Paul B,

I can't believe you are nearly there!

Good luck for the next few days.

You will be great.

Deb

Just read the lastest update and it does not sound like my idea of a tropical holiday! Love to all and take good care of your health.
Love Mum and Rob xxx

Thankgod it wasnt that cold when i was there ! - seems like conditions are getting worse ( cold wise and wind) hope u guys have a clear sky and good conditions when attempt the summit. All the best boys !

kade

58 PST San Francisco, California - -- The Coast Guard was rocked by new developments Wednesday in the wake of the huge San Francisco Bay oil spill as the agency shoved aside its Bay Area disaster commander, began a wide-ranging probe of its actions after the accident and admitted it had mishandled drug tests for crew members of the ship that struck the Bay Bridge.
Capt. William Uberti, who led the initial response after the Cosco Busan struck a bridge tower on Nov. 7 and dumped 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel, was replaced by Capt. Paul Gugg, an experienced specialist in oil disasters.
The commander of the 11th Coast Guard District, Rear Adm. Craig Bone, stopped short of saying Uberti was fired. Bone said he decided on the replacement "considering the magnitude of this response operation, the level of public interest, and problems I have identified related to the initial spill response communications and coordination."
Uberti has been criticized for waiting four hours to inform the public that the spill was larger than 140 gallons and for allowing the gunky fuel to foul more than 30 beaches in the bay and along the ocean coastline. He will return to his usual duty as commander of the San Francisco-area Coast Guard operations.
Gugg, 49, has crafted spill regulations and response plans in Washington, D.C., and helped design emergency tactics after the catastrophic 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
"I have had the opportunity to be briefed by the team here, and I've been very impressed with what's taken place recently," Gugg said at a press briefing at the response command center on Treasure Island. "I've seen some great strategically and tactically deployed equipment."
The cost of the spill, counting cleanup efforts and damage to the Bay Bridge, marinas, beaches, boats and individuals could exceed $100 million, said Marilyn Raia, a San Francisco maritime lawyer who is representing insurance companies in the crisis.
As the Coast Guard's new commander overseeing the spill was announced in California, Coast Guard commandant Adm. Thad Allen underwent a grilling in Congress and announced that he has initiated an unusually "comprehensive review" of the Coast Guard's actions after the accident.
The review's investigators will include representatives from the city of San Francisco, the state Office of Emergency Services, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Coast Guard. The collective has been ordered to deliver a report to Allen within 90 days.
"While we would not normally initiate an ISPR (Incident Specific Preparedness Review) review during the course of an ongoing cleanup operation, I have determined that due to the severity of this incident and the potential benefits in identifying areas to improve response coordination and communication in the future, it is imperative that we get this review under way as quickly as possible," Allen said.
His comments came at a Senate briefing where California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein took turns querying federal officials over the spill response. Feinstein pressed Allen about whether there was a "muddled" response for lack of a central leader coordinating all the actions of cleanup and response crews.
Under federal rules, the Coast Guard takes the lead in responding to a spill but must act in partnership with the entity responsible for the spill and top state officials. Allen said he believes the split leadership often works well but was not effective in responding to last week's spill.
Also topmost among the concerns at the Washington briefing were revelations by the Coast Guard that it and the owners of the Cosco Busan freighter failed to ensure that members of the ship's crew were tested for drugs within 32 hours after the ship hit the bridge as required by federal regulations.
"If they didn't follow the protocol, and let's say people were keeling over with drugs and they got away with it, there ought to be a penalty for that - and we'll never know," Boxer said.
Coast Guard officials said Wednesday that the ship's operators did not test some of the relevant crew members - those with duties potentially linking them to the crash - for drugs until 53 hours after the incident.
It is the responsibility of the owner and operator of a vessel to test crew members immediately after an incident, but the Coast Guard is responsible for making sure the testing rules are strictly followed.
The results of the drugs tests for the Cosco Busan crew members are not yet back from the lab, and it's not clear yet if the delay could have undermined the efficacy of the tests.
Alcohol tests also were apparently done slightly late, but not as tardy as the drug assessments. Coast Guard officials say they will investigate to see what might have gone wrong.
"It certainly shows the operator missed a crucial detail," said Lt. Commander Tony Guild, who oversees inspections, investigations and analysts for the Coast Guard's Western region.
Guild said a Coast Guard casualty investigator was told Friday by an agent for the ship's owner, Regal Stone Ltd., that the Cosco Busan crew had not yet been tested for drugs.
"(The agent) said, 'We only tested the master for drugs, so the Coast Guard investigating officer said, 'You need to test everybody,' " Guild said. The master is the ship's captain, Mao Cai Sun.
Guild said the Coast Guard investigator moved quickly to order the drug tests, but acknowledged that the agency bore some responsibility for failing to get the tests done on time.
The alcohol testing for pilot John Cota and the Cosco Busan's crew also apparently took place late, but Coast Guard officials say that discrepancy was not as serious - and may not ultimately violate any regulations.
Cota was tested for alcohol at 10:29 a.m. Nov. 7, two hours and two minutes after the ship hit the bridge tower, and then for drugs at 10:35 a.m. Both tests, conducted by the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, came back negative, Guild said.
Then, between 11:24 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., the crew of the ship's bridge and chief engineer were tested for alcohol. Those tests have come back negative.
The alcohol tests were supposed to be conducted within two hours, but federal regulations allow an exception to delay testing when the safety of the vessel is still in question. The Cosco Busan was being moved to two different anchorages after the ship spilled its oil at 8:27 a.m., according to several accounts.
"In this particular case, it's not serious at all," Guild said of the belated alcohol tests.
A spokesman for Regal Stone Ltd. said that he was unfamiliar with the latest information, but that the last word he had from the Coast Guard was that the tests were done properly.
Meanwhile, 53 ships were working the waters on cleanup duty Wednesday while 1,517 people attacked the oil on beaches and in lagoons. More than 12,745 gallons of oil has been collected from the water so far, the Coast Guard reported. An additional 580 gallons have been dispersed naturally, and 4,060 gallons of oil has evaporated.
More than 1,500 birds have been injured or killed by oil.

Good luck my love. Have a safe climb.
From you know who?

Hi Cas,
Still following your trip and does sound great. Can,t believe you didnt sell it properly to me when you were trying to persuade me to go. All you had to say was you don,t have to wash or shave for a couple of weeks and you know I woulda gone.Anyway good luck witht the cold I,m off to play golf and its still 22 here. Hurry up and get the picture of you and a yak while i can still tell the difference.
Plate
Tony

I'm very impressed that you guys were able to handle the cold so well and avoid becoming sick. This is a great testament to the human spirit and proves that once someone has their mind set to something they can pull it off. Good work and good show guys, maybe in the near future I can be part of the party.
Narconon VistaBay