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Everest North Face - a lot to comprehend without coffee
10:12 a.m. EDT Jul 25, 2003
Stephen, Jimmy, Eric and Lapka have arrived at Everest BC and transmitted the first images this morning.
The Expedition reports:
Everest BC – July 25, 2003
After a few days of rest in Tingri, we bounced around our Land Cruiser until our dusty road finally ended at the Chinese Everest Basecamp. From here, we will be hiking up to our Advanced Basecamp (18,500ft) on the Rongbuk Glacier trailed by a small army of yaks.
We got up early yesterday to see if we could get a glimpse of the mountain. As the morning mist rose, we stood speechless as the 9000ft north face came into view. It was a lot to comprehend first thing in the morning, without coffee.
Since then, we have been blessed with beautiful weather, allowing us to examine our route on the north face. We have been and will continue to monitor its moods and conditions carefully over the next few weeks to see how it reacts to the different weather patterns. We are all excited to finally be in the mountains.
Stephen Koch aims to snowboard the 7-Summits. With only one left to go – Everest – he chose the hard way; down one of the world’s most famous direct lines, the Hornbein Couloir. Jimmy Chin plans to climb to the top with Stephen and then ski down. Stephen, Jimmy and Eric are friends from Wyoming. The expedition uses Contact 2.0 software for daily updates.
The expedition is using neither oxygen nor high-altitude sherpas.
Image of Stephen and the 9000ft Everest North Face, courtesy of the Snowboard Team
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