Today was a rest and acclimatization day.  The new altitude and lack of sleep definitely made for a lethargic day.  We had to clean up some from the night before so everything was a little slow getting started.  This would prove to be one of the many days in the mountains where the only warm place is in your bag and you sort of while the day away.  Much has changed since I first started climbing in the area of entertainment.  Today everyone, but me, has an Ipod.  I have an MP3 player – I’m not selling out to the “man”.  In fact I have two MP3 players – I felt sorry for MP whoever he is.  On one I have books and on the other I have music.  They are both about the size of a credit card and work on one “AAA” battery.  Unlike those guys who have gone “Apple” I don’t have to look for a way to recharge mine.  I just need to make sure the battery is warm before I turn it on.  On the other hand several people have DVD players for base camp.  My computer has a DVD drive and my best friend loaded me up with some movies but I haven’t had time or energy yet to watch one.  I do not take the laptop above base.  One of our younger members brought a “game boy”.  There is just something wrong about that!  When I though I had seen it all another member showed me his little MP3 player that also has TV series and movies saved on it.  It is about palm size and he watches it while lying in his bag. There just isn’t enough suffering going on.

We still share books but reading them has gotten harder for me.  Now I need to wear glasses and if I don’t find exactly the right position they fog or frost over depending on the temps.  Of course you can hold your breath but it better be a really good book.  Mostly we just sit around and think about the beach.  Then there is the gossip.  Base Camp is like a little Peyton Place.  Everyone is trying to figure out what everyone else is doing.  It is important because you don’t want to make a mistake and have everyone going for the summit the same day.  Of course you also don’t want to be sitting waiting for the right weather window when the monsoon season starts because then you will be waiting until November for appropriate weather.

We have now begun receiving our weather reports.  The jet stream has now moved north of Everest which generally signals a dropping in wind velocities at the summit and the opening of the summit window.  The closing of the window will occur in the next few weeks when the monsoon begins to build in the Bay of Bengal.  As this annual disturbance begins to form it will brings rain to the Indian sub-continent and will gradually move north until it eventually reaches the Himalaya and closes the mountain for good.  Our job now is to be ready to go for the summit when there is a projection of low winds.  Right now the forecast is for 40 to 60 knot winds at the summit until the 3rd of May with a gradual decrease for the next several days after that.  The fixed lines have been put in all the way to C4 at 26,000.  Most of the teams have gotten C3 tents up and are pushing gear and O2 to C4.  I understand there is a general agreement among all the teams that fixing of lines will begin May 4 above C4 to the South Summit with the first summit team to fix the last section of line to the summit on their bid.  We are hearing rumors that several expeditions are now looking at May 8th summit bids.  That means they will need to start moving up from BC either the 3rd or the 4th.  None of my team mates, nor I, intend to be in the first wave.  I would rather be in the second wave.  The advantage is, assuming you have no bad weather in the interim, the first bunch have broke in the trail and may have even kicked in steps.   I’ll use every advantage I can get.  Of course the downside is if you miss the window you can pack it out, your season is over.

There are several teams here who are attempting much more aggressive routes and multiple summits.  There is always some one wanting to be the first to accomplish something.  Perhaps the most interesting is group of climbers from Kazakhstan who intend to climb Lhotse which is adjacent to Everest and the 5th highest mountain, come down to C4, sleep, summit Everest and continue down the west rib of Everest back to BC all with out O2.  These guys have accomplished some amazing things but this is an extremely dangerous undertaking.  Many don’t think this will end well.  I just hope they know when to pull the plug if it isn’t working.

So over the next series of post I will try and keep you updated on the weather forecast which is now the most important thing on the mountain.