Back to the Front

"Mark and I have decided to move up to Camp 1. The weather is moody, blue skies broken with snow showers. But since that seems to be the pattern of choice for the weather here, we could as well go for it. No use coming all this way to spend a month at Base Camp."
- Carina Ostberg, 27 September

"It's easy to animate the mountain and give it a life of it's own, a power and a living spirit, as the locals have. But it's harder to decide whether Sepu is an angry and vindictive God, a light hearted jokester that's toying with us or a hapless old god, banished to some corner of Tibet and subject to the vagaries of the jet stream."
- Mark Newcomb, 27 September

"I was fully expecting clear skies this morning. But after 30 minutes of news, getting ready to go mentally, I opened my tent and saw totally overcast skies again. A shock for me. The pressure is high, nevertheless. Should we go up anyway? Always a new storm here. At least we've got out and walked up 1200 meters these past two days of relatively better weather. I have a resting pulse of 42 here. I'm doing fine. I feel good. Maybe we do need to just change our objective to these protected 6300 meter peaks rather than the main Sepu peak. What to do?"
- Carlos Buhler, 29 September

"Back in Camp 1 now. Snow has fallen every day. There's lots around. It isn't clear weather now - it just let loose with a thunder storm and snow showers for 30 minutes. But at least I am feeling OK. Cipro seemed to work and I feel normal. I broke trail way up the glacier and then on up to Camp 1 in deep snow. It's shitty in those stones with a foot of snow. But we are here without a broken bone. Will we go up tomorrow to Camp 2? Doubtful, if the present weather is any indication to tomorrow's forecast. But we moved our sorry butts and we needed a change of scenery for sure."
- Carlos Buhler, 29 September

"6 am seems to have brought clear skies! We'll go up today to the cache 5850m and drop stuff. Then, weather permitting, we'll break trail to Camp 2, wherever that turns out to be. Then come back and sleep at 5850m. That should boost moral. People feel packs will be too heavy to go all the way to Camp 2. No problem: I figured we'd be staying at the cache when we dumped these a week ago. I really hope we can get good enough weather to continue to the summit. Things look, seem, feel, a lot better when one feels healthy. The heat will be intense today on the fixed ropes. But beyond that, we should cool off. Please Lord, let us visit this summit."
- Carlos Buhler, 30 September

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