Good day, Everyone!

Another busy day in base camp. The Sherpas have gone up through the
icefall, to establish Camp 1. This is good news, as it means that we can
now get moving and start the actual climb. I think tomorrow the people who
are not using oxygen are going up, and the rest of us will move up the
following day.

In order to prepare to go up, however, we've been having to keep fit, while
at base camp. I went up Pumori again today (to about 5790 m). I hung out
there for a bit, and then took my time getting down. Upon my return, the
dry air had taken away my voice (regardless of precautions such as sucking
on throat lozenges the whole time, and keeping my mouth covered with a
bandana). As soon as I got back to camp, I requested hot water, as I knew
this would soothe my throat and return my voice. We had lunch, and then I
showered (the last time I showered was in Lobuche (about 11 Apr) so I was
definitely due! And then I washed a few items of clothes, but it got so
chilly that I decided to do the rest tomorrow.

You might wonder how we shower, well, it's fairly easy. There is a dark
blue tent set up, with a zipper close, there are stones on the ground and we
put a bucket of warm water on the ground - and then we get busy!

Additionally, you may wonder how we wash our clothes, well - we get a pail
of warm water and a tin bowl. If my clothes are really dirty and dusty,
I'll rinse them in the creek behind my tent (yeah - I know - I don't want
to know what's flowing in that creek, but there is only so much warm water
available!). I put the clothes in the tin bowl, add some warm water and
some biodegradable soap (the same with which I shower!) and get scrubbing. I then ring out the clothes items, and often bring the down to the creek for a rinse (again, it's biodegradable soap - I'm not even sure it's
cleaning my clothes! But at least it's okay to put in the water, compared
to other soaps out there!) I try to rinse out my clothes by hand, but it's
glacial run-off, and for those who don't know - that's really cold! So I use
a rock and swish my clothes item around with that, or I scrub the clothes
item on the rock. By now my hands are freezing, regardless of my careful
washing technique, and I go back to my tent and stick my hands in the pail
of warm water, until I can feel them again - then I do a final warm
(relatively clean) water rinse on my clothes. Then of course, I have to dry
them out, so I let them hang over my tent for a while, then they usually
turn to a cardboard crispiness in the cold (but at least they had a chance
to drip off most excess water) - then I bring everything into my tent -
where I hang everything about. It takes 2 days for everything to dry - and
that's laundry for ya!

There are lots of Canadian trekkers passing through our camp, on their way
to visit the Canadian Expedition with the gi-normous Canadian flag.
Occasionally, I'll say hi, but for the most part I watch them pass. You
see, when we see them pass, we are usually eating a meal, and they always
look at us, so it's kind of weird (or bad timing, at least).

The weather at base camp is fairly routine. The mornings are bright and
gorgeous. At around lunch time (1300hrs), the clouds begin to move toward
us, from down the valley - and then it begins to cool off. Morning is the
best time to get chores done, and get in any hiking - as the afternoons
around here are ultra mellow. Keep in mind though, that any recovery from
any sort of exertion requires a bit more time up here. In fact, if you get
sick, or even injured (like a burn or a severe cut), it's probably best to
descend to lower altitude, as things take forever (or simply don't) heal up
here. So we relax when we can, because when we work - whew! - do we work!

Meagan