Today was a sad day around IMG Base Camp. Everything is standing down after the accident. Our rest and waiting days, which are frequent on an expedition like this, become a strain after a while. Each rotation higher up the mountain can mean four or five days of resting and trying to recuperate. The air here is almost zero humidity and usually pretty cold when we are climbing. That results in a lot of Khumbu cough – a dry hacking unproductive cough that can last days or even weeks. It is not uncommon for people to crack ribs from the coughing. The generally accepted advice is wait one day after the cough stops before going higher again. Off days are spent repairing gear, washing clothes and generally goofing off. It is also an opportunity to catch up on my web site and my e-mails. Pretty amazing what we are able to do here in these conditions. First I have been very fortunate that my Dell laptop has continued to operate. At 17,600 feet many of the laptops are DOA. The thin air affects the hard drive. Plus the cold and general dust and dirt just are not good for them. We have large solar panels here that charge big marine batteries. We use and inverter to provide 120 power. We do have an emergency generator for back up but when it gets bad enough to use it we don’t run laptops. I have an Iridium sat phone that when there is a satellite in place I can download these to the office. I actually can send several e-mails in less than a minute. I am still working on compressing pictures to send. A minute runs about $2 all things considered. There are private sat phones everywhere. Most were brought in without a Nepal permit. The permit is $2,200 and very few people pay it. Nepal basically is afraid the phones will fall into the hands of the Maoist. They probably have better communications than we do. Nepal is a country in turmoil at this time. I am reluctant to comment too much on it for obvious reasons. Although, we actually are so far removed that most of our information on what is happening in Katmandu a couple hundred miles away comes from the states 12 time zones away. The 22nd was our 28th wedding anniversary. The first we have been apart in all these years. My wife has put up with a lot and very little I have accomplished I could have done without her support.