ...

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The trek was not without an emotional recall of the tragic 1996 climbing season that left eight people on the mountain dead. Not far from Gorak Shep – the last overnight before the trekkers reach Base Camp – the team came upon a small chorten (temple) where fresh prayer flags flew in the crisp wind. They had been placed there by Jan Arnold, widow of the New Zealand climber Rob Hall who died near the summit in 1996. Jan had come to Base Camp on a personal pilgrimage with their daughter Sarah, now 10, who never got to see her father. The scene in Everest where Rob’s call from his last camp is patched through to his pregnant wife remains powerful in the minds of all who have seen the movie.

After meeting the family on the trail, the MacGillivray Freeman team filmed Araceli and Jamling at the chorten as they emotionally recalled the tragedy that killed Rob and seven others on Everest that fateful year.

City on Ice
Once in Base Camp, the trekkers found that the end of the trail was no less dangerous than the rugged path they followed to get there. “On our arrival there was a huge avalanche to greet us, which I’m sure Kay arranged,” joked Shaun. “But it’s kind of dangerous walking here. You have to really make sure that your feet are well planted or you’re going to slip because of the ice.”
Kay Mitchell of the Caudwell Xtreme Expedition elaborates: “It’s sunny in the morning, and the snow starts to melt and get icy. Then in the afternoon it snows on top of the ice and becomes quite treacherous.”

Of the 30-plus groups at Base Camp, the Xtreme Everest expedition is by far the largest. Kay counts over 100 multi-colored tents in their icy village, split between the scientific researchers and the volunteer trekkers who come though for three-day stays, plus the Sherpa tents and group facilities. Kay tells us that from the research encampment to the trekker’s tents, “It’s a short skid down the hill. One of us is going to end up with a broken ankle sooner or later.”

Jamling, meanwhile, is right at home among his fellow Sherpa. “Jamling has taken it as a challenge to eat at every one of the expedition kitchens, and he seems to know everyone here,” Barbara reports. “It has been wonderful hearing all of Jamling's stories, and fascinating to learn that the largest trekking and mountaineering companies here are now owned and run by Sherpas--another big change since 1996. With this new prosperity, they can now give back to their community with education and medical facilities.”...

Meanwhile, the MacGillivray Freeman team is shooting Base Camp life and the dramatic surroundings, and they are excited about the IMAX footage they are getting. “In 3D, it will feel like the mountain is basically resting on the audience’s laps,” enthused Shaun MacGillivray.

Sometime in the next few days the Xtreme climbing team will renew their summit attempt, hoping this time to set up a research tent as high as Camp IV on the South Col, then return to Camp II for a night or two before attempting their summit push. It will be a challenging few days, and if the weather cooperates, the culmination of their scientific endeavor as well as their personal dreams.

But wait, there's more. Download this Update for the complete news from Xtreme Everest 2007.

Everest climbing season underway

The Everest climbing season is upon us, and once again there are dozens of teams attacking the mountain from both sides, Tibet and Nepal. (Yeah, it’s bad form to say “attacking” the mountain, especially since this one is the “mother goddess.” But if the climbers are mounting an assault to conquer the peak, the vocabulary is already tainted.)

The prognosis is for an early climbing season, with summit attempts possible within the next week, around May 1. In fact at any time we may hear that two climbers from Kazakhstan made the top – they set off from the north base camp two days ago, attempting the climb without supplemental oxygen.

Earlier in the season, the lama at Thyangboche Monastery was speculating that the best climbing would be accomplished between May 1 and May 10; now he’s saying the weather will turn bad May 17-June 2, generally the prime season for summitting Everest. Lots of unseasonal snowfall on unsteady slopes, a plethora of climbing teams that include many under-experienced dreamers… an uneasy situation. Pray for good sense to prevail.

The best place for round-the-clock coverage of climbing Everest, and other nearby Himalayan peaks as well, is the dedicated site http://www.mounteverest.net/ (part of the comprehensive Explorers Web). Latest news shows that the mountain has claimed a Sherpa who fell to his death near Camp Three on the south approach (from Nepal). Bad weather may be to blame – avalanches off the Lhotse Face are more frequent than usual, and the Khumbu Icefall had to be closed yesterday because of deteriorating conditions. Could this be another casualty of global warming?

It’s certainly global crowding. Up to 25 climbing teams are thought to be making Everest Base Camp their home this season, plus the trekkers who visit the place as the end point of their journey. And that’s just the south side -- the north side has also been busy, and in the news with its own set of problems. Five Americans were arrested this week protesting China’s claim on Tibet and the scheduled passage of the Olympic Torch through Tibet (by way of the summit of Everest) en route to Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games (see story).

Largest camp at EBC (south) this year is that of Caudwell Xtreme Everest, a medical project sponsored by the University of London and underwritten by British telephone entrepreneur John Caudwell. The Xtreme camp is over 100 tents, at the base of the Khumbu Icefall, to host the 40-some research scientists stuck there for almost three months, they each get their own tent – none of this sacrificial doubling-up for them.

In addition, some 200 volunteer research subjects are trekking in this spring to take part in the extensive project, on the effects of low oxygen levels in the blood, and they too need shelter. Add tentage for research, Sherpas, cooking and dining... it probably looks like Woodstock in the Snow.

Among the trek volunteers is sponsor John Caudwell himself, who is in Trek Group F expected to arrive at EBC next week. More details on the Xtreme Everest project can be found at their robust and timely website.

I am compiling a series of dispatches for MacGillivray Freeman Films, the IMAX production company that made the award-winning Everest (1997) about the ill-starred 1996 climbing season. They are in the midst of field production of Return to Everest 3D, which will pick up the story of several figures in the 1997 film and cover the Xtreme expedition as well. Mountain photographer Michael Brown is in the field now, working on his first IMAX production (his earlier work includes the award-winning Farther than the Eye Can See).

Three of the dispatches that MacGillivray Freeman are distributing to participating museums and IMAX theaters have already been released; I will be reprinting them here over the next several days, and tighten the time between their distribution and appearance here. The dispatches will also be presented as PDFs, available on the web only here. So, stay tuned for the the continuing story as it unfolds.