News from Lobuche Peak

Freddie Wilkinson and I just came back from Lobuche Peak, where we spent the past few days. Last years we got acclimatised for the first on Lobuche Peak. I had this idea from Rucel Brice. Rucel Brice always goes with his Everest candidates on Lobuche Peak to get used to the altitude. This idea has spread: This year it was pretty busy up there. This is probably the end of the lonely summit adventures.
The Khumbu Valley is probably the best-connected valley in the whole of Nepal. This brings advantages and disadvantages. Personally I must say, that I can go along well with this situation. I like it very much here in the Khumbu. If you want to be alone, there are many ways to withdraw yourself. The advantage is also, that after some days in the altitude, we are back in our comfortable Mountain Guide’s Lodge in Pheriche. The oven warms us with the burning yakdung. We have Wi-Fi and the phone works if you put yourself in the right edge of the building. For a real good cup of coffee we have to go to the neighbour. Here they have only Nescafé...

More than 10 years have passed since I first came to Nepal and to the Khumbu Valley. Everything was new for me. Since then a lot has changed. Today I feel like coming home. It’s a familiar surrounding and I know a lot of people. Many thins are natural to me. Since many years Dendi Sherpa organises the expeditions for me. He became my friend. Dendi is here in the Khmbu Valley, too. He will climb the Mount Everest with his daughter. This time we are both alpinists.

Here in Pheriche at 4200 meters above sea level we have installed our base camp. It is the ideal place to start for Cholatse, Amadablam and Tawoche. We are staying at a cousin’s of Dendi. Our room is stuffed with equipment. I have brought along a lot of material. For the technical faces, which we would like to climb and then the equipment for Mount Everest.

But at the moment we do not really know, what we can do. The weather is very unstable. It snows a lot. The faces of Cholatse, Amadablam and Tawoche are covered with snow. The view from Lobuche Peak was incredible and unique. We could see how several huge avalanches swept over the north face of Cholatse. Every day we get between 5 and 10 centimeters of fresh snow. In the north face this can be pretty uncomfortable, for not to say really dangerous. For us this means: the conditions have to change. Before we cannot start. We would be best acclimatised and we are ready to go. As soon as Meteotest will give us a good weather forecast, we can start. But fort his week it doesn’t look like the weather is going to improve. That’s why we will do something else. And there is always plenty to do: you just have to adapt yourself to the weather. Today the equipment from the highcamp should come. This means we have to dry our tents and to sort out our material. Depending on the weather we will go to the Everest base camp and have a look at the Khumbu Icefall. So I can prepare myself also to the second part of the expedition: the Mount Everest.

See you soon
Ueli

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