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2013 04 17

Lithuanian climber on her way atop Mount Everest: "The awe turned into a sense of fear"

Edita Nichols and her team have settled in the base camp at the foot of the world's biggest mountain. This is from where the Everest expedition really starts. Other climbing news sites report avalanches on the western slope, heavy snowfall from last winter also raises some alarm. In Edita's camp, however, the sky is clear and the only thing covering the sun is the giant and awe-inspiring mountain. The spirits are high and ailments are gone.
Savo naujuose namuose
Edita in her new house. / E.Nichols nuotr.

Edita shares her experiences on her blog:

We left Tingri around 5 AM Nepalese time (Chinese time 3:45 AM). It was still dark, we could see big stars in the sky. The Tingri dogs were finally asleep, after a  night of relentless barking. Many of my group members could not even sleep because of the barking.

Another reason we couldn’t wait to leave Tingri was bad food. We only felt full for an hour or so before we would get hungry again. We couldn’t stand eating rice twice a day and no good source of protein.

It was a bumpy drive to the base camp yesterday morning. It was a narrow gravel road winding around the hills and mountains. At the beginning, I could see only shapes of big mountains surrounding us. Later on, we were able to distinguish a distant black pyramid of Mt Everest. We all got quite excited.

E.Nichols nuotr./Road towards the base camp
E.Nichols nuotr./Road towards the base camp

However, the closer we got, the more we saw how massive the mountain was. Pretty soon the awe turned into a sense of fear.  As we were approaching  the base camp, we saw the West ridge and the North East Ridge of Mt. Everest in full view. The day couldn’t be more perfect, not a single cloud in the sky. Our eyes were glued to this massive mountain, chills ran down my spine! We all knew it’s a big mountain and most had seen it several times from the distance, but we couldn’t believe it was that huge!

E.Nichols nuotr./Firts sightings of Mt Everest
E.Nichols nuotr./Firts sightings of Mt Everest

Even though I climbed other two 8,000-plus peaks, this one looked incomparable. I have to admit I am a bit scared, but at the same time – thrilled! I wouldn’t be here if this were easy. I welcome the challenge.

As I approached this massive beauty, I couldn’t stop saying “Chomolungma, the goddess of all mountains, accept my presence here and give me the chance to climb your footsteps and ridges…” in my mind. I come here not as a conqueror but as a humble human being with an open heart and mind to experience you, Chomolungma…”  I mentioned before, climbing for me is more of a journey. I am here to enjoy that journey and if I happen to summit, it will be a huge bonus!

E.Nichols nuotr./Base camp from afar
E.Nichols nuotr./Base camp from afar

After about 4 and a half hours driving in our bus, we arrived at the base camp.

It usually takes around 3 hours on a land cruiser. The bus dropped us off about 200 meters away as it couldn’t get any closer. Dragging our back packs and shopping bags from Tingri (some people got a few boxes of soda, coke, etc to complement the AJ provisions), we finally got to the base camp. The Sherpas arrived there couple of days ago, so most of the tents were already erected. There are 8 big tents: two kitchen tents, 2 dinning tents, 2 shower/toilet tents, 1 communication tent and 1 storage tents for us, climbers and Sherpas.

E.Nichols nuotr./Building homes
E.Nichols nuotr./Building homes

Also, every group member gets an individual tent in the BC, including Sherpas. Sherpas here at AJ are treated the same as climber which is not the case in many other commercial companies.  There are also 3 big domes for recreational activities – one ‘silent’ tent for resting and reading, one tent for ‘socializing and relaxing’, and the third one for communications as well it serves  as a sleeping tent for Phil.
 
Phil gave up his personal tent as one Sherpa tent was missing, (Phil is a class act).

It’s been less then one day since we arrived, but we already settled into the base camp and into our personal tents. My tent will be my home for the next two months here, on the footsteps of Chomolungma. I tried to make my tent as cozy as possible by spending all afternoon arranging my stuff.

To avoid clutter in the tent, Phil erected a storage tent where we can keep all gear and items we don’t need right away. I made my tent as spacious as possible.  I already like it and spent a bit of time getting away from everybody and enjoying time with myself. Our lives are so busy back at home, so I am taking this opportunity to just be with myself, listening to the wind outside and contemplating Chomolungma right in front of me…

E.Nichols nuotr./The entire Altitude Junkies team
E.Nichols nuotr./The entire Altitude Junkies team

Phil decided we better have some downtime before we start climbing. Yesterday, we gained a huge amount in altitude – from 4,300 m in Tingri to 5,160 m in the base camp. That is a lot in one day. This is why climbing the North East ridge of Mt Everest is more challenging as the distance between camps is longer and there is no way to acclimatize by a gentle increase in altitude. Therefore, altitude sickness is a huge danger when you start climbing if you are not  properly acclimatized. We will spend seven nights in the base camp before we start going up to ABC (Advanced Base Camp). Tomorrow, we will have our Puja, which is a religious Buddhist  ceremony conducted before climbing begins. No Sherpa would climb without Puja as they consider bad luck on the mountain.

You can support Edita's Everest quest. To learn more about how you can contribute, press here.

To support Edita directly, press here.

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