Heading to Camps 1 & 2

After the icefall climb on Sunday and a recovery nap, I started working on a stone tent entrance.   The entrance, I reasoned, would help keep my tent cleaner and would look nice and homey.  The real reason for those who know me isn't a surprise.  The project would basically keep me occupied for a couple of our "rest days".

The work started Sunday afternoon but didn't really get into full swing until Monday.  The Sherpa guys do a really nice job on their tent sites so I wanted to at least create something respectable.  Wandering around our campsite, I collected what appears to be a white granite for use as the walls and some dark slate for the floor.  Building it wasn't very physically difficult, the heaviest stone was maybe 40#. The real challenge was the mental puzzle of fitting the pieces together structurally and aesthetically.   Below is the final product.

I also managed to take a shower and do some laundry in anticipation of our climbing rotation up to camps 1 & 2.  These simple tasks take so long and make me appreciate normal life back in Colorado.

Sherpa Fura and I met up today (Tuesday) for a chat about our climb in the morning.  I also gave him a Pipestone hat to reinforce our bond as partners in this adventure.  We had a couple of laughs and said farewell until morning.  

Tonight will be another inwardly thoughtful dinner, final preparations for our climb and early to bed.  I'm sure we'll be up at 1 or 2 for an alpine start.  The plan is to climb all the way through the Khumbu icefall to camp 1 in the morning which sits at approximately 19,600 ft.  We'll spend two nights there and then head up another 2,000 ft to camp 2.  We will also spend two nights at camp 2 before heading all the way back down to base camp on Sunday morning.  Weather permitting, on our last full day at camp 2, we will walk an hour or so towards camp 3 and the Lhotse face.  Let's hope everyone has a safe and successful climb during this rotation!

Namaste