New audio update from TA on Everest.

This is the text of TA’s audio message:

Hi this is TA calling in from her base camp inn which was newly improved today by our amazing Sherpa crew.  I was joking with them that they are RJG Construction, I had lost about 8 inches of head room and could barley get in my tent, with all the melting and the tent poles dropping off the sides.  So the Sherpas rebuilt it and even gave me a veranda in front of my vestibule, so its lovely to be tucked away in my base camp home, its day 42 of this expedition and it is still nice to have a spot to call your own.  Currently I am trying to keep some antibiotics down.  My bladder started acting up again yesterday and I’m not exactly sure if its another infection, but given the time frame for summit bids its not worth waiting to find out so we are hitting it hard and big.  Fortunately Lucile had some good anti-nausea drugs so hopefully I will be able to keep the dose down.  Hopefully if there is something there we will blast it out of the way, get rid of it, so I can stay healthy and strong.  In other news I am currently scheduled to leave base camp on the 14th or 15th depending on what I decide about going to camp 1 or camp 2 my sleeping bag and pad are at camp 1 if I wanted to break up the trip.  My part of the team is leaving the 15th, with 2 nights at camp 2, 2 nights at camp 3, reaching the Col on the 19th, so the evening of the 19th to the 20th would be our summit bid at the moment, of course all of this is weather dependent.  As I was coming down from camp 2 today I wished the route on the mountain was a circle rather then an out and back because as I was losing elevation today I was aware that in 5 or 6 days I would be gaining that very same elevation back.  But that’s what it is all about, go down, go up, go down, go up.  We welcomed Lucille back to base camp today with lots of congratulations all round.  That the scoop from here, it took me about 4 hours to get here, so I was pleased with that, I was also pleased with the technical skills I saw in myself as I came down through the ice fall, I was nicely efficient with fix line changes and the same was true at camp 1.  I’m appreciating that because its important to go up but even more important to come down safely. Hope you are all doing well, I’m thinking of trekking down to meet Marian, Nadia, Leslie, and Dan as they trek up, but I will keep you posted.  Hope your having a great day getting out and getting active, enjoying your weekend.  Thanks so much and please send healing thoughts, bye for now.

TA