Down To Heal

After spending 5 days up high on the mountain, I returned to basecamp yesterday, leaving the rest of the team as they moved up the Lhotse face for a night at camp 3.  2 weeks of intestinal problems left me very weak and disappointed with my effort.  This mountain requires optimum health and a go get it attitude, and I was running low on both.  We all decided that it would be a good idea for me to get back to basecamp and heal so as to be ready for our summit push around the first week of May.

I feel quite guilty for leaving the boys.  My job is to be with Erik and contribute to getting him up this huge mountain, and I have been unable to do that over the past several days.  We are lucky enough to have a large number of very strong guys on this team, which made the decision to come down easier.

Traveling through the icefall alone is quite a surreal experience.  It had changed quite a bit over the 4 days since we went through, with many freshly fallen ice blocks and opened crevasses making the going quite interesting.  Being back at basecamp is posh, with good food, warmer temps, showers, and more oxygen.  Feels good.

Eric Alexander got back today and the rest of the team will return tomorrow.  We will head down to Dingboche on Friday for 4 days of rest.

Anyhow, the Sherpas are still the backbone... strong as you have read about.

I'm looking forward to getting my strength back, getting back up the hill, giving this thing a real try, and then getting on to some warm island climates. 

Lots of love to my family, friends, and my sweetest thing.

namaste
Jeff