Early in the morning (around 3:30 am) we left again for climbing through the ice fall to camp one. It is interesting to see how much the ice fall changes in only a few days. Arriving at a section called “football field” we usually stop there for a few minutes for some food and something to drink. Although this section is by no means flat as the name suggests, it is less steep and located at a relative safe distance from Everest’s west shoulder and the threatening avalanches.
There are only a few crevasses that we cross on straight ladders, and between are sections considered as relative “safe zones”. Pasang, a few feet ahead, had already dropped his back pack, and I was just in the middle of the last ladder when the whole area experienced a jolt, and everything moved by at least ½ of a foot leaving the ladder I was on with slightly bent rungs. Immediately, Pasang got back up grabbing his pack saying: “Not safe here today, we’ll need to move faster”. The sherpas are very sensitive to everything that happens in the ice fall. No place on Everest has more people killed than the ice fall, and by far the most of them are sherpas.
We arrived at camp one without further issues, passing below some precariously hanging gigantic ice blocks. After finally getting some tea and a few hours of rest we left around 1:30 pm for camp 2, another 2,000 ft up the Western Cwm. In the meantime, it started snowing again, but in our case this was a welcome change in the weather, as we were able to avoid the excruciating heat that at this time of the day would have made the hike up to camp two nearly unbearable.
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