Sept 20th - Rest Day at Base Camp

Woke up to stunning scenery with a cloud base down in the valley and sun on all the peaks at altitude. Today was the day for our Puja, the Buddhist blessing ceremony of our team and camp. We had planned to do it Wednesday but the moon was not in alignment so it was pushed back. Our Sherpas are all practicing Buddhists so it's really interesting to watch as they performed the whole thing. They had been cooking food and perparing for hours in the morning, pastry and cake for the ceremony, that and the salty Tibetan tea again. We brought most of our kit and anything else we wanted blessed up to a stone altar they had built, aside from the usual ice axe, rope crampons, there was a bottle of Pastis, some whiskey and a few other funny items. At the end, they hoist a mast with prayer flags and rhodedendron on it, the timing was precise, couldn't be done before 10 am. Seeing as we're on the moraine, one of them had to have made the trip down to get the rhodos. We were all given a woven strand as part of this, worn around the neck to help us get to the summit. They also powder our faces with flour for good luck and long life.




The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, seeing as it was sunny and warm most people took advantage of the nice weather and had a shower, well a wash in a tent. I retreated to my tent and watched the rest of a movie. We then had a wicked rain storm late in the afternoon so I crawled into my sleeping bag and had a nap.



Michel has been digging in his food barrels all day, it started with a bit of cheese, then some sausage, then he pulled out an entire leg of ham. Cured of course. Amazing how well some of this stuff travels. David brought some Comte cheese which didn't travel as well, he packed it next to his short bread which now have a distinct and unnatural flavour. Laurence is doing better, she's planning on coming back up tomorrow. She's the team nurse so I think she's been really hard on herself about getting sick.



Dinner tonight was not exactly typical Nepali food, pizza and french fries followed by some sort of gelatine dessert. Amazing at what these guys come up with in a small little tent with a few gas burners. Everyone seemed slighly subdued today, we're all heading to C1 tomorrow so maybe it's weighing on everyone.



I've had a few people send me the quote from Ed Visturs: going up is optional, coming down is mandatory. Yesterday was a new high for me in terms of altitude and I can see how it happens that people are singular focused on the summit and exhaust themselves getting there. I was feeling tired, but really didn't notice it until we stopped. I'm sure I could have kept going but it made me realise how the fatigue is accelerated by the dimishing atmosphere. I guess my case wasn't helped by the two Fig-o-lous I had for breakfast along with the cup of tea. Mental note to self was made to eat a real breakfast before climbing big mountains...



It's now been two weeks and I have to say the time has flown. We've been busy and are well into the acclimitisation. There's some science behind this phase but everyone is different. Based on traditional theory, the earliest we will start our summit attempt is Sept 29. This next trip up will have a night at C1, then up to C2. The day after C2 will depend on how I feel, we will either go up to C3 at 6700 m and spend the night or spend another at C2. I seem to be pretty regular with the headache for the first night at a new altitude which is becoming a bit tiresome but it is a good reality check and preventing me from trying to run to the summit on the first day here.