Verascapes

My summit photo is in. Alas, you can see, there isn’t much light at 2:55am!  No complaints though. I’ll cherish my summit as it was.

I’m home and super happy to be here.  My first few days back were spent sleeping and walking around the house like a zombie. Jet lag has finally worn off, and I’m looking forward to working, seeing family and friends, and coming up with my next adventure.

The Everest trip was definitely an adventure of a lifetime, and one that I’d love to share with you. For those close by, I’m happy to share a slide show and tell you all about the trip. For all those afar, I’ve posted more pictures.  They’re set chronologically, so you’ll see pictures following me up and down and then back up and down the mountain.   One picture that you won’t find is my summit photo–at least not until after Monday. My digital camera froze up by the time I reached the top, so I used a 35mm camera to take the shot. It’s at the film developer right now. So, check back in this Tuesday! 

Thanks again everyone for all of the congratulations and good thoughts. It’s especially fun to hear from folks I haven’t been in touch with lately. 

Btw, Greg and I would both like to give a special thank you to Galen Harris, my high school buddy, for putting together and managing the website.  Greg would like to point out that though he provided the content for the posts, it was Galen that had the technical skills to get them on the web. Thanks Galen!

ciao for now,
Brenda

Donnybot, thank you, so much for all the wonderful congrats and well wishes. I am super psyched and touched by your emails and sentiments passed through Greg. Once I’m back in Seattle I’ll make sure to reply to all of you! As you can tell, I am back in the land of email, which also means I’m back in the land of hot showers and sit down toilets. Yay! Soon, I will be headed home, but not until some other Everest climbers and I do a little celebrating tonight. We’re headed to the restaurant called the Rum Doodle. Alas, forever climbing bums (cheapskates) at heart, we are headed there as they give out free food (but not free drinks) to those who’ve summitted. See you in a few days! I look forward to sharing the many photos I’ve taken and to give you a run down of the trip. namaste, Brenda

Hi Brenda!
Originally uploaded by verascapes.

One piece of info I forgot to include about Brenda’s climb. I know some of you were wondering why she decided to go up from Camp 3 when the weather reports were predicting deteriorating weather, and other climbers were descending to wait for a better report. Brenda said that her thinking was that the weather could get bad for weeks, and that at the very least she wanted to see the South Col. She also thought she might be able to summit before it got even worse. As it turns out, once she got to Camp 4 at the South Col, the weather stabilized and Brenda had excellent climbing weather.

Brenda–here is the photo Aaron and I took to say hi to you from the North Cascades! Hope you are able to see it somewhere along your trek out. Looking forward to seeing you in a week or so.

–Greg

As promised, I am posting the details Brenda relayed to me from basecamp.

Brenda said she, Danuru, and Mingma saw two teams leave Camp 4 about 8 p.m. May 19. Brenda had decided to leave around 9 p.m., figuring this would put her on top around 5 a.m. She ended up leaving Camp 4 around 8:45 p.m..

She and the sherpas quickly overtook the two other teams (Alpine Ascents and an Indian team). She had uneventful climbing to the Balcony, (roughly 27,500, I think) where they took a short break. During the break, Danuru noted that they were climbing fast, and that maybe they should slow down in order to summit in the light. Brenda said she was not trying to climb fast, or do a speed ascent; rather, she was just climbing at a comfortable pace. She said she definitely could have sped it up if she she was trying for speed. In any event, after a short break at the Balcony they headed for the South Summit.

Again, without trying for speed, Brenda and Danuru made the South Summit at 2 a.m.–a little over 5 hours from Camp 4. Mingma was a bit behind, though he was apparently carrying more weight.

Brenda said there were fixed ropes most of the way, although of varying quality. Some were decent, others were sketchy. She remembered one fixed rope in particular that she said looked like four shoelaces running parallel to each other. (For the non-climbers, fixed ropes are sections of rope attached to the mountain with various kinds of anchors–usually pickets–metal shafts that you drive down into the snow–or ice screws, which are what they sound like. The climbers clip in to the fixed lines so that if they fall they don’t fall far.)

