Simonson

It was great to be back: the yak herders' dogs barking during the night, the sound of the river nearby, yak bells clanging somewhere out there, and the occasional whiff of a yak-dung fire, made it clear it was not a dream — we were at Base Camp.

Enclosure

Morning brought brewed coffee and a great Pemba breakfast of toast, eggs, and fresh yogurt made from yak (actually, nak!) milk. Later, we continued our preparations for the trip to Advanced Base Camp. Tomorrow, 30 yaks will head out with half the Sherpas and most of the gear, including our big cooking and dining tents, a lot of the food, and most of the kerosene and propane for the next month.

It starting raining after lunch, with some thunder and lightning, a reminder that the monsoon is still not over. By afternoon tea, at 3pm, it had cleared up and things were looking good outside and it was time to make a move.

The Catch

One of the things that I have been trying to do over the last several years is to help keep these Himalayan Base Camps clean. With the assistance of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, CTMA, there have been some huge improvements of late; now, trucks come into Base Camp several times during the course of the expedition season to haul out expedition garbage. Additionally, the CTMA is subsidizing the yak drivers to carry garbage down from Advanced Base Camp, which will help out a lot.

This afternoon we got together with the Sherpas to build a rock enclosure at Base Camp to enclose the garbage better. We also cleaned up the place and picked up quite a bit of trash. It looks pretty good now!

Later in the afternoon, the jeep driver and Mr. Jong, our Liaison Officer, went fishing and brought back about eight fish that looked somewhat like brook trout, but I don’t think they are — they have no scales! Mr. Jong was pretty proud of himself, and now I know what he will be doing for the next month while we are climbing — in between bouts of card playing.

We’re looking forward to wrapping up the packing tomorrow and taking some longer day hikes over the next couple days as the team gets more acclimatized. Everyone is doing well and, with the exception of a few headaches, we don’t have any problems.

— Eric Simonson, MountainZone.com Correspondent

EXPEDITION DISPATCHES