Friday April 11. Everest Base Camp. Climbing Practice.
Right now it is cold, cloudy and snowing. This morning was pretty nice however. This seems to be a pretty predictable pattern.
Today was designated as climbing practice day. It would be an opportunity for us to fine tune our systems and check out any new gear we bought just for Everest. I have new Millet Everest boots and OR Alti Mitts, both of which I have not used before.
Before our climbing practice we went over to the Altitude Junkies Puja. We were supposed to be with this team on the North side and have spent a lot of time with them. They are about a five minute walk from our camp. They came to our Puja yesterday so we decided to go theirs today. It can't hurt to be double blessed.
One thing I forgot to mention about our Puja yesterday was about our flag pole. Rising from the top of our chorten is an aluminum pole. From this pole there are five strands of prayer flags, and several flags on the pole itself. What makes our pole different than every other one in base camp is that ours has a light on top. Yes, a light. The Sherpa's rigged a light socket and bulb on the top of the mast and ran power to it from the generator. At night it is quite the site to see our chorten light up against a backdrop of hundreds of stars and Mount Everest.
Anyway, after the AJ Puja we gathered our climbing gear and walked over to the practice ground. This play area has been set up to mimic the technical challenges found on the mountain. There is a vertical ladder with a fixed line start, a traverse to two horizontal ladders, a steep angle ice traverse on the fixed line to a vertical ice climb to a rappel.
We went through the course twice practicing the skills we will need. It was also an opportunity to adjust slings, crampons, jumars, and harnesses.
We will head into the icefall tomorrow for our first real world test. Today's practice went well and has set us up well for tomorrow.
Big hugs to Susan, Amy, and Colin.
Scott (SS).

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