October 7 - Fine-tuning gear at Camp 2

I’m calling you from Camp 2 now. There’s a beautiful moon that’s just about to rise over Lhotse – it looks like it’s going to be spectacular.

From a radio call to Base Camp and Leila today I got a message relayed from Christie at the Berg Adventures office that perhaps yesterday’s satellite phone transmission from Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face had not been very clear. Sorry about that – it’s too bad. It was a really great moment to have the entire team up there. Perhaps you got some of the message.

If you did not, highlights were just having the entire team there. The thrill that I shared with David Burger and Brad often during the climb up the face and at Camp 3 and just actually being there on the Lhotse Face.

And for Brad especially. You know, when you climb the Lhotse Face, as you go higher and higher as you approach 7000 meters you look back across the top of Pumori. And right behind Pumori is Cho Oyu. Four years ago this autumn, Brad had stood on the summit of Cho Oyu and he described to me looking at the Lhotse Face and wondering if someday he’d go to Everest. And of course, he’s here now.

This morning after some pretty substantial headaches, Brad and Maegan got up very early on a cold morning high on the Lhotse Face and descended as quickly as they could all the way back down to Base Camp. I’ve had a couple of radio calls with them this afternoon. They’re down there fine. Garry, David and myself stopped at Camp 2 for one more night of acclimatization in the Western Cwm. We’ll get up early tomorrow and we’ll return to Base Camp.

David Burger spent this afternoon fastening foam cell insulators for our Primus gas cartridges that we’ll use higher on the mountain. We’re always kind of fine-tuning and tweaking with gear issues here. It’s really hard to get those things to burn well. You have to hold the ice cold metal cylinders in your hand and literally blow on them trying to get them to warm up enough to heat the stove burners adequately and boil your water, melt the snow. So good work on David’s part this afternoon.

We’re settling down now for our last night, and it will be for Garry, David and myself, our seventh night in the Western Cwm or above on this route. Good acclimatization for the opportunities we have to climb coming in the weeks ahead.