Sunday April 13. Everest Base Camp 5300. Rest Day.
I just had a shower!!! My first in 14 days. Now some of you kids out there reading this (especially the boys) may be thinking this is pretty good, but let me tell you it is not. I have trekked over 50 miles to get to base camp and done a lot of hard work since I got here and I was not smelling like a rose any longer. After a few days I gave up on deodorant as it seemed pointless. The only thing to do was to accept it for what it was.
Most of our team members, including myself are pretty stinky and our clothes are the same. There is no laundry service up here.
Our shower tent is about one meter square and two meter tall. There is a barrel sitting on a rock behind the tent with a hose and a hand held shower head. I told the cook I wanted a shower and they heated up about 40 liters of water and poured it into the barrel. Getting water is no small chore as the Sherpa have to walk down to a glacier stream or small lake, fill two 40 liter jugs and carry them back.
Our on-demand hot water system is not working as the pump froze and will no longer work so we are using the gravity feed method which is just as good.
I had to choose my shower time carefully to get the hot part of the day and it was quite comfortable. If you wait until the afternoon when the clouds come in the shower is quite unpleasant as you have a small stream of warm water surrounded by lots of cold air.
When my shower was done I asked for a large bowl of warm water to do some laundry. I dumped my clothes into the water, added some shampoo and swished my hands back and forth like a washing machine. I beat and scrubbed the extra dirty stuff, gave a quick rinse and rung out the clothes. I suspect the are only marginally cleaner than when I started, but I feel good with the effort. My clothing is now laying on a rock and hanging on the guy lines for my tent to dry. I only need to hope the sun stays out long enough to dry everything out.
After lunch we had a meeting to review oxygen and high altitude drugs. Our climbing oxygen has not arrived yet as there is apparently a porter shortage due to the high volume of trekkers and climbers coming in all at once. Therefore, we played with our medical oxygen that is exactly the same thing, but this bottle and mask lives at base camp for medical emergencies.
Ryan (our guide) explained the system, how to connect the regulator and mask and how to work the flow regulation. We then reviewed AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema), and HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema). We discussed the symptoms and what medications to use to relieve the symptoms. Basically the best thing to do is to descend, but several different drugs also help the person recover faster as they descend.
Some other developments in camp is that we got new indoor/outdoor carpet for our dining tent as well as a new heater that actually works.
Otherwise, not much is new. It looks like tomorrow will be another rest day and we will hopefully head up to camp 1 for a sleep on Tuesday.
Big hugs to Susan, Amy and Colin.
Scott (SS)

Colin, thank you for sending me the email. It made me very happy to receive it. I am glad you are having fun and doing well at home. Send me another email when you have time.
Love, Daddy.

Amy, I am so proud of you. You are doing so well at school and it makes me extra proud that you have been chosen to give the first pitition at your first communion.
Love, Daddy.

Liane, if you want to send me something it can be done. Send to the address below. Kili Sherpa (our logistics provider) has runners coming up every week to deliver fresh supplies and mail.

Send to:
Scott Kress
Mountain Professionals
Everest Base Camp
C/O
Kili Sherpa
High Altitude Dreams
Chapali V.D.C 9 New Coloni
P.O. Box 3438
Kathmandu Nepal
www.highaltitudedreams.com
kili@highaltitudedreams.com

Evan, thanks for the message. Glad the session has worked out well for the SPICERS/Kodak team. I look forward to connecting with you upon my return.

Deborah, great to hear from you. Hope all is well on the west coast. Say hi to any of the RRU gang you see for me.