Location: Camp 2
Altitude: 6500m
Time: 5pm Thursday 13th May
Conditions: the wind has dropped and it's cloudy now after a clear morning and a very windy night.

Hello it's Pat here in Camp 2. We got flogged by the wind last night but our tents managed to withstand the battering. Angkaji and Jangbu arrived at 9am after a five hour trip from BC (that's fast). By mid-morning the wind had dropped off substantially and so I climbed 150m up a scree slope behind Camp 2 to get the blood pumping in the hope I could shake the altitude-related grogginess I'd had since the night before (it worked, but it's back a bit now). The views were great and I enjoyed having the moment to myself in one of the world's most amazing mountain environments.

After a delicious lunch of pasta and pesto, Simone dropped by and I think Sumit and I have convinced him to come to Australia early next year for a series of presentations and a holiday (he's not been before). If he and Denis are up to it, they'll be trying a new route from the South Col to the summit of Lhotse without bottled oxygen on the same day we'll try for the summit of Mount Everest - Sunday 16th.

The forecasts all suggest a two day window of light winds on the 16th & 17th, so we'll stick to our plan of moving up to Camp 3 tomorrow (Friday) morning. I think there will be quiet a number of teams trying to summit over these two days.

So all six of us are together in Camp 2, enjoying a final bit of rest before the hard work really begins.

Messages

The messages I have received over the past two days have been very uplifting and heart-warming - I've read each one at least twice! It's great to see some new names come out of the woodwork too! I really feel like I have a groundswell of support behind me, and it means a lot to me. You've all contributed.

Unfortunately I won't be able to respond individually to each message from now on as I need to conserve strength - both mine and the battery's! I will however be taking the sat phone and pda to C3 & C4 to continue the updates and photos, so keep the messages coming!

So a big and very sincere thanks to the following folks for taking the time to make a post:

Helga Cohrs, Rach & Aila, Annie, Jen Brown, Mike Pengelly, Jamo, Jamie and T-Blake Atkinson, Harley Whitcombe, Kate List (no problems eating meat Kate, except for perhaps yak), Chelsea Robertson, Cat Williams (congrats on the engagement), Craig (please give the big man some advance notice that I may be calling on him), Ado, Dianne Gilbert, Bazza Gilligan, Beau & Kel (not surprised you finished the 100km Kel, you're tough as nails), Eamon, Kathy, Mum, Sharon & Al, Stark (can't believe the Dockers!), John Lyon, Stuart Lowden, Pia, Charty & Lori Riley, Paul May, Claire Espinasse, Richard Gorham and all the crew at RPS (thanks very much for the message but unfortunately I couldn't open the attachment), Shae Miller-White, Mike Bower, Vanessa Yeomans, David Latham and Amsley, Gates, Cole & Victoria, Morag, John Bentley (I did tell you, you just forgot you goose), and Nick Sawyer (yes I do remember meeting you).