Everest Base Camp

A few climbers are incorrigible. „I wish it was all so simple, but I am afraid not. I still have expedition members who call me to say that they have not experienced any death, or any disadvantage and that it is my responsibility to continue climbing“, Russell Brice, head of the New Zealand expedition operator Himalayan Experience, wrote in his newsletter from Everest Base Camp on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest. On Friday, Brice had abandoned all Himex expeditions in Nepal: „Now having considered all facts, I can tell you that we will not be continuing any of our ascents in Nepal this season.“ Before he called off the climbs, Russ had to take a lot of criticism, because he had said that his team would stay in Base Camp for a few days and decide only then whether to stop or to continue the expedition. He now reported that he had a call from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) that the „Icefall doctors“ would not return to restore the route through the Khumbu Icefall. „At the same time I even have some members who now want to climb by themselves. Thus I have decided that they are no longer part of my team. I will continue to look after my team and staff to the best of my ability under difficult conditions“, Brice wrote.

Arnette: A war zone

Base Camp after the avalanche from Pumori

These climbers should read what US climber and blogger Alan Arnette wrote after his return to Kathmandu about the avalanche that hit Everest Base Camp on 25 April: „Rocks flew into humans at supersonic speeds, they never had a chance. Doctors there to climb or serve were pressed into duty out of service or deep commitment. Everyone there was impacted from carrying corpses, picking up body parts, communicating with loved ones back home, greeting helicopters with climbers rescued from the Western Cwm – yes, it was horrific and not to be glorified, capitalized or minimized – it was a war zone and most there rose to the challenge and will be changed forever.“

Help from China

Meanwhile a first group of 160 Chinese police officers with heavy equipment crossed the Friendship Bridge and entered Nepal at Kodari to clear the heavenly damaged road to Kathmandu. A total of 500 officers together with 180 units of engineering machinery were detached, the Chinese official news agency Xinhua reported. Nepal had asked the neighboring country for support. According to the Nepalese government meanwhile more than 7,000 dead (among them 57 foreigners) and more than 14,000 injured persons have been registered, eight days after the devastating earthquake.