More Downtime at Base Camp

Location: Everest Base Camp
Altitude: 5350m
Local Time: 5:30pm, Thurs 20th April
Weather: Fine and warm, 15C

Hi everyone, Fi here,

Not a whole lot more to report today as we continue to wait for the snow to clear.

Today’s Weather
Fortunately we hardly received any new snow today and much of the day was warm allowing some of the recent snowfalls to melt and consolidate. In fact, for a while it was pretty hot with some of the team members stripping down to only shorts and T-shirts. Even on days when the temperature is around 0C outside our sleeping tents heat up so much that they are almost uncomfortable to stay inside, so you can imagine how warm the tents were today. In fact, the weather was so strange that for a while we had warm sunshine at the same time as light snow.

Climbing Plans
Today, the rest of our team came down from Camp 1. They reported waist deep snow and were regularly hearing and seeing avalanches close by to camp. So they were a little relieved for today’s weather and the fact that the trail had been broken in by another big group (meaning that the fixed lines were easy to find).
However, the weather forecasts seem to indicate some more unstable weather for the next two days so it looks like we’ll be staying put here for a least a couple more days. But you never know, that could change as more forecasts come in.

We’re both still gradually getting better so will hopefully be in peak form by the time we’re able to move up. (By the way Dame, there is oxygen here for medical use but only for emergencies – and we are definitely not at that stage.)

A Good Washing Day
The warmer weather brought out a lot of dirty washing and a queue for the shower. Paul was one of those washing his clothes and I was one having a shower. Feeling much cleaner now (hopefully Paul will have a shower tomorrow too!).

Filling in the Time
The days have certainly got a different feeling from those spent at home. Seems like you can easily fill a day with 3 meals, a game of scrabble, a shower and a good book. It’s hard to imagine our former lives of having virtually every working hour booked out with meetings, training before work, often uni after work, and somehow fitting in a social life. Already seems a lifetime away.
One thing we’re all doing a lot more of is sleeping. We have dinner at 6pm and some of us make a conscious decision not to go to bed until at least 8pm – stretching out the board games and conversation as long as possible! And then breakfast is at 8am so we don’t tend to rise until around 7:30. (This is very different from our previous lives where we’d rarely be in bed before midnight and be up at 5:30am for a bike ride.)

Your Messages
Monette – thanks for your message. John Kellner is not on our team but we’ll say hi if we do come across him. Are you referring to Dennis?

John K – thanks for your ideas on HO. Sounds interesting but I think we’ll save the early experimentation for others. We’re definitely on the Vitamin C though so glad to hear it might be more beneficial than we’d thought.

To the OTHER Paul and Fiona – you guys freakishly similar!

Joan Jones – haven’t yet come across either Justin Hoy or Ross Thomson. Will say a big Hi if we cross paths with them.

Ross Agostino – Thanks for your message. Unfortunately we can’t easily post a lot more photos as our connection speed is very slow (text is not too bad to send but photos are very slow = expensive). There are a lot of people climbing Everest from the north (Tibetan) side but we don’t really have contact with them (unless we see them on the summit that is!). As far as I know, all the people climbing from this side will be attempting the same route that Hillary used.

Louise – well done on your trek. Nepal sure is an amazing place. It’s great to get messages like yours that will keep us going when times get tougher and we’re losing motivation. (Although we’re a little frustrated at the moment, it’s still relatively early days yet!) And by the way, we were in fact holed up in our tent today!

Gareth – Paul says he remembers you and was thrilled to hear from you. Kind of bizarre that you were not far from here just recently! Would be great to catch up when we are back.

Mum – Sorry about the lack of access (but I’m not sure that Dad and Leah are sorry!). I’m sure you can arrange something with Beck soon though. Thanks for your voicemail as well. Enjoy Sydney and say hi to Jill, Robyn & Michael.

Kirk – Thanks for the Kathmandu update, still no evidence of anything from up here. We’re probably in one of the safest place in Nepal.

Bridge & Chris – India sounds fantastic. Can’t wait to see your photos and hear about it first hand.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

Fiona