Dispatch Nine: September 2nd, 2009 |
|
2009 Shishapangma Expedition |
|
Day Nine: Free Day in Chinese Base Camp; Problems with Yaks This morning, after breakfast, we headed over to the camp of the Liaison officer to ask him to call the CTMA Lhasa Office. He became quite defensive leading me to believe that the price he gave us was in fact inaccurate. He told me that we could go tomorrow with only seven yaks (the ones included in the price) and that he would return the money that we had already paid him the day before. Having seen our gear, he knew that it would be impossible for us to go up with only seven yaks (we needed at least a total of twenty). When I asked him why he didn’t just use his satellite phone to call the office and resolve the issue, he told me that his generator was broken and his phone had no power. I finally convinced him to take the jeep that had arrived with some Spanish climbers down to where he would have mobile reception so he could call the office. Mario and I accompanied him in the jeep and he called Miss Jen La. He spoke in Chinese for about ten minutes, then told us to call back Parajuli in Nepal and let him talk to him. Parajuli agreed to pay the rest of the money we would need for the additional yaks and would send the money to Zhangmu (the border with Nepal and Tibet) before our arrival at the border at the terminal end of our expedition. We returned to base camp relieved that the issue had been resolved, at least to the extent that we would be able to depart for Advanced Base Camp with all of our gear tomorrow. Mario and I decided to use the local scale from the Yak man that would be used in the morning to double check our loads. They each needed to be 30kg’s. This took us the better part of the afternoon, as the local scale differed quite a bit from the one we used in Kathmandu. When this was finished, we had dinner and got to bed. None of us were feeling our best health-wise; we all had the typical cold that climbers get thanks to all the dust and yak dung smoke (Tibetans use dried Yak dung as fuel for their fires) that we inhale on the road to base camp. We hope that this doesn’t hamper our body’s ability to acclimate. |
|
Satellite Phone: +88216 212 75615 |
|
Contact Info: |
|
Copyright © 2007-2009, nickrice.us All Rights Reserved |
