Thursday, March 28, 2024
Nuptse

Tim Mosedale – Everest Expeditions – 2022

Everest / Nuptse / Lhotse 2022 updates from Tim Mosedale and his ‘Everest Expeditions’ Team!

19th April

We’re on the hill for a few days staying at C1 (around 6,000m) for 2 nights and C2 (around 6,400m) for 4 or 5 nights. We’ll be out of touch for the time being but will report in when we’re back down at EBC for a well deserved rest.
During our time at C2 we will be exploring the route around to Nuptse C3 in preparation for our return at the beginning of May (subject to rest days, logistics and weather).
It’ll undoubtedly be quite chilly by night and unreasonably warm by day. There’s an hour or so in the morning, just after the sun hits the tents, and an hour in the evening, just before the sun sets, when things are quite pleasant. Otherwise it’s -20°C or + 30°C.
At night our breath will condense on the inside of the tent and every movement will cause a mini snow flurry – usually straight down the back of your neck, in your face or all over your tent partner. Uninsulated water bottles wil freeze, zippers won’t work properly and there’s bound to be a breeze bringing some spindrift in to the tent as well.
We’re in for some L O N G nights for sure.
We’ve got a great variety of food and snacks from mini cheese portions and pepperamis to beef jerky and sachets of olives. The trick is to a) drink plenty and b) have lots of variety so that there’ll be at least something you fancy eating when you’ve lost your appetite. Who can resist a Ginger cake with a cup of tea? Or some squeezy cheese on Digestives anyone? Indeed – what’s your go to options for mountain food as I’m always seeking to improve the spread that I provide.
The drinking bit is crucial and this is where we really need to be on point with the cookers and melting snow. It can take up to an hour to create a litre of water so the trick is to never run out. Indeed I’ll have 3 water bottles on the go at any one time – a half litre with a tea or a coffee, a one litre with cold water that I’ll be sipping away at and another one litre with hot water that is cooling. There’s no point ever having an empty bottle.
Anyway as I said we’ll be having a mooch around to Nuptse C3 which takes us up and around the bottom of the Lhotse Face.
Here’s a panorama I took a few years ago which shows the Western Cwm stretched out below. And if you look carefully there’s a couple of climbers starting up the 1975 SW Face route that Doug Scott and Dougal Haston successfully navigated to the summit of Everest.