Luck was with us today, in that we were prepared for extreme cold and wind, even possible failure in our plan to reach camp three....but we had none of that! Don't get me wrong, it was cold enough when we got up for breakfast at 6 o'clock, and I did well to resist my down suit. The walk up and across to the bottom of the Lhotse face took about an hour and a half, being more crevassed than in 2006. There were lots of small figures on the face already, earlier risers than us by a way, with a steady stream descending later in the day, mostly Sherpa teams who'd been up to the Col. They are extraordinary.
There was a queue of sorts to get onto the steep, lower face, and thereafter I was fairly limited in my speed of ascent for several hours. Ray and Greg were just in front of me initially, but that eventually turned into an hour advantage at the top!
By 9 o'clock the sun began to hit, and the layers of clothing were too much. The face is so steep that it was a challenge to get some clothing off in good time, so we sweltered more than we planned. I say again, climbing Everest is really hard.
The last couple of hours to the lower reaches of camp three were in cloud, yet hot, and personally I found it near purgatory. Ray and Greg passed me going down in thick mist just short of where they'd rested for an hour on the flattest bit of platform on the whole face. I was so glad to get there myself 20 minutes later. This was 7020m. Thick mist yet stifling hot! Cruel game. After half an hour or so it began to snow pretty hard, and it also became clear that there were loads of climbers descending.
So I cut my planned long break short and set off down in true "white out" conditions that were tricky, and which persisted until near camp! I was glad of my past experience  as we all picked our way down to the bottom , some abseiling, mostly walking down with the fixed rope wrapped around an arm for some much needed friction. Maybe it was good that today there was no view down at all!
Once I was down on the safer plod back to camp two it inevitably got hot again! Infuriating. I remember too well almost crawling back over the same ground in 2006 after my failed summit bid the day before. I was wrecked then, even with the remnants of my last oxygen cylinder to supposedly help me along. Compared to that, today I was just exhausted. Nice.
Nadir was told by Henry that as he is so inexperienced he must have a personal Sherpa, particularly to help him climb down the face, and as there wasn't one available until tomorrow, he's had to wait. He took the news philosophically. We three may rest here tomorrow, and so accompany him down the next day, we will see.
So we've climbed to camp three uneventfully on the 13th May, after my 13th full journey through the icefall, and in my case from a BC tent labelled no. 13 ! Thanks again Lhama Geshi and assorted mountain gods.
It's impossible not to think of these things a bit.
Due to the cloud high up today, I didn't take photos as I'd like. The camera rarely does the views justice in my experience.

Messages:

My batteries are doing well, so we can reply in more depth today!
Abby and Liz, so good to hear from you both, new voices on here. I hoped to be missed a little bit at work, even if it IS only for my ready pen for scripts!
Jim, great to know you're finding time to watch too. Can you believe this lump of lard can still get this far? It's very tough though, believe me. I'm using an HP iPAQ to write on, and process chosen photos, and it takes the CF card from my Canon Powershot S50. There are better cameras, of course, but I know this one generally works in the extreme cold, which makes it worth it's weight in gold really. I connect the pda to a satphone each evening and with varying degrees of difficulty I send the update and receive recent messages posted on the site, via my dear friend Harry, who acts as a moderator for the site. It's worked pretty well, but has been quite a hassle since the solar panels I'd hired for charging batteries broke down.
It'll get more interesting in the next couple of weeks, assuming I get a summit attempt. I'd love that beer, I'm a shadow of my self again, quite alarming really! Cheers.
Annie, how nice to hear from you too. I'm not as adventurous as you on a regular basis, of course, just occassionally mad me. Yes, the icefall IS horrendous, nobody would cross it unless it was for a huge prize like Everest. And it looks huge, believe me.
Mary Clare, I am the definitive tortoise in our group, that's for sure. I wish I was younger, but I may yet get away with it, who knows?

messages from Greg; phew, that was a tough day! Glad to be back at camp two, camp three in the bag, I guess that we just have to wait for our weather window now. Dear Heather, happy birthday! Have a lovely birthday tea in nanny and grandads, I am sure you will have a great time. Elaine, hope that you are ok, it was lovely to speak yesterday, hopefully not too long before I am on my way home, lots of love, Greg xxx.

Replies from Ray

Susan
Well I hope you enjoy Barcelona Susan, it will be a couple of weeks before we will be in a possition to have a few beers. All the preparation is now done so it's a matter of get back down to Base Camp, get some rest and wait for our weather window.

Jazz & Mel
Just read your message, well done on the exam Jazz and good luck with t
e rest. Don't wash the car too much "she" is not used to it!
So little sis has come into money again, that's at least a curry when I get back. No message from Jan, I might get it when we send this tonight.
Take care Ray.

Dave Lamb
Hi Dave, I'm glad the football season is over! Just got back from our trip to camp 3 and I was knacked. Really hot even when it was snowing, at least I only have to do it once more! We have decided to have an extra night at camp 2 so we are going back to BC 0n Thursday - we love it so much. Glad everything is going smoothly at work, see you don't need me, can I have some more holdays? The jury is still out over PDA's little sods at times. Say hello to Alistair when he starts again, do we get a refund on his leaving present? See you all in June sometime. Ray

Hi Kev N.; thanks for your messages matey, you are right, my weight has dropped considerably, all my clothing hangs off me, I think that I have probably lost a stone and a half so far! Mostly muscle too, but it is to be expected up here. We are all trying to eat but altitude knocks the appetite, and the food requires an acquired taste! Best wishes, Greg.