From the South Summit, Brenda said she had a great moonlit view of the true summit. In the dark she remembered thinking it looked somewhat far away. She said one image that sticks in her mind is the moonlit cornices overhanging the Tibet side of the knife ridge that runs between the south summit and the true summit. She said the knife ridge was pretty straightforward climbing, though exposed. There were the big cornices overhanging the Tibet side, and a fairly steep drop off the Nepal side. The conditions were pretty good, however–more snow than ice–so the climbing was easy. The final hurdle on the knife ridge is the Hilary Step–a short semi-vertical section. With the good conditions, Brenda reported that the Hilary Step was easy climbing. Also, there were lots of fixed ropes on the Step, so protection was not an issue.

After the Hilary step, Brenda led on to the summit, which they reached at 2:55 a.m. I asked Brenda whether she was able to get any of the “moonlit photos” we are all hoping for. She reported that she tried to take photos, but doesn’t think they turned out well, as it was too dark. She and Danuru spent about 30-40 minutes on top. At about 3:30, just as they were leaving, Simone Moro, the famous Italian climber, showed up on his South-North traverse of Everest. Danuru stuck around to help him get some summit pictures of himself, while Brenda started her descent. After leaving the summit at 3:30, she made quick work of the descent, mainly using arm wraps on the fixed lines (for the non-climbers, this means that you walk downhill facing forward with the fixed rope wrapped once around your forearm and feeding back under your armpit, and basically slide your arm down the rope–allowing you to stay on the rope even if you were to fall over). She arrived back at Camp 4 at 5:20 a.m.

At Camp 4, they decided to move on down to Camp 2. Brenda thought she would take a rest, or maybe even a short nap, but the Sherpas were apparently anxious to keep moving and quickly took down the tent Brenda had been staying in. They also packed up the stove without melting snow for water, which unfortunately left Brenda without any water for the climb down to Camp 2.

She said it was easy getting down to Camp 3. The final stretch from 3 to 2 was tough, however, as Brenda was quite dehydrated and too hot. Once she hit Camp 2 and rehydrated, she said she recovered quickly, and felt good. After a night of sleep at Camp 2, she finished off the descent through the icefall to basecamp early on Sunday morning, 5/21.

My guess is that Brenda may be able to get an email out on the way down–there are a number of cybercafes in Namche, which is about 2/3 of the way out on the trek. So we will probably hear from her sometime mid-week.

Brenda, if you look at your website and read this post, I wanted to say hi from the beautiful and sunny North Cascades–we had some great skiing I took a photo to send to you, so I will try to get it posted once I download my photos onto the computer.

–Greg

At 9:15 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday night (10 a.m. on Sunday morning , 5/21 in Nepal) Brenda called from basecamp, having safely gotten off the mountain. She sounded great. She relayed lots of details about the climb, which I will put together and post in the next day or so. Brenda’s plan is to hang out in basecamp the rest of Sunday and Monday, in order to rest and get packed. She will probably start trekking down the valley on Tuesday, 5/23, which should put her back in Seattle next Sunday (5/28), give or take a day or two. I told her about how many of you had called, emailed, or posted positive thoughts for her during and after the summit climb. I am heading out to the (much smaller) mountains myself early tomorrow a.m., but when I get back I will write up the email with the details about Brenda’s summit climb.

–Regards, Greg

Dave Hahn reported in his postings on greatoutdoors.com that Brenda, Mingma, and Danuru had made it back to ABC (i.e., Camp 2) on Saturday. That is good news. Brenda will presumably be coming down to basecamp on Sunday morning (Saturday evening Pacific time). One last trip through the icefall and she is home-free!

–Regards, Greg

Erin Simonson called me and said that Brenda had made it back to Camp 4 at the South Col in the absolutely blazing time of 1 hour 50 minutes, at about 5:00 a.m. Nepal time. Her plan is to continue on down to Camp 2 at this point. I guess since she is moving so fast there is some possibility she will continue on to basecamp, but that seems a bit remote. Will post more as I know more.

Check out mounteverest.net — cool website. They put up a great post about Brenda!

Brenda summited extremely fast, and arrived on top with sherpas Danuru
and Mingma around 3 a.m. (I’ll provide exact time once I know it).
Rather than wait for sunrise, she informed basecamp that she has decided
to take some photos in the dark (although apparently a moon is out) and
then start the descent. Assuming she is feeling strong, her early
summit should mean that she can make Camp II on the descent rather than
stay at Camp IV for another night. Here’s to a safe descent!