Base Camp 4:00pm, May 31, 2009

Base Camp at 4:00pm



Clouds Slowly Parting


By 4:00pm, the sound of snow hitting my tent stopped. I could hear Dorgee Sherpa singing to himself outside as he walked to my tent to bring me tea. “Katoon, I have an idea,” he said. I looked behind him and saw the clouds parting revealing the first view of a mountain that I had seen in days. I jumped up with excitement. “It’s clearing!” I said. “Yes, Dendi go up to high camp with Pasang.” He proceeded to tell me that if Dendi Sherpa came back with a positive report on the conditions at high camp we’d try to leave at 2 or 3 am and try to summit directly from base camp instead of stopping for one night to acclimatize at high camp (5300m). I was so happy that we were going to have a chance to summit that I did not consider the implications of ascending from 4300m to 6092m in one day. Moreover, I thought that if good weather were to come, it would be wise to take the opportunity since good weather days seemed to be few and far between. I got up to find my camera and walked to the edge of base camp to photograph the eeriness that was a monsoon snowstorm lifting from the valley. There were still no visible peaks—a fine line of dark gray clouds loomed over everything but below that line the sky was almost perfectly clear except for small light clouds that moved rapidly from right to left creating the eeriness of sleepy hollow.

For the first time I was genuinely excited to be photographing this—a sight that is clearly not available to those who visit Nepal in September or October when the weather is perfect.