Mount Everest 2004 Expedition: Americans Dan Lochner and Dan Meggitt

April 17: Today I woke up with a headache, just as I experienced when I first arrived at BC. Once I finally made my way to the Mess tent, I nursed my headache with large quantities of water and relaxed. The day was basically spent lying around adjusting to the altitude, locating some odds and ends in barrels, eating and sleeping. To past some time, I played some Bob Marley while I lay dazed in my tent absorbing the warm heat being generating in the tent by the beating sunlight above. Today, neither Dan nor I ventured too far outside camp as we both felt a bit lethargic. After dinner, we didn’t spend too much time chatting either as we have done in BC. Once we had finished our meals, we went right to bed to rest or sleep.

April 18: Today I woke up late and was slow to rise from my tent. I spent most of my time unthawing my contact lenses which had frozen in their cases and remolding them into convex shapes to insert them into my eyes. After exiting my tent, I went straight to the Mess tent to fill my stomach. While eating my eggs, I was surprised that I still had a headache and felt weak, even after considerable rest. I still had a head cold so I figured the congestion was the reason for my troubles. Either way, as I sat there reading a Time Magazine and finishing my breakfast, I began contemplating whether I should go down to BC that day instead of the following day as originally planned.

After breakfast, two of the other members on our permit decided to return to BC that day due to sickness. Unsure why I still felt lousy, I decided to join them in returning to BC knowing that it would only benefit my health. By 11am, the three of us left ABC, led by a Cook who was returning to BC to replace a sick cook.

During the first two hours of our descent, it lightly snowed and it was moderately cold. However by 1pm, the weather cleared up and it was pleasant out as we leisurely made our way back to BC. By the time we reached IC, one of the members on our permit decided that he wanted to stay at IC for the night believing there was no need to kill himself descending all the way to BC that night. The other member along with the Cook were set on reaching BC that night so I remained at IC as I felt it was best to remain in pairs.

April 19: In the morning, the two of us woke around 8am, had breakfast and prepared to make the second leg from IC to BC. Unfortunately, during breakfast, the member I remained with unknowingly ate nuts which were contained in the served porridge. I figured there was a problem when he pushed his porridge toward me and abruptly stood up and exited the tent. When he returned, he was sweating heavily, appeared sick and had to lie down. Here he mentioned that he was allergic to nuts and believed he had unknowingly consumed some while eating his porridge and that he was going to be sick. Luckily he was able to manage the episode on his own without the use of his EPI pen by resting a few hours and drinking water. By 2pm, he was feeling better so we made our final descent to BC, which took about three hours.

Just after leaving IC, we noticed streaks of red all over a nearby pond. We later discovered that a Yak, while ascending to IC, fell off course and accidentally broke through the ice of a nearby pond. The front portion of his body went through the ice and it was unable to back out due to the large load on its back. The Yak herder and his companions attempted to pull it from the pond but by the time they removed the load from the Yaks back, it had already drown. Because the Yak died, the Yak herder and his companions decided not to put it to waste so they butchered the animal onsite. It was quite the site.

April 20 – April 26: Today the rest of the members on our permit, including Dan, descended from ABC and returned to BC by 5:00pm. The weather was very nice for most of the day but by mid afternoon, the weather turned and a cold front moved in.

From here, Dan and I will remain in BC for several days to recuperate from the affects of ABC. Once we feel healthy and the weather is clear, we will return to ABC, again making a pit stop at IC.

One night after everyone returned, we had Momo’s for dinner. What is interesting about this is I was in the kitchen tent as they were being prepared and I noticed a big slab of meat being battered. When I jokingly inquired if it was Yak meat from the dead Yak at IC, they replied by shaking there heads. I thought the Cooks were playing with me so I asked again and they replied in the same manner, being quite serious. Interesting, so anyhow we had fresh Yak Momo’s that night.

Just to give you an idea of what we have been doing during our free time in BC, we have played shot-put with a large stone, visited other expedition tents, ate a lot of food and thrown rocks at empty gas canisters to see who has a better aim.

Tomorrow Dan and I will depart again for ABC, first making a stop at IC so we are making last minute preparations. The next dispatch should be Wednesday or Thursday when we are settled into ABC.

Dispatches

 

Altitech2: Digital Altimeter, Barometer, Compass and Thermometer. Time/Date/Alarms. Chronograph with 24 hour working range. Timer with stop, repeat and up function. Rotating Bezel. Leveling bubble. Carabiner latch. E.L. 3 second backlight. Water resistant. 4" x 2-1/4" x 3/4" 2 oz. Requires 1 CR2032 battery. See more here.

  Altitude pre-
   acclimatization

   Ascenders

   Atlas snowshoes

   Black Diamond

   Botas

   Brunton

   Carabiners

   CaVa Climbing Shoes
   Clearance

   Clif Bar

   CMI

   Crampons

   Edelweiss ropes
   Eureka Tents

   Featured

   FoxRiver

   Garmin

   Granite Gear

   Harnesses
   Headlamps
   Helmets

   HighGear
   Ice Axes

   Kavu Eyewear

   Katadyn

   Kong

   Lekisport

   Lowepro

   Motorola

   Nalgene

   New England Ropes

   Nikwax

   Omega

   Outdoor Designs

   Pelican

   PowerBar

   Princeton Tec

   Prescription Glacier

   Glasses

   Primus

   Rope Bags

   Seattle Sports

   Serius
   Sleeping Bags

   Stubai

   Suunto

   Tents

   Trekking Poles
   Ushba
   and more here