We got up this morning with the idea we would head up to the bergshround (sp?) which is a crevasse that defines where the glacier abuts the surrounding peaks.  From there we were going to climb part of the Lhotse face, a very steep section of ice.  This was just for acclimatization purposes.  Four or five hours would put us close to C3.  We would then descend to C2 and spend one more night.  Unfortunately my cough was worse and I felt weaker than the day before.  This is two signs that the body has had enough for this round.  You ignore these signs at your own risk.  So we broke camp and began our descent. 

There is little to me more difficult than to get out of a warm sleeping bag when you aren’t feeling “crash hot” as the Aussies say and began packing all your gear.  It is cold and kneeling inside your tent gathering stuff doesn’t really allow you to breathe like you should.  Usually by the time you are packed you need a break to let the fingers and toes thaw and to sip some hot tea.  We decided to skip breakfast because it is important to get into and out of the ice fall between C1 and BC before it gets to hot.

What took us 3+ hours to climb two days before we descended it 1 hour.  We ran into some of our team carrying loads and moving up at C1.  The weather had been bad for several days and now everyone was trying to make up for it.  I was especially glad to see our climbing partner who had gone to Namche with dental issues.  He was back and climbing strong minus a wisdom tooth.  I was really glad for him and us.  He is a great guy and I hated the thought he would not get a chance because of something as mundane as a tooth ache.  Dental problems have ended a lot of climbs.  It seems sometimes that a filling not done properly can leave a tiny air pocket.  As the climber goes higher and the ambient air pressure decreases the air behind the filling begins to exert increasing pressure until the pain becomes too intense or the filling is popped out.  More than one tooth has been extracted at altitude with a pair of pliers rather than give up a summit attempt.  My dentist made double sure I had no voids before my first trip to Everest since he didn’t want me doing my own high altitude dentistry.  He probably had reason to worry.  I once split and modified a cast on a dislocated thumb with a Drimmel tool because it made my fingers swell when I ran.  The reaction I got when I went back to have the cast off I would define as mixed!

We took four hours to descend the ice fall.  We were behind a group that was moving through the ladders pretty slowly.  The ice fall isn’t necessarily a “no passing zone” but considering you have to unclip from the fixed lines it is usually better to just be patient.  I wasn’t moving that fast anyway.  Needless to say by the time we got to BC I was out of water, out of energy and knackered.  The last 45 minutes to an hour you are going up and down these ice hills.  It doesn’t look like you will ever get there.  So there is an emotional component to the exhaustion as well.  I got there in time for lunch and a long afternoon nap in my cozy BC tent.  Weather reports are not looking good for the next several days so we will decide what to do next tomorrow.