The advance team set up a cooking tent at the Advance Base Camp. This tent has now been completely destroyed by the wind. Photo by correspondent Tsering Dondup
Special report from Everest Base Camp (Special Correspondent Zou Jin Correspondent Cao Zhikai): Everest showed its ferocious side yesterday. At the Advance Base Camp, located at an altitude of 6,500 meters, fierce winds raged, and around 2 a.m., two tents of the Diayou Mountaineering Team were torn apart and can no longer be used.
The advance team, responsible for setting up the camp, pitched two large tents at the Advance Base Camp on the 11th — one a general-purpose tent and the other a cooking tent — and left two high-altitude guides to stay behind.
Since the Diayou Mountaineering Team gathered at the base camp on the 15th, the weather at the main camp has been poor, with frequent snow and wind. Conditions at the Advance Base Camp have been even harsher, with persistent strong winds, especially at night.
“The wind was extremely strong last night, about force six or seven. Around two o’clock, our tents were torn apart by the wind. The cooking tent was almost split in half down the middle and is beyond repair; the frame of the general-purpose tent was bent, and its outer layer was damaged in multiple places, so it’s temporarily unusable as well,” said Dorgy Dorje, one of the high-altitude guides who stayed behind, yesterday. “Fortunately, no climbing supplies such as food or equipment were lost. Neither I nor another guide, Solang, were injured either.”
The Diayou Mountaineering Team responded quickly by urgently renting three tents from Rongbuk Monastery and Zhaxi Village, which arrived at Everest Base Camp around 6 p.m. yesterday.