September 21, 2006 – Catching Up On World News

No Audio Today

It’s the evening of September 21st and I’m calling you from base camp.  Today will go down as being a very significant day in the chronicles of this expedition.  Da Sona and the Sherpa team I keep bragging about moved the fixed lines all the way up to and did establish Camp 3 today.  The Camp 3 that Dave and I prefer is very high on the Lhotse face, virtually at 24,000 feet (7315 meters), so we are really impressed with the remarkable two days work that these guys got in getting the lines all the way up there.

Da Sona and 2 other guys are all the way back down here at base camp with me.  Mingma Ongel and Passang Tenzing who were on that team stayed up at Camp 2 with the Camp 2 cook just to make sure that camp stays intact and there are no problems with weather up there.  The team is in great shape, believe me.

Back down here at base camp as we acclimatize, we are taking care of enjoying the amenities here in the 2 meter dome.  We are still reading through the stack of Herald Tribunes, Economist and Time magazines as well as Newsweek that came in with the mail runner a few days a go.

 I was happy to see Dave Hahn take off on one of his archeological expeditions today.  He always likes to scratch around some of the sites of old rubbish and refuge from some very historic expeditions that still crop up.  Today he came back with a very familiar site, a box with a 1982 Canadian expedition logo and I enjoyed seeing that.  Danuru who was a very young climbing Sherpa working on that team, is now working as a Sherpa guide for Michael Boni from White Rock, BC.  He and I both got a kick out of seeing that old box from the 1982 first Canadian attempt on Everest.  A little history and archeology going on here at base camp and a lot of time relaxing in the 2 meter dome.

The team is doing great and we have a lot to be proud of with our progress but we still have a long ways to go.