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25.03.03 Team arrives in basecamp, ready for summit bid
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Since our last update we have had 3 great days of skiing, acclimatization and climbing.
On Sunday we skinned up from Tangnang to a nearby peak at around 5000 m. It was great to use the skis for the first time! The spring snow was super!!! We made our first tracks ever in Nepal.
When we came back in the camp we heard that all the porters and other expedition staff had been watching us and were scared to death that we had fallen down when we disappeared behind a ridge for a while. They had never seen something like this before.
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The next day we climbed from Tangnang (4365 m) to Khare (Mera Peak basecamp, 4995 m). Rogier suffered from a very bad sunburn and became sick. Still everybody made it to basecamp and Rogier recovered after a good night sleep. We learned that of 6 Mera Peak expeditions we are the only ones who have made it to basecamp due to the heavy snowfalls. Compliments to Ngima and the rest of the team!
Just before basecamp the weahter turned around and it started snowing heavily. Within 3 hours 50 cm of snow fell down and we could hear avalanches falling down from the surrounding slopes. Quite scary!
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Today (Tuesday) we really started our climb on Mera Peak! Due to the large amounts of fresh snow it was extremely difficult to climb up. The skis enabled us to proceed relatively quickly, while the climbing Sherpas without skis had a hard time following us in the waist deep powder snow. Just before Mera La pass, our time was up and we made a material depot at 5415 m.
The descend back to basecamp was tricky through the snow covered morene, but on some parts we found super powder.
Tomorrow we will make an early start to pick up the materials before Mera La pass and proceed as high as we can on the mountain. We will camp somewhere on the mountain and the following night we will make our first summit bid. Hope the weather will be OK!
Because of the deep powder snow it's impossible to climb without skis. This means that from tomorrow we will have to proceed with the five of us. The staff will be waiting at high camp. The next couple of days while climbing high on the mountain we won't be able to update. Hopefully we will have reached the summit by the next update!
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