Everest Fall 2010: Rain On The Trail To Base Camp

The Fall Season on Everest is set to begin, and climbers are already in the Himalaya and making their way to Base Camp. Typically the Fall Season in the Himalaya is very quiet, with just a few teams working the more prominent peaks, and relatively deserted base camps when compared to the crazy traffic in the spring.  Nowhere is this more evident than on Everest, which will play host to just a handful of teams in the weeks ahead.

One of the climbers hoping to summit this fall is Eric Larsen who is on the final leg of his Save The Poles Expedition. Eric is in Nepal and on the trail to BC, but seems to be in no rush to get their. According to his dispatches, the team is now in Pheriche, which is located at about 14,350 feet, where Eric and his guides are continuing to acclimatize and wait out the weather, which has been very rainy thus far and not at all conducive to trekking. Once Eric does get to BC, he'll begin the final stage of his year-long expedition that has seen him pursuing the goal of reaching the North and South Pole, plus the summit of Everest, in a single calendar year. The Poles are done, he has just Everest to go now.

On the North Side of the mountain there are a few teams preparing to make their climb as well. For instance, Alberto Zerain and his partners have finished their acclimatization on Changtse, going as high as 7000 meters on that mountain, and have moved on to Everest, where they are setting up camp. They'll be joined by the Italian Hornbein team who arrived in Lhasa a few days ago, and are en route to Base Camp as well.

Elsewhere around the Himalaya, there are expeditions planned for Cho Oyu and Manaslu, although the load will be light. Instead of hundreds of summits across the range, there will be a handful and best.