Sunday on Mount Everest

ROMY GARDUCE--who may become the first Filipino to climb Mt. Everest (elevation: 8800 meters) -- has a blogspot blog called Chomolungma. But now that he's at Base Camp (elevation:5300 meters) he is updating The GMA Mt. Everest Expedition webpage for corporate sponsor, GMA News, via satellite phone. Just before leaving for Base Camp at the end of March, "Garduch" posted --

We expect the Khumbu Icefall (the way to C1) to be 'passable' sometime between end of wk1-April (if lucky) to mid-April, depending on formation of the seracs, iceblocks and size of the crevasses. The so-called 'Icefall Doctors' (Sherpa employees of Sagarmatha Park) left Namche 2 days ago, and are expected to start work on the safety lines and ladders in the Icefall sometime 1st wk of April. I expect to be in BC in 6-8 days, depending on our pace and mood :)I'll do an update then (by satfon).

Although Garduch has made it safely to Base Camp, a tragedy occurred just last Friday on the Khumbu Icefall and some of those "doctors."

Three Sherpas Die In Mt. Everest Icefall (EveryTrail.net) Things sound pretty grim on Mt. Everest at moment, according to this post from Base Camp on the mountain's south side, which includes an eyewitness report from one of the surviving Sherpas who were working to clear the climbing route after heavy snow a few days ago --

There were a dozen or so Sherpas moving across the line. Apparently, it happened very suddenly. They heard a crack, then ice and debris started coming down. Lhakpa Tshering was in front of him and Dawa Temba was behind him. They both fell down. Our Lhakpa was partially buried by the snow, but was able to dig out. Other Sherpas, including his “cousin-brother from AAI” helped him down to base camp...Although he couldn’t remember a lot of the details, he said it was very scary and that he can’t explain why he was the one to survive. The person in front of him is “lost” and the person behind him is “lost.” But, he is okay. He kept repeating, “If I had taken one step more or one step less, I would be lost, too."

An official report on the tragic accident has been posted on Mount Everest dot net. So it looks like Garduch is cooling his heels at Base Camp, awaiting developments higher up the mountain. Garduch's latest post was dated April 13 UPDATE FROM BASE CAMP

But here's a focus story on the Philippine effort(s) to summit the world's tallest mountain. I fervently hope all this talk of competition and "racing to the summit" between the GMA-sponsored Garduce and a much larger team effort backed by media rival ABSCBN is just HYPE and that the Filipinos will help each other in every possible way.

Coz those are SHERPAS that just died on Mount Everest.