I woke this morning to a different world. I had slept so hard I had not heard the thunder or noticed the snow that dumped on us. Consequently my tent was sagging under the weight and my first order of business was to get the snow beat of it before it collapsed on me. Not life threatening but embarrassing and not particularly good on a tent. Base Camp is covered by maybe a foot of snow and it will continue through out the day. We met 6 climbers and 3 Sherpas going up to Camp one yesterday. It was comfortable with five of us – I can’t imagine 9. We heard on the radio this morning that they had gotten over a meter (about 3 feet) of snow and it was still coming. I feel for them. It can drive you stir crazy just the idea that you are stuck. Arrangements were made with one of our sister expeditions to raid their fuel as they have no one at Camp One. As I said before everyone works together. With all this snow, even if it quits they won’t be going anywhere. The slopes are to loaded and the avalanche danger to great. We just sort of hunker down our selves. We are camped on a glacier covered by, as someone put it, modular rocks. After a few days you figure out which ones are solid and which will flip on you. Now they are all covered by a couple of feet of snow and all bets are of. I have affectionately dubbed this place “bust-your-butt-bouche”. A name that has stuck (or some less “G” version of it). To prove it’s not 15 meters (a meter is about a yard – if nothing else reading this will give you some ideas about the metric system!) I stepped on a piece of ice and went down hard. In good mountaineering form I jumped right up and looked around to see if anyone saw me. Unfortunately a bunch of the Sherpas who had just come down from moving a load up where standing there having tea. Not a smile or a snicker until I started laughing then they all broke up too. They are such a kind and considerate people. I can’t say the same for myself. I have seen some falls that were so funny I would have laughed if it had killed them. I did have the decency to turn the other way. In any case it pays to be careful. Someone told me that all accidents happen within 15 meters of your tent. It would be a shame to twist an ankle or break something and have to go home at this point. All the while it continues to snow and very little is going to get done here.