I stayed put in Base Camp for a few days, only walking a short distance to the dining tent and the cook tent. Several days ago we left Base Camp, climbing up through the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1 at 19,000 feet/5,790 meters, then to Camp 2 at 21,000 feet/6,400 meters, then to Camp 3 at 23,000 feet/7,000 meters, and now we are at the South Col. It took us three days of very hard work to get here. The actual distance is only a couple miles!
My home is in New Hampshire, over 7,000 miles (11,700 kilometers) away.
Everything is done by walking. The nearest road is hundreds of miles away. Sometimes, there is a helicopter that lands here. Above Base Camp, we are wearing crampons (metal spikes) on our feet so that our feet "stick" into the ice and snow.
The South Col of Everest, of course! The South Col is one of the most remote, beautiful and most dangerous places on earth. There unfortunately is garbage and old tents here. Not too far from my tent there is the body of a man who died here a few years ago. His frozen corpse is inside a sleeping bag and he’s covered with Tibetan prayer flags.
