New audio update from TA on Pumori.

This is the text of TA’s audio message:

Hi this is TA calling in from Pumori base camp.  We are just down from our first big climb up to advanced base camp, our Australian team members would say were ‘bloody knackered’.  About a 4 and ½ or 5 hour experience, we got to meat the rock gully that we will get to climb each time that we go up.  Some pretty louse stuff, which is actually probably the most dangerous part of our climb getting up to advanced base camp.  Those of us with colds, and coughs, and runny noses struggled a bit to make our way up to our new elevation height for this trip of about 5700 metres for advanced base camp.  The views over to Everest and Lhotse were positively amazing.  We strained our eyes trying to find any evidence about what the two Everest teams that are climbing this fall are doing.  Trying to see if they had tents on the South Col, because we could see the summit pyramid, much of the Lhotse face, the Geneva Spur and the yellow band, so it was a pretty amazing view.

There is four tents at ABC, we replaced one of them today to be able to send a smaller tent up to camp one as our belongings arrive.  We’ve had a Yak watch much of the day, the Yaks are akin to Santa Claus for us at the moment but unfortunately no sightings yet of Santa Claus or the Yaks or our belongings.  We are a little bit stymied because that has all of our climbing gear.  Our Sherpa’s are all set to go and set up camp one as soon as their climbing gear arrives on those very same Yaks.  A couple of them went down valley today to see if they could find out where they might be.  So tomorrows plan depends a little bit on weather or not the Yaks roll in, maybe a rest day, maybe a training day, maybe some of both.  We are resting now after our big day, we will have a little dinner in a little bit, rehydrating, and trying to breathe death to give our poor bodies which are existing on less then half as much oxygen as sea level, a little bit of support.

I want to say hello to the WOKies today, as I was hiking was walking up to almost the height of Kilimanjaro, 185 metres short, I was thinking of us and what an amazing trip we had in Africa, and what a  big push that was.  So hello to all of you, hope you are doing well.  Thanks to all who are following along, thanks for all the good wishes, you are helping us all get up this very big and very steep mountain, and we are all thanking you for that.  So keep us in mind as we go higher and higher or as we rest tomorrow.

Thanks

TA