Saint Petersburg: JUBELEE EXPEDITION "EVEREST 2003"

18 April, 2003 Andrey Ershov:

All is OK and after rest at BC our team continues the work on the route - our members plan to install Camp 2 on 7800 m. Today Oleg Nasedkin and Marina Ershova have gone to ABC, the other members will go up tomorrow. Tom is very
tired after the ascent of the North Col and he will spend more days at BC for rest and recuperation. Our doctor Dmitry is very popular at BC and many locals come to him for treatment. We have received a lot of new expedition photos about the BC life and the ascent of the North Col - see them here:
part 4 http://www.big-wall.spb.ru/everest2003/expedition/part4-0eng.html ,
part 5 http://www.big-wall.spb.ru/everest2003/expedition/part5-0eng.html and
part 6 http://www.big-wall.spb.ru/everest2003/expedition/part6-0eng.html .

14 April, 2003 The team has reached the North Col and set the Camp1 there.

Marina Ershova:

Hello from ABC!
All is OK and today seven our members: Anatoly Moshnikov, Nikolay Totmyanin, Vladimir Gaidamak, Andrey Dulskiy, Vladimir Belous, Tom Masterson and Oleg Nasedkin have fixed about 700 m of the ropes, reached the North Col (about
7000 m) and pitched a tent of Camp 1 there. I have climbed up to 6600 and brought them a rope. Then we all have come down to ABC and tomorrow we will go to BC for rest.
Our team is the first who have started to work on the route. Maybe, the Chinese team will begin their climbing work tomorrow. Right now climbing conditions are very nice - there is no much snow on the slopes and the weather is excellent. More news I will send from BC. Apr.14

Marina Ershova called from ABC:

Hello!
I am calling from ABC on the altitude about 6400 m. On April 10 we started our way to ABC with yaks, our cook and kitchen boy. The way to ABC is very long, the altitude is high enough and for the first time all this is hard enough. So we did not hurry and spent two nights on our way from BC to ABC. Our doctor Dmitry and the second kitchen boy stayed at BC.
Having come to ABC we have found here several tents of the other expeditions and many Chinese persons. They occupied all good enough places for tents and did not allow us to put our tents on the free places - they keep them for their huge expedition. So, we were forced to go to the beginning of the moraine and to make new tent grounds - this is a very hard thing on the high altitude. But we made new platforms for our tents and pitched our camp.

Today Oleg Nasedkin and me have stayed at ABC but the other six our members have gone to the slopes of the North Col and fixed several ropes - our climbing work has begun! I think we are the first who are working here. Our climbers want to work on the slopes of the North Col a couple of days more and tomorrow I will walk upwards too. Then we will come down to BC for rest. It is amazing but our cook shows miracles of cooking and all our members are very glad. In addition, the weather is excellent. In general, beside us all is OK. Apr.13

Expedition photo gallery... more... more

9 April, 2003 Marina Ershova:

Hello!
Today at 9:00 we have started from Tingri and about 14:00 we have arrived atthe Everest BC. On the way we have done a short stop at the very famous high-altitude Rongbuk Monastery. We have written our names on the paper
sheets with prayers and local monks have done a church service for our expedition. Base Camp is located a little upper on the valley near the glacier, on the altitude about 5200 m. Here are already about ten big and small expeditions.
We have met some persons acquainted on our previous Himalayan expeditions. The Chinese expedition leaves a lasting impression - they have about 80 persons and more than 40 persons will work on the mountain. This reminds our
Soviet period, when crowds of our climbers and tourists went up to the summits to install there busts of Lenin, Stalin and other leaders of the world proletariate :-)

The weather is excellent. There is no snow at BC, but the river is still frozen because even in daytime the temperature is around minus 5. Mt. Everest is black, there is not too much snow on its upper slopes. A strong enough wind blows and we are in down jackets and pants. Our kitchen personnel - a cook and two kitchen boys - has met us very well:
all tents were installed and for dinner we had a splendid steak with roasted potatoes! I do not know how long such things will continue, but soups, meat with potatoes, etc... all this is very typical for Russians and we would not
like to change our cuisine.

For the first time on such altitude all members feel well enough. Of course, some of us have a headache but it is normal for the first days. Tomorrow we will have acclimatization in the area of BC but yaks are already booked for the day after tomorrow. So we plan to go to ABC on April 10 - it may take two or three days. In general, we are on the place, all is OK and real mountaineering will
begin very soon!

Apr. 8