News | Sunday, 13 September 2009

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Mt Everest climbers reach 6,400m mark

Matthew Vella
On Friday, the Challenge 8000 team managed to climb up to camp 1 on their Mount Everest expedition at 6,400 metres and back down again to an advanced base camp, where they are spending the next four weeks of acclimatisation.
A spokesperson said the progress of the expedition at the moment is still going according to schedule.
At  5,700 metres, advanced base camp is what the climbers are currently calling home, a base where they rest after each acclimatisation climb and take stock of their situation and progress.
It is the first time a Maltese team is sleeping at that altitude. None of the team members has as yet reported any major issues of sickness.
The expedition now includes an almost daily 6-7 hour acclimatisation trek, taking them higher up the mountain. As they move closer to camp 2, it is almost guaranteed they will be hit with some sort of sickness related to altitude. The Challenge 8000 team includes medical doctor Gregory Attard, to deal with such eventualities.
“We are being urged to drink a lot to avoid dehydration as much as possible. We’re having lots of teas and water, even during the night, to keep the body hydrated and minimize risks. Over here, the temperature in the tent during the night has been in the minus 10 degrees Celsius, and we’ve been having continuous snow up until Saturday morning. So, one tends to be more concerned with the cold, the difficulty to sleep and the altitude-related headaches rather than thirst. But remembering to hydrate is crucial to our survival here,” team member Marco Cremona said.
Their typical day starts at around 6:30am with breakfast and a briefing, followed by an acclimatisation trek taking the expedition higher than the previous trek, and then back to advanced base camp where the team rests and spends the night.
The weather so far has been bleak and mostly snowy, with little or no sun making it almost impossible for the team to recharge their phones from the solar panels at their disposal.
The menu on the mountain has until now included mostly rice, biscuits and yak meat. The climbers said the tough yak meat has provided them with some post-dinner entertainment as they typically spend some two hours struggling to get thin strands of meat from between their teeth.
“A good hobza biz-zejt would definitely brighten our day, otherwise we are well-fed and satisfied with the food,” the climbers said.
Incidentally, they were surprised to find that the powder juice they were provided with was a Maltese export.
On Sunday, the Sherpa support team is planning to conduct the ceremonial puja, prayer service, which marks their commitment to ‘tackle’ the mountain. In the next few days the team will be moving their gear up to camp 1 in preparation for the higher climbs.

Challenge 8000
www.challenge8000.net

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