Everest Page #2

we have the Adventure

Consultants Base Camp.

Hey, Helen.

Hey. Hi, how are you?

Good to see you. Thank you.

Welcome, nice to see you.

Hi, Rob.

Hey.

Well done, you all right?

Yeah, good. You?

- Yeah, no, we're good.

- It looks good.

For those of you that haven't met,

this is Helen Wilton,

Base Camp manager.

She will be your mom

for the next few weeks.

Any problems, take it to

her and she'll sort it.

All right, well, it's very nice

to finally meet

you all in person.

Ang Dorjee, come here.

This is Ang Dorjee, everyone.

He's your climbing sirdar,

your lead Sherpa.

Hey, how are ya?

You speak English?

Better than you, Mr. America.

Bet you climb better than I do, huh?

Yeah.

Yeah?

Summited three times, Beck.

All right, all right.

I hear ya, I hear ya.

All right, well, there's

tea in the mess tent

when you've dumped your sacks

and the comms

tent's down the back,

that's the cooking tent,

and over there

is the toilet.

It's a little bit drafty,

but just remember that

when the wind gets

up here, you've got

the same view that

George Everest did.

For those of you who

haven't used crampons before

the left and rights are marked with an

"L" and an "R,"

so you can't get it wrong.

All right?

So, simple.

First of all,

you push it into the shoe with this.

Unbelievable.

If it isn't the mayor

of Base Camp!

Scott Fischer,

Mr. Mountain Madness.

In the flesh.

You want a cup?

Sit down, man.

Acclimatize!

Okay. I'm normally

a tea man myself,

but let's give it a go.

Thank you so much.

Wow. It's crazy

this year, eh?

I know, man.

Some idiot Kiwi goes and

invents Himalayan guiding

and look what happens.

Yeah, it didn't take you too

long to get in on the act.

Gotta make a living, man.

You went ahead and fixed the icefalls,

I see.

Yeah, yeah.

It's pretty messy up there this year.

Yeah?

Crevasses are pretty big.

Strung four or five

ladders across.

You used good

ropes though, didn't you?

You ready? Okay.

This is, um, April 7th,

about 10:
30 a.m.,

this is Sandy Hill Pittman,

reporting for NBC

Interactive Media

and we are officially at Everest Base Camp!

She one of yours?

Oh, yeah.

Someone went and

stole my journalist

so I had to get another one.

Hmm.

She's a lot easier on the eye

than Jon Krakauer,

that's for sure.

Listen, just to be clear,

I didn't steal your journalist.

Hey, man, it's all good.

Outside magazine gave me a call.

Hey. Hey!

They gave me a call.

- Said they wanted to...

- It's all good, man.

They were gonna send

a journalist up the hill

and asked me if

I was interested.

It was his call in the end.

All right, Caroline MacKenzie,

team doctor.

Why don't you kick it off, Caro.

- Hi, everyone.

- Hey, Caro.

Hi there.

Sorry.

That's fine.

Um...

So Rob and Harold

and Mike will tell you

all sorts of stuff

about mountaineering,

but from a medical standpoint

getting you to the top of

Everest is really about oxygen.

And the lack of it.

To give you the best

chance of summiting

you need to prepare your bodies

for the thin air up there.

So, over the next month,

before the final ascent

you're gonna make three

partial acclimatizing ascents

returning here to

Base Camp after each one.

The bad news is that each ascent

begins and ends

with the Icefall.

I'm sorry, but there

is no way around it.

There are millions

of tons of glacial ice

continually moving

day and night.

You got seracs

the size of tower blocks,

you got crevasses so deep they

probably don't even have a bottom.

It is not a place that you wanna

get caught hanging out in,

especially when the sun hits it.

So we're gonna be

up nice and early

and through that

as soon as possible.

Now the Sherpas have gone ahead

and fixed the ladders

across the crevasses

and we've made it as

safe as we possibly can.

But that is not to say

that it is completely safe.

19 people have

died in that Icefall.

Whoa!

Whoa! Hold on!

Steady.

You all right, Jon?

You all right?

- I'm good.

- Okay.

All right, steady up.

Whoo!

So remember, we're a team.

Let's look out for each other.

Look out for hypothermia,

things like slurred speech

and irrational behavior.

I've seen hypoxic

climbers rip off

all their clothes

at 8,000 meters

because they're feeling hot.

You all know about cerebral edema,

the swelling of your brain

to the point of loss of motor

function and eventually death.

And pulmonary edema,

which is your lungs filling with fluid

so you effectively drown.

The only cure is to get

down the mountain, fast.

- All right, okay.

- All right, buddy.

But it is not all

doom and gloom here, okay?

Myself and

the whole AC team are here

to make sure you get

up and down safely

and you will

acclimatize naturally.

So why don't we all give

Caro a nice big thank you,

it's her first time here.

- All right.

- Nice job.

Well done.

See, you want to

get on the regulator.

You want to hear that hiss.

Connect your hose.

- Yasuko.

- Beck.

How'd you do, darling?

Okay.

- Good?

- Well done.

Can I get a hit of that?

Have a suck on that.

In a situation like this,

you just wanna

catch your breath,

throw it up to four.

You should start

feeling pretty good.

I can feel it already.

How did you boys go?

Hey.

Instant happiness.

- It's amazing.

- Very happy.

Doug, you okay?

Well, when we get back to Base,

I want you to get Caro

to take a look at you.

- No. I'm all right, I'm okay.

- No, no.

And do me a favor,

spend your night on oxygen.

Yeah?

Yeah.

We got enough?

We got plenty.

All right.

Get some tea into ya.

Just lift your shirt up a bit.

Thank you.

And take a deep breath for me?

Just take one of those

in the morning

with a bit of water,

before breakfast.

Okay, thanks.

Right, Beck, you're up.

Sorry. Here, go for it.

Read it and weep.

Take it easy, Doug.

Right, you can stop.

Yeah?

You're in great shape, Beck.

I am in great shape.

- You are.

- Six days a week in the gym.

Ought to do it.

Your wife must love that.

Yeah, she does.

Oh, no. What's

the date today?

April 25th.

No!

I need to send a message to my wife.

Can I use your fax?

You might wanna

look at this one first.

It came in for you last night.

- Lord.

- What?

Can I use your sat phone?

Ooh!

Well, if this did come in last night,

it's an emergency.

It's 25 bucks a minute, Beck.

Yep, fine.

No, this one's on us.

Seriously?

Thanks.

Rob!

- Beck?

- Peach, it's me.

What's happened?

Nothing, nothing.

I'm fine.

Where are you?

Uh, I'm at Base Camp right now.

You're calling me from Everest?

Yeah, it's

a satellite phone, honey.

Oh, my God, how much is

that costing? What's the problem?

There is no problem, Peach.

Uh...

I'm sorry,

we were up at Camp Two

and that's why I didn't

send you a fax yesterday.

Happy anniversary! Okay?

How are the kids?

Fine.

Peach?

Bub's here

doing his homework

in the morning, as per usual.

You wanna say hi to him?

Well, yeah, of course I do.

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