April 19 2009

Finally things are starting to settle down. I am once again able to
   breathe a little easier. Important I would say, considering I am at
   5330 meters and breathing less than half the amount of oxygen available
   at sea level. Let me tell you from the offset how proud I am of our base camp, my
   baby. Going to bed at night for the first time, I turned on the switch
   to have my tent illuminated by the bed side light. In fact, each tent
   has a light wired to a central battery pack, recharged by solar panels
   everyday. While Kathmandu faces a chronic shortage of electricity, we
   are basking in power provided by mother nature.

Every morning at 7:30 the first rays of sun act as our alarm clock. And
   as we lay in our sleeping bags, contemplating the strange and vivid
   dreams from the night before, familiar to all those who have stayed in
   high altitude, Krishna and Narayan come to our tents doors and squelch
   “Good Morning, TEA!” Krishna and Narayan are Birbal’s minions and
   Birbal is the person we all need to go to extraordinary lengths to keep
   happy; he is our Head Cook.
While the members have been sorting through their luggage and
   organizing their bits-and-bobs, our climbing Sherpas have been heading
   up to camp one and two, setting up the first two of the four high
   altitude camp sites on the way to the summit. Since they return to base
   camp for lunch, I suppose it’s appropriate to say its all in a days
   work for them.
I myself have been demoted from expedition leader to base camp
   handy-man: rewiring power plugs, mounting solar panels, repairing
   heads-strong walkie talkies, wooing the satellite radio to sing us a
   tune, registering satellite phone credit, fixing the washing basin… I
   am so glad I have a strong team of Sherpas behind me. Talking about strong Sherpas, Apa finally arrived in base camp today.
   On the way up, he had met Krushnaa at Gorakshep, who had been taken ill
   with the same bug Bud had and stayed with her to take care of her. The
   word on the yak dung covered glacier street is that half of base camp
   has the same bug so we have been extra careful to wash hands and use
   the hand sanitizers spread out throughout around our camp. Bud, by the
   way, has made a full recovery (touch wood!).
As soon as Apa arrived in camp he got straight down to work. He took us
   to the pinnacles in the glacier behind our camp and we had a great
   refresher course on walking over ladders with crampons, climbing with
   jumars and descending with our belay plates and figure-of-eights. Apa
   and Pertemba, the two most famous Sherpas in the world, were the
   instructors for the day. Though the sun was microwaved us to a crisp,
   we had a great laugh and are confident to tackle the Icefall.
Earlier today, while scouting for a suitable spot for our icefall
   refresher course, Naga Dorje, our sirdar, and I got a little carried
   away and started becoming Khumbu Glacier explorers. Soon, Jagat, the
   Asian Trekking cook for the Kazak Expedition, joined us and it became a
   treasure hunt. We started collecting odd pieces of rubbish, tins, wood,
   broken ladders and even part of an old wooden ski. Our adventure took
   us right to the bottom of the Nuptse face. This year, there is very
   little garbage left on in that quadrant of the glacier. Last year, on
   four different days, the entire Eco Everest Expedition 2008 Sherpa team
   went and cleaned the entire area. Naga and I are proud in our belief
   that we made a difference.
Our efforts from last year must have struck a chord amongst the other
   expeditions on the mountain. The day we arrived at base camp, there was
   a big Sirdar meeting held at the International Mountain Guides camp.
   Though the agenda was to coordinate efforts to fix rope to the summit,
   many of the Sherpa Sirdars asked Pertemba and I how they could be also
   help out. We promised to go to their camps and give their teams a small
   lecture.
One aEverest guide and celebrity, Willie Benegas [who happens to live in Sandy, Utah], spoke to me
   today and offered to help with bringing old rope and other rubbish down
   from above 8000m. We call Willie a Western Sherpa. He is always the
   first to volunteer for rescue efforts, rope fixing or solving tough
   problems and crises on the mountain. Again, he was the first to commit
   to the cleaning efforts.
I have also brought 800 pieces of Restop bags to sell to those who
   would like to use them rather than pollute the ice with their crap. It
   is my hope that by providing these options to climbers, a
   leave-no-trace philosophy will become the standard in Himalayan
   mountaineering. Fingers crossed!

   Well, tomorrow is our Puja and it will undoubtedly be a big day for us
   all. I better get my sleep or I may not survive the drinking and
   dancing that traditionally follows.

Dawa Steven Sherpa