You are very difficult to
pin down. One minute you are next to me
and within seconds you vanish. I spend months preparing for the climb. We are presently 37 days into our expedition
of 58 days. Suddenly it feels like there
are not enough days remaining to get it all done.
We received news yesterday
that the mountain will possess high winds and precipitation for another week
thus giving us a very small window of days to climb. It is a very uneasy feeling knowing that 46
porters are arriving on the 25th to clear our camp. Suddenly you make us all feel as though we
will run out of days.
All at once our destiny is
in the hands of the universe. We are 80%
of the way there. Our challenge is now
to simply stay healthy which is very hard at this altitude. We are growing weary of the extremes like
peeing in a potties, pooping in a hole, bathing with only wet wipes, drinking
only hot drinks made from murky water, and watching our teeth turn yellow from
drinking tea and coffee.
Now we must hold on to
you. Patience, you have become our new
challenge and guide. You are now our
determinant of success or failure. If we
panic and jump the gun, the weather will turn us back. To wait for perfect conditions could mean we
never leave base amp. We will now dance
the fine dance with you.
We take take hikes,
boulder/climb on the nearby penitents, we look for pretty rocks, we read, watch
movies, write in our journals, call family, visit other camps, organize our
gear, wash some clothes by hand, work on sudoku puzzles, sleep a lot, trim our
nails, shave and try really hard to stay focused.
