April 27 2009
For those who have been wondering why your beloved Dawa Steven hasn't been posting updates everyday let me explain a few things. It turns out that it really is not the best idea to use electronics in the freezing cold of the night. Though I may have been able to save my fingers from turning blue and falling off, I have caught a nasty cold and a cough. Similarly, all the batteries seem to have contracted this cold from me and refuse to kick into action unless I plop them on a chair in front of the heater. If you don't understand what I'm getting at, what I'm trying to say is that my habit of doing homework late at night- which I have painstakingly developed throughout my school and academic life for the last two decades- is not serving me well.
Anyway, let;s get down to what you would like to hear.
First of all, all but Bud Allen and Will Cross are back off the Mountain. Everyone else made the long, roasting, dehydrating march back down the Western Cwm and the Ice Fall to join us at Base Camp. Their destroyed faces, burnt and hairy, is testament that climbing Mt. Everest is still no a walk in the park despite my futile efforts to make it so. (Note: please forgive the author on using artistic license but actually climbing Mt Everest IS a walk/climb in the Sagarmatha National Park).
It has been an extremely windy few days here at Mt. Everest. The wind and the tents apparently conspired to make it a noisy and uncomfortable affair for all those who were up at Camp 1 and Camp 2. Bernice told me that she repeatedly got hit on the head with the tent poles while Nic's tent tried to suffocate him by wrapping its fabric over his face. This morning, just before Bill could have his breakfast, the kitchen tent got lifted off the ground and toppled on its side. We are lucky as the Camp 2 kitchen staff and the present Sherpas, including Bill's personal Sherpa- Mingma- put it back up before much damage was caused. No one was hurt either. However, it did mean that Bill had to leave a little later and arrived in Base Camp at around 2 pm. That now means that Jesse, Nic, Bill, Yury, Mogens, Yury and Walter's group have all done their first rotation of sleeping in Camp 2.
Since we've covered those who have come down lets now talk about those who have yet to go up. The great news is that Henry is back up in base camp after having his wisdom tooth in his upper right jaw pulled out at in Namche. The machine, formerly known as Henry, will be heading up to Camp 1 tomorrow morning at 4 am. Similarly, Krushnaa hasn't been feeling well enough to go up the icefall either and in the last few days has been staying at Base camp and gone on acclimatization trips around base camp. At 4 a.m., she too will be heading up to Camp 1 with her personal Sherpa, Gyalu, who has been by her side since flying in together from Kathmandu.

For most of us it is now rest days. There again, there are two types of rest days.
If you find yourself to be a Sherpa and Naga Dorji is your Sirdar (chief) a rest day means something quite the contrary. It means breaking rocks & ice and shovelling sand in a crude form of landscape gardening to make base camp slightly more hospitable.

And if you find yourself to be a member and Dawa Steven is your chief a rest day is quite different to the previous. To illustrate what I mean, let me quote Jesse; "tomorrow is gonna be an active day. I'm gonna brush my teeth and have a shave."

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Dawa Steven Sherpa