November 17, 2007– Arrived at Ama Dablam Base Camp

Hi everybody, calling you from Ama Dablam base camp. It’s our second day here at base camp and the sun has just hit our tents. I can see Don has just crawled out of his tent to enjoy the sunshine and the warmth. It is still a little cold here but it will warm up quickly.

Our cook staff is getting morning tea ready and some wash water for us, and then later we will have breakfast.

Yesterday we arrived early to base camp, we had a  Puja performed for us for the mountain (the traditional blessing ceremony) it clears the way for us to start the expedition.

Today we will do an acclimatization hike. We will sort through food for the upper mountain and also do a final check of our gear before heading up higher tomorrow.

Both Jack and Don are doing well. A few sniffles but acclimatization has gone as planned and were very positive about the climb. We’ve seen teams high on the mountain. I can see a team making a summit bid right now on the final head wall and we saw teams again yesterday. By the time we get on the mountain we are expecting it will be almost empty of other teams and just ours, should be a nice treat in the days to come.