Having spent three days resting, the Eddie Bauer team鈥擩ake, Brent, Charley, and Dave鈥攈eaded back into the Khumbu Icefall at dawn. This time, their goal is to establish Camp III on the shoulder of the West Ridge and then spend the night there. Conditions in the Khumbu Icefall continue to be dicey; the horseshoe serac belched out two major avalanches before noon today causing a backup of more than an hour as descending climbers and porters waited for the Icefall Doctors to repair the damage. Nobody was caught in either of the slides.
Once the West Ridge climbers venture up from Camp II, they’ll leave the crowds of South Col climbers behind and suddenly have to contend with the lonely wilderness on the west side of the world’s tallest mountain.