
I'm phoning this through from Camp 1 on Pumori, a 7000m peak across the Khumbu valley from Nuptse. Alex, Pat, Sange, our awesome sherpa, and I hiked up here this morning. The views in the sunshine are amazing, with light winds blowing big plumes of snow off Everest. We're looking forward to a quiet afternoon and a rest day tomorrow, training in the Icefall and hanging round Base Camp. We're feeling good, pretty well acclimatised, eating and sleeping well in our new cosy sleeping bags, chilled after hours of cards and watching downloads on the Iplayer. Ready for a bit of climbing...
So the plan is that Friday morning we leave at dawn for the Western Cwm and 2 nights in Camp 1 (6000m), up to Camp 2 (6400m) for 3 nights and then on up for 1 night at Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face (7200m) before coming back to Base Camp for a week. So by the time you guys wake up, we should be crossing the Icefall!
(Photo courtesy of Alan Arnette. Check out his blog on alanarnette.com for more.)
Lets hope the weather holds and there isn't a bottleneck as many of the other teams will have the same idea. And every morning there are 200-300 sherpas ferrying tents, stoves and fuel up the mountain to establish the higher camps - the Ministry of Tourism still hasn't decided whether they will allow helicopters to ferry some of the loads to Camp 3 to reduce the burden and risk to the sherpas.
We're feeling good and excited to be going higher. Follow our progress: http://t.co/zNGl0k19Zs
PPS - We were interviewed by the Mail on line in Namche: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3042691/Nervous-return-Everest-year-deadly-avalanche.html