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Abramov's Everest: "For what have you come again?"
Apr 21, 2004 19: 31 EST
We have watched him land a Rover on the top and bottom of Elbrus, slaughter his own BC crub, fire and re-hire all his sherpas and build the first real toilet on Mount Everest Base Camp. Yes, it's Alexander Abramov, and this year he is back leading one of our own, all the way to the top of the world.
There is something about the Russians. They are often found on the toughest mountains and the hardest routes, but their dispatches are refreshingly cool, honest and fun.
This time around, Abramov has Russians, Italians and Americans on his team (Dave D'Angelo and Ulrich Marshall from US). Dave at least, is stoked to be on this team.
We've seen his reports, but what does Abramov have to say? Here a brief summary:
On April 11, it all starts in Kathmandu:
"In the morning we were kissing and twisting Easter eggs. After that we set out in search of a good Honda generator. The task turned out to be very difficult. The traders try to overcharge, and say it's made in Japan - then they swear that it is from India and at the end admit that it is all Chinese production.
Today we have also been discussing with sherpas the conditions of the work and what will happen if they refuse to work or do their work very badly. It seems that such talks doesn't interest them but the talks concerning the bonuses does.
As a result it was agreed that the bonus would be the same as last year. We signed the contract and went shopping.
We bought 30 liters of "light" drinks and 120 liters of juice. All the streets in Katmandu are overcrowded with half-drunk young people. There are a lot of motorcyclists and girls in mini-skirts. And in this complete chaos we are running with eyes wide-open and making the last preparations.
April 13, the expedition is on the road:
We have broken away from Katmandu!!!
One "smart" porter over turned a container with two accumulators, and all the hydrochloric acid spilled out on his pants and the other stuff in the barrel. We cleaned it all with great difficulty, including the porter's pants. The turmoil caused all the sherpas to come running, this resulting in two accumulators broken and we will have to find a service center in Nialam.
The good news were that we found out where to buy boards in Jangmu. We have decided to build a toilet in Base Camp. Nobody has done it before. It will be Russian know-how "Toilet with light and heating seat". We spend one tenth of our life in this place and it should be done in style.
I like Tibet more and more. It's our fourth expedition here since 1999 - the liaison officers from the "Tibet Mountaineering Association" are happy to see us back. The big change is that there are now internet cafes in Nialam (3600m).
Luda Koshelenko will be our BC chef and she bought aprons and over sleeves for the BC cooks. All the sherps were rolling with laughter.
April 16, the team reaches Base Camp.
We got up at 6 o'clock in the morning. It was cold and dark. The moon is turning full. We had breakfast by candlelight and then began our journey. It took us five hours to get from Old Tingri to Base Camp.
And now we can admire the greatness of Everest. It is overhanging and it seems to ask: "You are here, for what have you come again?" What can I answer: "I have come to you as an old friend".
About BC:
Vladimir Gaidamak, five sherps and I have installed the tent "Anaconda" it is 16m longways and 4m in width. Magatest made the tent for us. It is a double tent made for Antarctica. People from other expeditions came over to have a look, they had never seen a tent like that before.
Our Base Camp has a perfect canteen, two kitchens, shower, toilet, office with four computers, generator and a radio station. The gas heater keeps it all warm and toasty! We salted cucumbers and cabbage into two barrels. All the members including sherps are like one team. The cooks cook perfectly. I am pleased with everything though I am very tired.
Yesterday, Abramov headed up to ABC: Our task is to reach the ABC and find a good place for the advanced camp. In the evening we watched the film "Jurassic Park" in the tent. After that you could hear groans and snarl all night from the tents.
So what's Dave's version of all this?
Yesterday we arrived in Base Camp to a brand new, huge BC tent, and all our own personal BC tents set up, we each get one. Not sure if this is de rigeur for expeditions, but we were all very impressed. Spent the day wiring up some electricty and lights and felt good, until the evening that is.
I developed a bit of a headache and started to pound water, boiled water from the glacier. I don't know what it was, but the headache subsided and in its place I got a case of the runs, not too bad though, feel better today.
It might have even been the fish, though. Last night the Russian national team came by, yuri from Khan tengri and Yuri koshelenko, who just won the golden ice axe for a first ascent on Nuptse East with Babanov were among the crew.
It was great to see Yuri Ermachek, who was the BC manager in Khan Tengri - everyone was very friendly and soon Alex was bringing out the dried fish to drink with the beer, and the vodka, and wine.
Yuri kept telling me to drink beer with the fish, something about the salt? But I opted for water instead - didn't help much as I made a few trips to the bathroom. the guitar was broken out and all the russians started singing, was really a great first night, except for the stomach thing. I retired a bit early, but they all stayed up rather late - I know because on my third run to the toilet the generator was just turned off, and that was after midnight.
Slept well for the most part and woke up feeling better today, Silvio Mondinelli, an Italian climber came by to say hi. ExWeb has been working with him and sending weather for quite some time. It was great to see him in person. He invited me over to their camp brought out some parmesian cheese and prosciutto di parma - the italians know how to do it right! Sat down for a while and chatted.
On the 21st we head to interm BC and then to Advanced BC the next day. ABC is about 20/21 thousand feet. This is more a trek than a climb. From there we start up to the north col, roughly 23,000ft. that is on ice and we will be on a fixed rope.
The Russian Adventure team has recently been on trips to Elbrus and Ararat, over in Turkey. They also ran a successful Everest expedition last year and are running another trip again this year to the big E. This time, Dave from team ExWeb is with them.
Says Abramov about this expedition: "For the first time in history of the conquest of Everest the Russian sportsmen plan to cover the expedition on-line. There will be video, shot over to Moscow once weekly over satellite. 8-10 video clips will be aired by the "SPORTS".TV network. Daily dispatches will be published on www.alpindustria.ru and sent to other sites.
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2004
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