November 14, 2007 – Blessings and Team says Farewell to Paul

Hi everybody, it’s John calling from Pangboche. We are just less than 13,000 feet and believe it or not we are able to rest at this altitude. Our team has acclimatized well and they are ready for Ama Dablam.

Today they had the pleasure of having a Puja with Lama Geshi here in Pangboche. We did that early in this morning... [lost transmission]... but also to offer us a Kata (white scarf) in the blessing ceremony which we will greatly appreciate in the days to come.

We also had another treat for our climbing group, Sherpa Mingma Ongel gave us the opportunity to meet his family. His beautiful wife and two children who have come to Pangboche from Phortse where they live to be near him as he climbs with us on our Ama Dablam Expedition.

It is actually a cold day today. We said farewell to Paul who joined us on the Island Peak portion of this 2007 Berg Adventures Ama Dablam trip. Paul headed out early this morning down to Namche and they’ll eventually make their way to Kathmandu.

That’s basically what we did today. We had a great day and perfect weather. We’ll be on the mountain shortly. In fact tomorrow the team will be heading to Ama Dablam base camp and take part in another Puja ceremony. This will be our main blessing before we can start our climb.