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<\/a>By the time we got the spikes on at crampon point, I was busy enough that I could focus on the moment and do my job, and this episode faded from my mind, replaced by the pain of getting up the icefall.<\/p>\n The lower sections are flat enough that pools of water accumulate between small ice pinnacles.\u00a0 These glacial tarns are coated with a thick layer of bulletproof ice, and we were usually able to cross them with impunity, our crampons biting reassuringly into the surface and giving us great purchase.\u00a0 The previous night, as I tried to get to sleep, I thought about these frozen pools: How strong is the surface ice?\u00a0 What would happen if one of us broke through?\u00a0 There are other objective hazards to consider in the Khumbu, and I let my thoughts drift to them as I fell asleep.<\/p>\n Now, a few hours later in the ice, these frozen pools came into focus again as we crossed them.\u00a0 It was so very, very cold that a breakthrough seemed impossible.\u00a0 I watched the surface carefully in the blazingly bright white beam of my headlamp: the ice was so pure and clear that it was difficult to see where the crampons stopped and the surface began.\u00a0 No cracking, no creaking, no sign of weakness.\u00a0 Still, I was sure to stick to the edges in case the crust began to crack.\u00a0 Of course, the edge tends to melt first, and the center should be more reliable, but that’s how I was thinking at the time.<\/p>\n Eventually, after what felt like an hour–but in reality took perhaps 20 minutes–we emerged from the moraine onto the steeper snow slopes of the icefall proper, and I ticked off a task from the to-do list.\u00a0 Those pools are behind us, let\u2019s get to the football field.<\/em>\u00a0 Not a minute later came a concerning call over the radio: One of my teammates had broken through the ice and plunged a leg into the frigid water, all the way in to the knee.\u00a0 His boot was filled with ice water.\u00a0 Two guides and his Sherpa were right there with him immediately, helping him cope by changing socks, manually rewarming the foot, and getting a vapor barrier on.\u00a0 But, in the end, they made the best decision: He would turn back to EBC with Phinjo and catch up the following day.\u00a0 I was so disappointed to hear this.\u00a0 The sky was dawning clear and mostly windless, except for the usual morning katabatic breeze, and I knew that in a couple hours we would be sweltering at C1, which would make it easy to dry out that boot and sock.\u00a0 But, the guides were right: It would be crazy cold on the way up, and there was no good reason to take such a risk.\u00a0 Frostbite is just unacceptable in modern mountaineering.<\/p>\n Another teammate was already staying behind by a day because I had prescribed antibiotics for bronchitis the previous day, and it felt rotten to go up without him.\u00a0 And, now, this.\u00a0 We are a tight team, very close and supportive of each other, and moving without someone seemed wrong.\u00a0 I could only imagine how discouraged he felt.\u00a0 And I thought, Maybe that juniper would have been a good idea.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n But, up we went.\u00a0 Less painful than the last time, with slightly easier breathing and more certain footing.\u00a0 The route was familiar, and less intimidating.\u00a0 Features that looked vertical were not really that bad, and knowing this allowed me to relax a bit.\u00a0 Our buddies from an IMG Classic team had left an hour ahead of us, on their first foray to the football field, and it was great to see them on the lines, looking strong and having a ball.\u00a0 When I reached the short shattered section, where the lines were buried under fallen seracs, it was nice to see Luke, one of the IMG guides, standing there, shaking his head, and saying out loud what I was feeling: \u201cI don\u2019t like it here.\u201d\u00a0 We seemed to make it up to the football field in less time that before.\u00a0 Still, a very tough hump, and I was glad for a short break before saddling up and seeing the new territory of the upper icefall.<\/p>\n From crampon point, the football field appears to be at the top of the icefall, but this is an illusion because the terrain moderates in steepness, and the glacier above is hidden from view.\u00a0 So, this region was previously unseen, although it loomed larger than life in my imagination.\u00a0 I knew there were a series of ladders up there, including a 5-ladder vertical section.\u00a0 \u201cMake sure you clip your ascender,\u201d one of our guides had said the previous day.\u00a0 And I remember thinking, Yes. \u00a0Yes I will.<\/em><\/p>\n It was a long, exhausting morning.\u00a0 More traffic than the last time meant that we had to wait at the vertical ladders (three in all that I remember).\u00a0 There were times when there was simply nothing to do but stand in line and wait for the climbers ahead of us.\u00a0 On one hand, this enforced moments of rest, and I needed them; I found my breathing rate fell to normal after about 90 seconds of standing still, from full-on panting to baseline deep, rhythmic pressure breathing.\u00a0 During these times I tried to keep busy by adjusting my gear, reapplying sunscreen, shooting photos, learning the route above and practicing the ascent in my mind.\u00a0\u00a0 But, even standing still for 5 minutes took a toll on my mindset.\u00a0 The fragility of our circumstance threatened to weigh on me.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go, let\u2019s go, get the lead out!