Friends in the High Places

Yesterday was a rest day here, trying to recover and get our strength back from the past several weeks.  Somehow, despite our challenges with illness,we’re still on schedule.  This afternoon we plan to train with the oxygen systems to get familiar with the regulators and masks.  Tomorrow we plan to do a test run about halfway up the icefall, then rest/pack the next day for the start of our 9 day acclimitization rotation higher up the mountain.  Two days at camp 1, two days at camp 2, climb halfway up the Lhotse Face to touch Camp 3 (then back to camp 2), rest day at Camp 2, then move up to sleep at camp 3, then back to camp 2, and then back to EBC.  All weather and performance permitting of course.

We met one of our climbing sherpas when we climbed Lobuche.  His name is Pemba Dorje, this is his 22^nd Himalayan expedition and he has 6 children.  22 expeditions tells you he knows how to be safe on the mountain, and he is incredibly strong – on our rest day yesterday he carried several bottles of oxygen from Everest Base Camp up to Camp II and back, and when he got back he still came over to check on my tent platform and shoveled some fresh gravel under it.  It is very humbling every day to see how strong the sherpas and porters are.

Attached are a few pictures.  First is a picture of Mark and I on the summit of Lobuche.  Next are a few pictures of IMG Everest Base Camp.  The secondpicture shows the dining tents down in the bottom of the hill, with some tents up the hill.  My tent is in the middle of the picture, second from the top, and Mark is the next tent down and to the left from mine.  The next picture shows the bathroom tent, and the last picture shows the communications tents (big brown tents on top of the hill).