Mt. Everest 2010 #28 - Back to Base Camp

Gabcast! Mt. Everest 2010 #28



Namaste everybody, and Lorraine, I'm sending you a big birthday hug, and we'll share a bit of birthday cake when I get home.

Today I'm doing really good, really really good. I had a couple of down days, just a little bit of less energy, but today feels really good. We left Camp 1 at about 7:00 this morning, and made it down to Base Camp at about 10:00, which was three hours, not terribly fast, but ?Steve? and I were the first ones here so that made me feel pretty good. We met somewhat about fifty people in the icefall today, alot of them were sherpas passing us on the way down after they've dropped off their loads at either Camp 1 or Camp 2. These men are just amazingly strong. And then, of course, we saw many people going up ???? Camp 1. Chatted with quite a few of them while they were waiting at the ladders.

Now, about the ladders, I'm doing actually quite well in the icefall, but there is one ladder that still makes me feel a bit queezy every time I get to it. It's vertical, it's angled to the left, and it's quite loose, so every step you take you feel like you're falling off to the left hand side. But there is a rope, there is a safety line, and of course nobody has fallen off the ladders yet, so everything is good.

So, we're just going to have probably four or five rest days in Base Camp, and then we will be going to be going back up.

Thanks everyone for listening, and for everyone who knows Lorraine, give her a call today and make her day. Love to you all, take care, Bye.