\u00a0<\/em> The sun blazed down on the route, which was another source of anxiety.\u00a0 Unlike traditional snowfields, I believe that this terrain is NOT under more threat of avalanche activity during the day versus at night; the seracs are just too darn huge to be affected by the short-term effects of the heat.\u00a0 But, after years of learning to fear what happens in soft snow, I could not avoid feeling a bit anxious about the time of day.\u00a0 In fact, the route was totally solid and there were no sloughs whatsoever.<\/p>\n The vertical sections were short but exhausting.\u00a0 One of them, five ladders tall (about 50 feet), stood alone with a rappel rope beside it.\u00a0 The Sherpa offered to haul my pack up by rope while I climbed the ladder.\u00a0 Like a fool, I declined.\u00a0 I\u2019m climbing Everest, damn it, and I can carry my own pack.\u00a0<\/em> In fact, I was so irked by the slow pace of progress above me that I resolved to get up that ladder in a flash.\u00a0 About halfway up, I wondered why the hell I had done that.\u00a0 The effort was extreme.\u00a0 My breathing accelerated out of control, and I began to feel the telltale signs of an impending syncope (ringing in the ears, scintillations at the margin of my vision).\u00a0 I made sure that my ascender was pulled tight above me on the safety line, stopped climbing, and prepared to pass out.\u00a0 I focused on slowing my breathing down, trying desperately to recapture some CO2 while I held on as tightly as I could.\u00a0 This worked, and after what felt like a minute, but was probably about 10 seconds, I was fine.\u00a0 Slow the f down.<\/em>\u00a0 This is not a race.<\/em>\u00a0 I topped out a few moments later, and sat on the snow beside my buddies, catching my breath, and taking in the incredible view of the icefall below and the cwm above.\u00a0 A climber from another team was descending, and asked us how to to get down.\u00a0 We literally showed him the ropes, and I thought, Where is this guy\u2019s Sherpa?\u00a0 The rest of his team?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t he come up this way?<\/em>\u00a0 We watched him struggle with his ATC, and I mentally thanked my guides for insisting that we carry figure-8 devices instead; they were exactly right, the ATC is tough to handle with thick gloves, with a frozen rope, at extreme altitude.\u00a0 Anyhow, that guy made it down fine.<\/p>\n Above the last ladder lay the cruelest illusion: I imagined that C1 was just a few minutes farther, just over the next rise, but in fact we climbed for at least an hour, negotiating a serpentine path between massive crevasses.\u00a0 Cloud cover emerged, flattening the light, and turning the land into a stultifying, windless greenhouse.\u00a0 Up, down, and around huge, huge seracs and snow features, many of which looked like giant hunks of baked Alaska, twenty layers thick, threatening to topple over (or so it seemed).<\/p>\n Somehow I got separated from Blake and Kim in front of me, when climbers from a different expedition got between us.\u00a0 This is totally fine, nothing more than mentally aggravating, simply because I want to climb with my people\u2026 and because one member of this other team was climbing very slowly.\u00a0 At one point his guide who was in tow turned around and smiled a sheepish smile as if to apologize.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it, I am liking the slow pace.\u201d\u00a0 And, I was.\u00a0 But, it was a bummer to pull into C1 after my friends.<\/p>\n C1 sits on a series of broad, gently rolling glacier features.\u00a0 The clouds burned off and we saw the route in blazing sunshine.\u00a0 Below, the chaos of the icefall and the sharp peak of Pumori beyond.\u00a0 Above, the great western cwm, a deep valley formed by the Western Shoulder on one side, Nuptse on the other, and the summit of Lhotse at the far end.\u00a0 The summit of Everest looked totally bare of snow, clean striations of dark stone\u00a0against the pure blue sky, and the yellow band as clear as day.\u00a0 I was exhausted but totally elated. \u00a0We are at 20,000 feet.\u00a0 This is Camp 1. \u00a0I have dreamed of this for a lifetime.<\/em><\/p>\n Sunbathing, hydrating, relaxing, laughing, and resting for several hours.\u00a0 In the direct sun it was scorching, though if a cloud drifted overhead the temperature plummeted in a moment.\u00a0 Blake and I took the initiative to dig a latrine, which was exhausting work.<\/p>\n That evening we got into our down suits and huddled in the cook tent, enjoying our MRE\u2019s.\u00a0 C1 is much less “posh” than EBC or C2… it is a kind of way-point between these more substantial camps, and so our meals were more traditional mountaineering fare, which made me appreciate the wonderful kitchen work of our team at EBC even more.\u00a0 Although conditions were spartan, the Sherpa kindly made us a delicious batch of milk tea, fortified with salt and sugar.\u00a0 It warmed my bones.\u00a0 Then, for the piece de resistance, they broke out a container of stinky cheese and boiled it into a noxious stew.\u00a0 Folks, this is truly an acquired taste!\u00a0 And, they knew it, drawing delight from watching us try to stifle our gag reflex when the wrapping was removed.\u00a0 I am a fan of pus, anaerobic infections, wet gangrene, maggots, you name it.\u00a0 Smells do not phase me.\u00a0 But this was rough!\u00a0 We all had a good laugh about it.\u00a0 Then, off to bed.\u00a0 Tomorrow, an acclimatization hike halfway to C2.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>