New audio update from TA on Everest.

This is the text of TA’s audio message:

Hi this is TA calling in from camp 2, as John Denver sang and my buddy Karen often says some days are diamonds some days are stone.  Or in other words some rest days are restful and others break you down.  I should have known that the day might be a trickery one when a late night pee bottle accident almost cost me a cold sleepless night, but thanks to some ingenious creativity I was able to figure out how to stay warm.  Today I was feeling the challenges of being on my own on this rotation, the same thing happened in 2007, some times it gets very lonely being the only climber in camp.  I had a headache much of the day which is to be expected moving from 61 to 64 from 5300m in 48 hours, so I have been drinking lots and elected to take a little time off to see if I could help my body out.  The heat was also very brutal today, I spent the first part of the day watching Lhotse face tv, watching little ants move up and down with every piece of skin covered since my sunscreen took a leap out of my pack sometime yesterday during my travels.  Then I basically retired to lying on the stone floor of the group tent trying to stay as low as possible, reading “South” by Shackleton which of course if any of you have read any of Shackletons books will now, the endurance and things that he and his men went through it is pretty hard to feel sorry for yourself.  My Buddhist slogan for the day was “abandon all hope of fruition” which seems fitting because on this sort of a rest day where it seems like everything sucks you forget that life can be different and everything is impermanent.  So it’s a good one to work with, the point of the slogan is to be reminded that its not necessarily about the goal but about living every moment on the way.  I was thinking today that life at camp 2 is a good definition of Samsara which is another Buddhist word which means all life is suffering, this morning when I first got up it was so cold that I wished it was warm and not long after the sun came out and it was warm, I wished it was cold, and for the most part of the day I couldn’t wait till it got cold again and I’m sure I will soon be wishing for that warmth.  Much like the definition of Samsara which is always wishing for something that you cant have.  So thats the scoop of my own misery from here at the moment hopefully tomorrow goes better.  I hope to be following one of our super Sherpas, an amazing man, he actually carried 6 bottles of oxygen up the Col yesterday and the day before.  This is also his rest day, he is suiting up with 6 more bottles tomorrow and going all the way to the Col, I’m hoping to get to camp 3.  It is truly humbling what these men do for us in making this climb possible, so my thanks go out to them, and thanks goes out to you all for sending me encouragement, even though I cant read them at the moment I know it is there and I look forward to seeing it at the next opportunity.  Thanks also to the Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Union and the Newfoundland and Labrador School Sports Association for their sponsorship of my climb.  Have a great day, talk to you tomorrow, bye.

TA