Update on Everest Expedition
from David Breashears
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Hello Dear Friends,

I write from Mount Everest Base camp at 17,600 ft. The two-man tent I'm sitting in shelters me from the intense sun in the morning and the afternoon snowfall. It is cozy and warm inside. I'm surrounded by all the things I need to survive at high-altitude. My greatest luxuries are my iPod and Bose headphones.

I arrived at Base Camp on April 2nd with the other members of the climbing and filming team. We began the approach march on March 22nd after leaving Kathmandu via helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft. Our team is comprised of fifteen Western members and twenty-three Sherpas. The Westerners hail from the United States, Finland, Austria and the United Kingdom. Of the Sherpa team, six are cook staff, twelve are high-altitude climbing Sherpas, four are high-altitude Sherpas and one is the Sirdar (Headman).

Base Camp is an international village comprised of fourteen teams closely clustered at the foot of infamous Khumbu Icefall. Each team has built its own temporary, self-sufficient Base Camp. Here you will find citizens from Spain, Italy , Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, India, Nepal, America, England, Ireland, Chile, the Grand Canary Islands, Mexico, Canada, Korea, and Mauritius. The only apparent display of nationalism is that associated with cuisine. Here, you will also find equally exotic variety of food and drink. Most climbers are here with hopes of attaining Earth's highest point, but others are content with Base Camp work and will never enter the Ice Fall. We are camped on the thick, undulating, relatively stable ice of the Khumbu glacier. Prayer flags flutter everywhere, and in the evening, juniper burning in each camp's alter scents the air.

Ten days ago my team (Viesturs, Schauer, Bullard, Chin, Gustafsson and me) reached Camp III at 24,000 ft. on the Lhotse Face. We spent two nights there acclimatizing, filming and admiring the glorious view down the Western Cwm to Base Camp and Pumori. High above us Everest flew its pennant of mist, and reminded us of the ferocious power of the jet-stream winds.

Prior to reaching Camp III we had made several forays into the Ice Fall and spent two nights at Camp I (19,800 ft.). Each journey into the Ice Fall leaves me spellbound by the magnificent beauty of Nature's handiwork. Yet at the same time I'm often confounded by the the tyranny of choices of where to stop and shoot the 35 mm film camera. Whenever one turns a corner another dazzling scene of fractured ice and leaning seracs appears, transcending the previous one.

The filming has gone well up to now and I'm very pleased with the images and scenes and recorded, several of which are the finest I've filmed in my twelve Everest expeditions. But it is demanding work to operate a 35 mm film camera in the thin air and steep slopes of Mount Everest. I must admit sometimes being envious of those who have not elected to perform such tasks, but I soon find myself grateful that such challenges are before me, and blessed that I'm surrounded by talented, determined and thoughtful team members. Each is a star in their own right.

Our week's rest at Base Camp is nearly past and the ropes have been fixed to the South Col at 26,000 ft. Tomorrow the Sherpas will begin the difficult and important work of carrying supplies to Camp IV on the South Col. The rest of the team will soon move up the mountain to begin the summit attempt. Our strategy involves placing a camp above the South Col at 27, 800 ft. This special filming "high camp" will enable us to record images usually too difficult to obtain otherwise. I will occupy the camp with two Sherpas and attempt to reach the summit from there. But let's wait and see what the weather holds, for it is the weather that determines most things on Everest's highest slopes.

With very best regards,

David Breashears