Iditarod Veteran musher Steve Watkins is safe.
For those of you who have asked, here is the accounting of the tragedy on Mt. Everest as posted by Steve on his Facebook page. (After completing the 2015 Iditarod, Steve left Alaska and traveled to join an exhibition to climb Mt. Everest. He was on the climb when the earthquake occurred.)
Namaste. Thank you for your love & support. Exhausted & grateful in Namche, Nepal. Just had my first shower in weeks.
The 7.8Mw earthquake occurred when I was up on Camp 1 of Everest (@19,600ft). It was immediate followed by an avalanche. I was sharing a tent with my sis Villa (Vilborg Arna Gissurardóttir), Iceland’s greatest & most celebrated female climber. We sprang from our tent and could barely stand up as the iceberg shook so violently. Then, the avalanche. A mountain of cascading snow and ice raced toward us with such speed & volume I was sure we were done.
I dropped to my knees & I said “So it ends here & now. Thank you for my life. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a wonderful life, but thank you. Thank you, thank you.”
The avalanche stopped short but we were hit with smaller blasts. Then, our Base Camp manager said via radio that BC was “demolished.”
It was the emotional crux. Our team met in the team tent. We were on an unstable iceberg, new crevasses and avalanche threats on all sides, limited supplies, no ability to help our friends, Base Camp & the whole country in a state of emergency and we’re expecting aftershocks to hit us at any moment.
I looked around and despite seeing some of the best climbers I’d ever met, I believed that before we made it to safety, some of us would die.
Radio transmissions sounded like war. Every few minutes there transmissions about more injured or dead.
Our first plan was to climb back down through the Khumbu Icefalls, but that proved too dangerous. Within 48 hours we were airlifted to Base Camp.
Aftershocks and more avalanches continued for the next several days we excavated the ruins of our camp using our ice axes, shovels and hands. We called it ‘Ground Zero’. Some items had blown hundreds of meters away. I searched in vain and at times nonsensical tears, to find my Iditarod belt buckle.
So far, at least 6,300 people were killed in 5 countries. Six Sherpa/Nepalese of my teammates died (one within the past few hours in a Kathmandu ICU). Many others at BC were injured. My brother Sherpa Lhakpa Dorjee is okay.
I set out to bring my Iditarod belt buckle to the top of Everest, honoring both endeavors. But then I was reminded that no matter how great the human spirit, Mother Nature is far greater.
Namaste,
Steve
* As a side note, there is a buckle replacement procedure available to mushers.
