Joe’s Basecamps, Jaco on Everest part IX

03 May Joe’s Basecamps, Jaco on Everest part IX

The latest news of Jaco Ottink via his wife Daan, as he climbs Everest, the highest peak on earth and completes his 7 summits.

Hi everyone,

Just dropping you a quick note to let you know that although I haven’t spoken to Jaco since last week Tuesday I have managed to find out some bits and pieces of information on how he’s doing via internet, the Kathmandu Post, blogs and Facebook posts of others.

Most likely he is currently at Camp 2 (6400m) and has been there for the last few days. They were apparently supposed to go up to Camp 3 yesterday, which was postponed due to snowfall, and today it was again pushed out due to some risk of avalanches (because of the same snowfall). From what I understand they will see whether they can go up to Camp 3 tomorrow or not. There is a chance they will need to go back to Base Camp if the weather doesn’t clear up as they can’t stay at this altitude for too long. I also read somewhere that the ropes to the summit won’t be done and fixed until the 10^th of May, so I don’t expect a call from the top before that time J. A statistic I found is that 289 climbing permits have been granted this year, which is less than previous years and not necessarily bad news in my view. 

What I also found out is that a guy called Alan Arnette, who was attempting to climb the Lhotse, had to be evacuated from Camp 2 by helicopter due to some health issues. He was assisted by Tracee, the doctor on Jaco’s team, and Ritchie, Jaco’s guide. So I’m sure that Jaco must have witnessed this from close by. I have posted the link to Alan’s blog on Facebook, but if you aren’t on Facebook, here it is: https://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2016/05/01/everestlhotse-2016-season-continues-not/. It has a nice video about life in Everest Base Camp as well, with Russell featuring at the end of the video.

So, that’s all I managed to find out for now, but I’ll definitely keep you posted if I have further updates. You’ll understand that my I-phone is my new best friend at the moment J!

Daan