Chandra Kudsia:
Conversation with Mingmar – The Dick Story
After completing two successful climbs of Everest, in 2008, Mingmar was assigned “a client” (to climb Everest) who went by the name Dick from the USA. They managed to reach Camp 4 (South Col) 26,400 ft. on May 21 and the same night made an attempt for the summit. They returned within 45 min of climbing as Dick was fast losing strength and wanted to return. Mingmar assigned a Sherpa to sleep in his tent to find out what was going on. Next day the Sherpa said that everything was OK, however Dick decided that he did not want to go up and stated that he would like to go down and then return a week later. Mingmar found that Dick had not eaten anything since Camp 3. At this point Mingmar was faced with one of his most difficult
decisions. Mingmar understood that if they descended to Base Camp, there was no way they were coming back. If a summit bid had to be made it needed to be now or never. After assessing the situation, Mingmar gave Dick two choices, either we go down and abandon the expedition or Dick has to eat, regain his strength and make one last attempt. Dick agreed and was fed 10 bowls of (tsampa) soup by Mingmar. Later that day Dick said he was ready to go up. Departing at 8:00 pm, climbing all night, they reached the summit at 6:15 am. This was Mingmar’s third summit of Everest. Just before the summit Mingmar took a photo of the shadow of Everest (see photo on the right) at sunrise.
Stay tuned for more.
Susan-Chandra-and-Nawang-departing-Namche
Chandra-and-Susan-with-Mingmar
Alan Plisskin:
Wow, what a day!!! Yesterday, I decided to stay back at Tengboche to get another opportunity to photograph Everest. Tsering and I spent Oct 5th hiking to Pangboche about 3-4 miles round trip. Nice hike but spent the afternoon hiking back in the rain. I was somewhat apprehensive regarding the next day’s light given we were so socked in that night. However, I awoke to another beautiful morning with Everest and Lhotse displaying all their beauty. After about 1.5 hours of broken clouds everything socked in and it was time to start hiking and catch up with the rest of the group. We made some excellent time and arrived in Namche Bazaar in time for lunch. The rains started as we headed down from Namche towards Phakding. It was a long day we hiked for 3.5 hours before lunch and 4 hours after lunch and arrived in Phakding at 4:15 pm totally soaked. I was so looking forward to a hot shower, however, the showers are heated by solar power and previous guests had used up all the hot water and obviously there was no sun to heat up the water, oh well, welcome to the backcountry.
Coming-down-from-Namche
