NEWS: North Col Camp Established
Eric Simonson - Basecamp
Sun, April 08, 2001 9:00PM

Today marks the first day that our team members have woken up on the North Col. I am pretty certain that they are currently the highest people in the world (except some airline passengers and astronauts.)

Last week Kami and the other team of Sherpas (currently at BC resting) were able to fix rope up to about 24,000 feet (working out of ABC, going empty to the Col, then carrying rope and pickets higher up from there). It is now too far up the North Ridge to work out of ABC, so it is time to occupy Camp 4 at the North Col. Yesterday Tap, JR, and Andy, along with Panuru, Ang Gylzen, Da Nuru, Dorge, Lhakpa Nuru, and Man Bahadur moved to the North Col to sleep, the first time in the expedition. We also sent cook Kami up to ABC to back up Mingma.

This morning Panuru's team, along with Tap and Andy, pushed the rope up to about 24,700 feet, despite the hard wind that ripped them all day. Eventually, the wind caused them to have to turn back and retreat to the Col, where they are resting for another shot at the North Ridge tomorrow. JR had a rough night and a bad cough this morning so he moved back down to ABC. Jake and Brent, along with five additional Sherpas moved up to the Col today. Dave moved up to ABC from BC. Dr.Lee headed for Intermediate Camp today. If the wind lets up a bit tomorrow, we hope to push the route all the way to 7800 meters, the site of Camp 5. Also tomorrow, Kami and our other 8 Sherpas move up to ABC from BC. We are on the move!

The big picture for this current rotation is to get all of our climbers acclimatized to sleeping at 23,000 at the Col, and to get the route pushed to Camp 5 and Camp 6. Next time up will be the first search. We are still way ahead of any other teams. In fact, no other teams have even left Base Camp yet!!

Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

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