Tuesday April 15. Base Camp Rest Day.
Today is another rest day.
Not much will go on today so I thought I would introduce the other people on our expedition and in our camp.

Ryan Waters is our guide and co-owner of Mountain Professionals based on Boulder Colorado. Ryan has been a professional mountain guide for over 15 years and has worked extensively with Outward Bound, RMI and other guiding companies. He has led expeditions throughout North and South America, Nepal and Tibet. He has summited Everest from the North side. You can learn more about Ryan, his company and read dispatches from this expedition at his web site
www.mtnprofessionals.com

Angus Murray is a long time friend and climbing partner of mine. He is currently living on Vancouver Island with his wife Sarah. Angus and I met at Outward Bound Canada and have climbed together on Mount Logan, Denali, Island Peak and Ama Dablam. Angus is also posting on MyEverest, but also has his own site
www.climbingtoyoursummit.com

Al Barrett is from Denver Colorado and runs a successful Heating & Air Conditioning business. Al does not have a web site, but the Mountain Professionals web site does have a bio for Al.

Ron is climbing independently from us, but is sharing our base camp. He is on an expedition organized by High Altitude Dreams (HAD). Ron has taken early retirement from a successful high rise building repair company that he ran in North Carolina and has been climbing extensively for the past ten years.

Sylvie Frechette is a fellow Canadian from Quebec City. Sylvie has only been climbing for four years, but has trained extensively to get to where she is. She is also climbing with HAD. Her web site is www.sylviefrechette.com.

Mustafa is also climbing with HAD. He is from Jordan and this is his third attempt on Mount Everest. If he summits he will be the first Jordanian to climb the seven summits. So far he has been the first Jordanian to climb each of the mountains he has climbed. It is apparently quite a big thing in Jordan and he was Knighted when he returned from his climb of Mount Vinson in Antarctica.

Dr. Jim Carter is a researcher from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center connected to Harvard Medical School. He is a Research and Clinical Psychologist and he does a lot of training with astronauts at NASA. He is here working with the Brown University team and conducting group dynamic research on climbing teams. Part of this research involves examining if a conflict resolution training program designed for astronauts at NASA can apply to climbers.

Kelly is with Brown University and is a hiking guide in New Hampshire. Her role is to gather participants for their research and to administer the program. I have signed up to be part of this research. They are examining how altitude affects specific parts of the brain connected to memory, cognition and speech. She will be in touch with climbers by radio at camps 1, 2, & 3.

Bridie is also part of the Brown team. She is from New Zealand and is also a hiking guide (or a tramping guide as they say in NZ).

Our Sherpa team is made up of Lama Babu who has been with us from the start (I believe that Lama Babu summited with Shauna Burke from Canada in 2004). Lama Tame who is a real Lama. Cering and Lhakpa. This is a strong team with multiple summits.

We also have a head cook, Baboron and his assistant Sam. Several other Sherpa work behind the scenes as well.

This will be my last dispatch until possibly May 10. If you have been following the news about Everest for this season you will know why, but I can't say anything further at this time. I know we all have opinions about this, but I would ask that this site not be used to express them. I will ask my site administrator (Susan) to delete any comments that express potentially challenging statements. There will be a better time to discuss this.
We will be climbing on the mountain and so far all appears to be ok. There will be restrictions on communication and climbing schedules as we all know. I am not sure exactly when communication will resume so please check back every now and then to see.
Thank you all for your support thus far.
Scott out.

Messages:
Shelagh, thanks for your message. Fortunately all the Gore-Tex and down clothing keeps the odors at bay.

Chris, thanks for the story about your ice tower. It is fun to hear things from the outside world. The ladders are not too bad, but the longer they are and the deeper the crevasse the tighter you hold on.

Jim, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you found my description of the ice fall thorough. I am not a fancy writer, I do not use a lot of adjectives and metaphors in my writing. I just describe it as I see it. As far as your questions about sections higher up on the mountain, I would prefer to answer them once I have first hand knowledge.

Amy, thanks for your email. It was great to talk to you the other day.
Love, Daddy.