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"The Biggest Avalanche of the Season"
Jane Lee - Avalanches are so common here, one could be sleeping in the morning, hear the roar of an avalanche in the background, and simply roll over and go back to snoring. Nothing out of the ordinary. On any given day, almost ten avalanches can occur, but most of them are on sections of the mountain that thankfully, no one climbs through. However, a couple of days ago, a really scary avalanche hit and it swept right through the section of the Khumbu icefall that everyone climbs through.
It was about 9am and I was having breakfast when I heard this deafening roar, by far the loudest I'd heard. Note the top left of the photo, where a huge chunk of ice and snow came off and crashed down onto the Khumbu icefall.
Within seconds, the huge avalanche caused a massive snow cloud that enveloped most of Base Camp. My campsite is more than a kilometre away from the icefall, but even then, we were blasted with the snowdrift. It was truly horrifying to watch, especially since the avalanche obliterated the section of the route that we've been through countless times. It was a stark reminder of how much luck is required every single day to get through the mountain safely. There was horrified silence throughout the campsite while everyone simply stared and thought of the moments we'd been through that exact same spot. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the avalanche, save a couple of climbers who were lucky enough to be covered in snow and none the worse for wear. In less harrowing news, I'm now waiting for the weather window to open up to climb to the summit. In the meantime, I've been hanging out at Base Camp just reading, resting and eating. I've more or less given up the Bridge Club for movies on Mike's iphone. I watched "Fight Club" for the first time the other day, and it was really good. Two days ago on the 4th, my team mates and I went for a walk down to Gorak Shep and back again to stay active while we're resting.
The terrain was pretty warm and easy, so it was a nice walk.
On the way out of Base Camp, I bumped into Dr Eric. I like him alot. He's a kook. He's a volunteer doctor who runs the temporary clinic Himalayan Rescue Association Clinic at Base Camp. On his head, is a 10kg bag of chocolate.
The chocolate came from a pair of Belgian guys who were organizing the world's highest chocolate tasting to raise money for Nepal's first mobile hospital. Their website, http://chocolate-sherpa.blogspot.com is pretty interesting, go check it out! They actually lugged like, more than 100kg of chocolate up.
And then of course, the day's walk was concluded with a trip to the bakery for a slice of the heavenly apple pie. I guess the next time I update this, it'd be with news from the summit! Can't wait! |
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