Wednesday Sent from Gorak Shep.
April 23-25. Everest Base Camp. Waiting Day.
I have decided the I will categorize base camp days into Rest Days and Waiting Days. Rest days are for recovery from a trip up the mountain, whereas Waiting Days are days that are not needed for rest and recovery, but are just days waiting for the right time (or permission) to go up again.
Today was a waiting day.
Yesterday at lunch Dave Elmore (Mountain Professionals Co-Founder) arrived in camp with three trekkers. While it is nice to have new people in camp it also feels a bit like an invasion of our space. This camp has been our home for quite some time now and suddenly we have to share it with others. The group of us who live here have fallen into predictable patterns. Now we need to look for the DVD player, the salt, or the juice because the newcomers do not know our systems. No big deal, but it is interesting how we (I) react to small changes in our world. Perhaps this is also partly due to my introverted nature. Others may be relishing the arrival of these newcomers into our home.
The trekkers are a film crew and are here to research the possibility of shooting a feature film here next year. They have a story line in mind and I guess they are here to see if it is realistic, and if they can shoot in this difficult environment. Once they have this figured out I assume it will then be easier to approach potential actors and investors.
Since today was a waiting day we decided to go for a walk. Two of the biggest challenges up here are dealing with long days with little to do, and staying active enough so that you do not lose your level of fitness. Our walk today would work on both.
Angus, Al, Alan and I decided to climb up Kala Patthar and to go to Gorak Shep for lunch.
We got a late start at 10:30am and quickly made our way down the trail out of base camp. At the Pumori cut off we headed up hill to Pumori base camp. From Pumori Base camp we had a great view of the ice fall, Everest base camp and the upper reaches of Everest. We could also look up and see part of the route up Pumori. It is a pretty scary site with huge hanging glaciers and avalanche shoots. We could also look down to a beautiful green/blue glacier lake. It is easy to see how much the glacier has receded. I can only assume this dramatic change is due to global warming.
On this same note, it is amazing to see the melting in Everest base camp. Huge streams of melt water have formed. Some of the lower camps will soon need to move to avoid being flooded out by the water. I saw one outhouse today that was almost entirely surrounded by water and the stream the cuts across the trail may soon need a rock bridge.
Anyway, back to our hike. From Pumori base camp we turned left and went up the sky line ridge. There was no trail here and we had to pick our own route through the rock and tundra like grasses. We made it to the top of the ridge and saw to our disappointment that we were separated from Kala Patthar by a huge gorge. The view from the peak was spectacular. We sat down for a while and admired the view of the South Col, the South summit, the Hillary Step, and the summit.
After a bit we started down. After some down climbing we came to a trail that we thought would hook back up with the main trail. This trail, however, quickly disappeared into a jumble of boulders. We carefully picked our way down not wanting to dislodge any if the huge rocks. We eventually made it back to the main trail. At this point Alan and I decided to return back to base camp, while Angus and Al continued on to Gorak Shep.
The walk back to base camp was uneventful and it was easy to see our increased level of fitness and acclimatization as we easily overtook trekkers.
I stopped in at the bakery and photo exhibit on the way into camp. The Eco Everest Expedition has set up a photo exposition that shows photos from the 1950's and 60's compared to photos from 2007. Their focus is to draw attention to the massive changes in the landscape due to global warming and tourism.
The bakery has a selection of buns and bread and coffee. I did not partake, but it all looked quite good.
Once back at camp Alan and I had a snack of fried salami and cracker. I spent the rest of the day writing this posting and reading.
We hope to go up the mountain again soon so I may be off line again for several days.
A quick note before I retire for the night. Our LO (Liason officer) has apparently gotten very sick and will be air lifted out in the morning. He is at the base camp doctors right now. I heard his SO2 (oxygen satuation level) was 50%. That is extremely bad. He likely has pulmonary edema. It is strange because he has been up here for a while and was fine. All of a sudden he takes a dive for the worse. It makes no sense. I hope he is fine and that he recovers quickly. I'm not sure what this means for us with no LO. They may send us a new one or we may go without.
Our climbing plans have also changed once again. We now plan to head back to camp 1 & 2 on April 26. The reason being that the Sherpa want another day to get camp 2 finished and this will also put us closer to the potential Chinese summit date. The hope is that camp 3 will open while we are up there and we will be able to make a trip to and sleep at camp 3 before we come down. This will make our acclimatization complete and after a rest we will be ready to go for our summit push.
Hugs to Susan, Amy, and Colin. (ss).

Messages:

Galen, thanks for the message. Hope all is well in Vancouver.

Scott, hope all is well. Your friend Dave has gone home as you may know and I have not met Brian yet. I have Met others from the team.

Dave, thanks for the message. It sounds like things are going welll back there. Thanks again. I have developed some good conttacts up here that could prove quite valuable for us in the future. I look forwarded to telling you about it upon my return.

Alex et al., great to hear from you. It will be great to see you and the family. Send an email to my work email or to Susan when you have details. Thanks for the newspaper cut outs. I am interested to see them.

Chris, thanks for your messages. They always make me laugh. Glad that Everest has become a interest for you and Ellen, but make sure you get some sleep and do some work.

Nick, great to get your message. Glad the climb of Island Peak went well. Must be nice to be back in sunny Australia. Not much card playing going on here. Mostlt reading and watching the odd DVD. I'm not sure how, but the days seem to pass relatives quickly.