Trip Reports

The North Col of Everest - 9 April to 5 May 2003

Written by Leader Stuart McNeil, May 2003

Eight team members took part in this expedition. We luckily arived in Lhasa before the Chinese closed the border because of the SARS virus. After a day of sightseeing, we began our acclimatisation program over 5 days with initial walks around Lhasa up to 4,100m and then later, at Xeger up to 4,600m, before driving up onto the Tibetan plateau and arriving at Everest base camp (5200m).

Under good conditions, the party spent one night at Intermediate camp (5,800m) after 3 days of acclimatisation at and around base camp. We then trekked on steadily for a further two days to Advanced base camp (6,400m). There were a lot of teams in ABC this year on the North side, including 'Global Extreme's' atheletes, who were part of a 'reality TV' televised attempt on Everest. We spent some more time acclimitising at ABC before attempting the North Col (7,066m).

Under varying weather conditions four members reached the Col and a fifth turned back 200m below the Col in deteriorating weather. Despite so many teams on the mountain, we chose a quiet day to follow the fixed lines to the col. After 20 minutes at the col, it was time to descend before too much more snow fell, although there was very little wind and it was pleasantly warm! The next day, climbers could be seen like a line of ants, making their way up.

The trip was considered a success by all who participated, despite one member being forced to descend due to acclimatisation problems. We got some great views of the north side of Everest, saw Everest teams in action and made it to c7,000m ourselves, higher than some members on full-blown Everest expeditions made it!

Stuart McNeil, 9 May 2003« Previous report | Next report »

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