Dragons : The Dragon Hunt

22. The Trek (Part 2) : A little Accident

"It is a snowstorm ", He added

"What?! ", I asked furiously

"Nah, you can still continue your journey, the snowstorm is still 49 hours before it hits Mt Everest"

"You sure about this? "

"Yeah, but I should warn the Headquarters about this", He replied

"Wait for a second", He told me, "Uhh, Everest HQ, we got a snowstorm warning, but it still not hitting Everest after 2 days, what is you response to this HQ", The man replied the Headquarters through radio. My heart pounded as I heard that there would be a snowstorm coming, we couldn't continue the exploration, it is our only chance this time. Sweat trickled down over my face, waiting for the response

Then suddenly.....

"Base camp 1, Did you say that the snowstorm will hit Everest in 2 days? ", The HQ commander responded back

"Yes HQ"

"Uhh.... Err..... Okay, you may continue the treks and hikes by tourists, but make sure that the tourists will be back here before 10 hours. You make it sure, I'm spreading the news and alert the other Base camps", HQ responded back

Then the man turned to me..
"You may continue your trek up to the near peak, but you need to return here 10 hours prior when the snowstorm hits", He told me

"Okay sir, we are only going up to Base camp 5", I replied

"That's better, take care on your trek above", He patted my shoulder then said good luck to me

"Thanks sir"

The rest of the team is still awake after I made the conversation

"C'mon team, we need to make our trek faster, a snowstorm will hit the Everest in 49 hours, set your watch's timer in 49 hours, we need to make our exploration faster", I talked to the team, as they set their timer in their watches

We packed our things and immediately took off the camp. We wore our safety equipments and started to trek again...
I had told them what is the change in the plan

"Okay guys, I needed to change the plan a little bit", I started

"What is it exactly? ", Kent asked

"Each camp will be skipped, I mean there is no rest when we arrive the camps, we just only pass by to them. We need to double time our trek, just like I said, a snowstorm will hit the Everest in 49 hours", I explained

"Got it", They uttered

We are at the camps altitude, probably at 18 300 feet. Camp two is near at the height of 20 000 feet, we would pass the second camp by less than hour, likewise at the camp 3, mean altitude : 21 300 feet. The trek duration is somewhere in 45 minutes...

The calculations for the whole exploration is the following :

Trek for the 5 camps : almost 13 hours including the 2 hour total rest on every camp. 12 and a half hours if we exclude it

The drone exploration would be a little bit longer. If we are lucky, we could scour the 15 000 square kilometer part of the mountain range in just an hour, that is without the malfunction of the systems, the wind currents that could pull the drones, the shortage of battery, and without any systematic problems that would occur while the drone is flying. That could be an total of an hour or more

The time of trek towards the village - That is still unknown, we still don't have a exact location of where the monk village is located, I'd say that would be the total time (I mean going there and back here) of 30 hours or less