Got word today that Terri finally made it out of Katmandu. Rioting against the king has racked the city. The Ministry of Tourism made special provisions for an escort to get her and the other trekkers to the airport – six hours early. She said there was no traffic only troops everywhere. I understand things are back to normal now. Terri told me it made the national news but here at Everest base camp only a few hundred miles away we knew nothing. I look forward to hearing the full story when I finally get out of here. I think most people would be surprised how much sitting time there is here. Because of the logistics, the altitude and the need to acclimatize very little happens fast. Sometime this weekend we will most likely move up to Camp One at about 20,000 feet where we will spend the night. The next day we will hike up to the site of Camp Two at 22,000 and perhaps leave some gear. We will come back to Camp One and spend our second night at this altitude before going back down on day three to base camp to recover. After a few days in the relative comfort of Base Camp we will again go through the ice fall to Camp One. The next day we will move to Two and spend several nights there getting organized and make a few hikes up to the base of the Lhotse Wall. We will probably come all the way back down to Base Camp after spending another night at Camp One on the way. Our final pre summit acclimatization will again be to Camp One, Camp Two for a couple of nights and then a long climb to Camp Three at 23,600 for at least one night. Camp Three is where most climbers begin using oxygen so there is little need to waste the extremely valuable O2 to go to the South Col (col means saddle) at 26,000 feet where the final summit push will begin. Some climbers choose to go all the way to 12,000 feet and stay in Dingoboche in the pine forest after this final cycle to recharge and recuperate before the big summit push. One of the ways we measure our acclimatizing is by watching our oxygen saturation levels using a pulse oximeter. It fits over you finger and tells you your pulse rate and how well oxygenated your blood is. My sat rates have climbed back into the low 90’s here which is very good. It would not be uncommon for someone just arriving at 17,000 feet to be in the 60’s or 70’s – numbers that would put you in the hospital in the real world. In fact one of the problems with helicopter rescue at this altitude is the lack of acclimatization of most of the pilots. They fly on bottled O2 but if there is an accident they will died within hours of running out of O2. We heard yesterday that an expedition cook on the North Side of Everest (That is the Tibet side and things are a lot less professional there) hurried up to altitude to quickly and died. Even the Sherpa’s who live in the 12- 14000 foot elevations still need the time to do things right and let their body adjust.