Base camp 5 360 m 6/3/2022 10:53:07 AM

We arrived to base camp on the 15th April in the evening. During that day we have been thinking about the basic meaning of this journey and purpose of subjectively set objectives. When departing Lobutche in the morning, I felt weakening impact of both fever and thin air. A headache added to the experience and during the trek I had plenty of time to think how it might feel if after 3 yrs training I could not reach base camp for example due to altitude sickness.  

Lama Geshi emphasized in his prayer the meaning of wisdom and how there always is the stronger and wiser person. It is worth while listening to wisdom. I also remembered my father’s words “the track will be beautiful when skiing slowly” and this goes also for trekking. The objective of this journey is daring when thinking about our background. Training has required commitment, which will be measured in physical and mental strength. Reaching high altitudes is not one-time achievement, but outcome of many long-term factors.  

We do not think about the summit, but we set clear goals and try to proceed as planned where possible. First goal was to reach the base camp in a good health and we partly succeeded; we reached the base camp, but there have been some minor temporary health issues. The next goal is to climb Khumbu icefall to 5 900 m, which is the one of the most dangerous parts of the whole climb. Also circumstances start to challenge climbers; the temperature drops to minus 10-15 degrees in the night and rises to +25 degrees by 10 o’clock in the morning. We hope to wake up after good night sleep at 4 am tomorrow. Early start is essential, because at that hour the temperature is at its coldest and the icefall more stabile.  

There are 11 Finns at the base camp at the moment and at the arrival we met three of them. It is hard to estimate the total number of climber at the camp, but rough estimation is 300. Two Canadians from our group decided yesterday to return back. The other has been on every continent’s, except Asia’s, highest mountains and the other one climbed 100 m away from Mt. Everest summit two years ago. These decisions made us very silent.