Today is a rest day for me.  I need some time to recuperate from my days higher.  I am still having stomach issues and my weight loss is obvious.  I continue to try and eat as much as possible and stay well hydrated but the extra ten pounds I put on for this trip are probably gone.  I also have a mild case of the Khumbu cough.  This malady affects 40% of all the climbers on Everest.  It is caused by the dry cold air.  The docs at HRA told me they have already sent down one climber who tore something in his rib cage from coughing.  Before the season is over there will be people who will crack ribs coughing.  It’s that bad.

I have decided to take this bad weather up high to go lower.  Our most recent weather forecast is for high winds on the summit and down to C2 until the 3rd of May.  Going lower is always a risk and many people will not do it because they worry about catching something from one of the trekkers lower down.  I have even heard them call trekkers “disease vectors”.  Some teams take it too extremes.  One expedition will not allow their team members to leave the immediate vicinity of their camp nor will they allow anyone in.  They are on lock down.

I think for me the risk is worth it.  Bill Burke and I decide to go to Pheriche at about 14,000 feet.  It is a very nice clean lodge and the thicker air should do both of us good.  We’ll spend a few days, try to put back some weight and when we move back to BC it will be for our final summit push.  There are always decisions to be made that can have a major impact on your climb.  One other member of our expedition (who has already summited Everest once) is going even lower.  Everyone else will just hang around BC and miss us.  Some of that may also be a function of being patient.  When you leave BC you risk having the weather change and missing a summit window.  I don’t think that is much of a risk now although summit fever is in the air.

Decisions – decisions.