DS Going to Everest "Death Zone": Expedition Update

news via kotaku

I just heard back from Neal Mueller and Chris Grubb, the two guys who brought along DS's on their climb up Mt. Everest. It's pretty cool how this works: I send my questions to a contact in New York, who then sends them on to the Base Camp on Everest. When Mueller and Grubb are back in camp they answer the questions, then shoot back their responses in the opposite direction.

I tried to ask the best questions that you guys sent me. So here goes--Mueller did the answering this time around:

Where are you now?

We are in the country of Nepal on the South side of Mount Everest. We are about 35 miles from the nearest town, Namche, and only connected to this town by a dirt walking trail used by Sherpas, tourists and yaks. We are writing to you from Mount Everest Base Camp where we are spending some time between acclimization climbs up the mountain. We only have access to email while at Base Camp, so while we carry with us and play the Nintendo DS systems up on the mountain, all of our contact with the outside world comes while we're resting and recovering at Base Camp.

Have the extreme temperatures been a problem with your DSs?

The systems have performed extremely well, even in the extreme conditions. When the systems get very cold, there is a slight flicker of the screens and the battery life is dramatically decreased (this is an issue with any battery powered electronics in extremely cold temperatures). These issues are easily resolved, however, by storing the DS systems in our sleeping bags with us at night, or by warming them up in clothing pockets next to our bodies before each playing session.

Does the Wireless play seem to work for you in tent?

The Wireless play works very well when two people are in the same tent. We usually share a tent up on the mountain and always eat in the same tent, so this is the most common scenario for when we choose to play against each other. We have run into some issues with Wireless play between tents, but we believe that it is due to the metal alloy poles used as part of the tent structures and not due to a limitation on the range of the machines.

What games did you guys bring with you?

We brought Mario, Metroid Prime, Madden Football and a multi gamepack that has a number of smaller games contained on the same cartridge.

Do you have a favorite yet?

Our favorite at the beginning of the trip was Madden Football because it is a multi-player game and has excellent graphics and funny voiceovers from Madden. After several dozen Madden games we looked into Mario64 a bit more and loved the depth of the game. We've been racing for the past couple of days to see who can rescue the Princess first... a noble challenge.

Have you had a lot of time to play during the climb itself? I would imagine you would be pretty bushed at the end of each day.

During the climb, we spend almost the entire day climbing, preparing food and melting snow and ice into water. You're right that there isn't a lot of time and that we're completely beat at the end of each day, but we can't imagine a better way to get our minds off of our aching bodies than an intense game of Madden Football! During rest days at Base Camp, we have time to explore the 15 levels in Mario and really get into the games to a much greater extent than we're afforded while on the mountain.

Any plans for planting a DS at the peak?

A pretty funny idea. We could leave a system for the next gamer that makes it to the peak. In reality though, every ounce that you can save in your pack on summit day increases your chances of making it to the summit and we're already looking for ways to cut even more weight from our packs. We are planning on bringing the systems to the South Col, however, which is above the "Death Zone" and at an altitude where life is impossible to maintain for more than a few days at a time.

How do you recharge the DS? Do you have a hand crank or solar panels?

We run everything off of solar power at Base Camp, including charging the DS systems when the batteries are getting low. We had a scare yesterday since it had been cloudy and snowing for two days and hadn't been able to charge the systems, but we woke up to sun this morning and were able to get everything fully charged again to survive another string of bad weather if necessary. I like the hand crank idea, but it would be tough to use the touch screen while concurrently charging the batteries... maybe a foot crank though?

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