Summit Journal Chat

Bruce - Thanks for the Annabelle Bond site! I didn't even know that James had a daughter. However, if she is going to go after the Seven Summits, she ought to at least get the Everest elevation right. But enough about mountain Seanery... I'm off to the north of Wisconsin to visit my dad. The entire state seems to be socked in with rain this weekend and my kayak has yet to hit the water. Still, life keeps rolling.

Apparently 3 climbers have been sighted near the Mallory location searching with metal detectors. ENews says it is not them. They say that there are three other teams searching besides them. The ENews team seems to have lost their Camp 2 to the wind. So they don't even seem to be close to getting up there. I guess the next couple of weeks will be the key as to whether or not someone finds SI or the camera this season.

Best regards,
Rose

From Mountain Madness - May 6:

This is Sarah Henley reporting from Base Camp. I just got word from the team and they made it safely to camp 3. It sounds like all members are tired but feeling healthy. They will be spending one night there and then back down to camp 2 tomorrow night. In the morning if everyone is
feeling up to it they will head up to the Yellow Band before going down to camp 2. They have a few oxygen bottles for emergency but the plan is not to use any ox this time while at camp 3. By doing this, they greatly improve their acclimatization process, however, can make it more
difficult to sleep. When they sleep at camp three during their summit push they will use ox to conserve energy once they arrive camp 3.

Looking forward to Tim's report

jean - I have climbed all of CO's 14ers (all 54 or 55 or 58 or 59 - whichever way you count them) - just working on my Continental Divide Century Project - to climb the two highest points (Grays 14,270' and Torrey's 14,267') on the Continental Divide in the Continental United States 100 times each.

Yeah, right BBob. The equipment she uses is top drawer. How's Grey's and which peaks do you have left now?

Happy skies Tim. Safe return.
I had a great ride over to Seattle (saw Rainier up close) last week and then over to Calgary. Saw terrain from low altitude. Very impressive.

Thanks Bruce - I couldn't help but notice that Annabelle uses the Grivel Machine hand tools (seen in the pictures). However, being as astute and knowledgable as I am, I see that she has removed the dampers which I assume is simply because she did not like the extra weight. That's about $500 for the two axes. Note the rounded adze too - not the best when chopping steps but they look really nice.

Tim: have a great trip! Further reading: http://www.denali.national-park.com/hike.htm#bear

They're just coming out of hibernation and they'll be hungry. :-)

has my attempt to come out of lurker mode failed??? I'll try again.

off to Alaska tomorrow, not looking forward to dealing with airlines/airports again but I guess it's usually the quickest way to get around.

Destination is the Ruth Glacier in Denali Park, where I get to work on my skiing skills, if nothing else. TR to follow, blog willing.

Hi Carrie,
Happy to oblige. I understand that there was supposed to be quite a storm over the weekend (at least very high winds) so I lot of people were sitting things out. I think there was some expectation that the winds would blow the snow off the mountain. (Maybe we need some way to measure a wind/snow ratio to determine whether the wind or the snow will win).

In terms of ENews, they have made a big production about doing things the "proper" way. So they were not going to make any announcements before getting a go ahead from SI's family. Also, I am sure that they want to keep things quiet so that all sorts of rabble do not know where SI's resting place is. So even if they are on the right track, it is not clear when we could expect an announcement. And a lot of folks have their doubts that they are on the right track. In terms of the camera, there are a variety of claimants, not the least of which are the Chinese. So things could be dicey if there is an announcement while still in Tibet. So we will have to wait and see.


Lee, is that really you? It's great to hear from you if it is.

Folks, I can't hold out any longer, it is my great honour to present the official Web site of the 2004 Everest season...

www.annabellebond.com

enjoy.

There is nothing from Mountain Madness since 30Apr04 (South Side). Perhaps they are waiting also. A good section of the Ice Fall collapsed and they had fun working with the Ice Doctor doing a reroute with the fixed lines and ladders.

Oakland weather is nice right now. I'm confused though. I can still see the Golden Gate Bridge - but on Sunday night they showed it fall into the Bay due to an earthquake. Wierd - I even saw the earthquake on TV and then I saw the bridge fall and everything - cars were falling into the Bay. It was the third earthquake in a row. The first one knocked down the Space Needle in Seattle. I guess we won't be able to go up there anymore - but at least the Bridge in SF is still here - they must of got it confused with another bridge somewhere - probably one in NY - they have so many of them. Anyway, the weather is real nice here.

BB - I see. It was funny to see him post.

Lee - you must view this site often. Had you heard of those two fellows before or seen their re-enactment?

They told me - based on allot of reading and comparing texts - that the turn at the boulder was the point where things went bad. The group (which became the huddle) went to the left because the right was icy - but the others who went to the right got back ok. The other thing that they wondered about was Beck sitting and waiting so long. They did not think that SHP was the problem, but, rather the guides did not turn everyone around on time and then the mistake (left turn) at the boulder on the way down took them too far off track.

Hi all. I've been very busy at work and barely had time to lurk.

magoo - If you do find out how to order Dave's book please let me know, I'd like a copy too.

Grover - "JoAnn the Great", I like that. And I think many others would agree. I had forgotten about that bell (gee, wonder why?!).

Rose - I appreciate your occasional updates about the expeditions on Everest because I haven't had time to check all of the sites myself. Seems pretty quiet from the everestnews camp, after their virtual certainty of finding SI this year. Someone on Everest, I think the north side, called in to our local news this morning. He said he'd been in his tent for days, waiting out a storm. More snow means less chance of finding SI. Might not be the year after all.

GBS - I just meant that you mentioned a name and it popped up next - espn or something?

I looked at the 'Manage Posts' page. I didn't notice anything odd.

There's something strange happening with these posts. Look at the Manage Posts page. See the name/date tag line?

BB - I did not post for "Lee."

GBS's post reminds me of the bell we saw, stumbled upon actually, as the reception after Carrie's mom's memorial was winding down in a church here in Seattle. We were standing there, with our husbands, discussing what a lovely (and funny) woman she was (Carrie the Good learned it at the foot of a Joann the Great).

So we were standing next to a large wooden structure that suspended a large bell. Suddenly, I noticed a small plaque that the bell was dedicated to SF, upon his death, by his friends in Seattle. Given that we had met and became friends via SJC, it seemed odd and fateful somehow.

Hey - that's a neat trick GBS

I asked the guys from England if either one of them was "Lee." LOL
One said that he used to watch our site at OO but never posted.

Magoo - it is not worth my time to argue with you about the "Post" posts.

Anyway - I am in Banff and it is absolutely beautiful here.
I saw a presentation of a reenactment of the 1996 events. Two from England have preformed it twice and described how they did it and the responses. They build a wooden structure that represents the Mt. Everest. Then they put push pins with tags to identify the person. They move the pins in "real-time" over a 48 hour period ending with the phone call from RH home to his wife. They said that they cried when this happened. It was very interesting and a little hard to describe. The presenters were Kris Cohen and Ben Coode-Adams.
Also - I saw a "game" environment that another presenter participates in. It was very far out. People go there and make communities. Some build houses etc. She took us on a tour.
Of course, I was thinking that we could migrate there and put up a Mt. Everest and climb. But, she said that you had to pay to participate.