Tuesday April 5th, 8pm. Duglha
(EST is 9 hours 45 mins behind Nepal)

At the toe of the Khumbu glacier

It was a beautiful sunny day as we prepared to leave Dingboche this morning. I was out-of-breath just walking up a few steps – everything is harder up here. It seemed to take me five minutes to just zip up my jacket and it’s difficult to work on all cylinders. Nevertheless, I’m feeling good. In the background there are some stone masons preparing stone for a new house. There are no power tools here and the rhythmic banging of the hammers on the chisels echoes and resonates around the buildings.

Today was a different sort of hike to the precarious paths that we have clambered up like so many mountain goats. For much of the day we walked through the valley leading up to the moraine at the base of the Khumbu glacier. We were able to enjoy the spectacular scenery as we hiked through the boulders and sparse vegetation. After lunch we lay back on the moss-covered ground and watched, in total silence, as thin clouds feathered around the mountain peaks. The mountains are so high that its almost defies belief to realise that they are dwarfed by Everest. It was a relatively short hike today of 3-4 hours and tomorrow will be the same.

For dinner we had spicy tomato soup, spaghetti and yak meat balls, potato and cheese cakes, beans and cauliflower.  The cooking is unbelievable and the cooks practise for 6 months in Kathmandu before they are allowed to join an expedition party. Yaks are everywhere – even the stoves that they cook on are fuelled by dried yak dung. Tonight the sherpas started singing, dancing and drumming and put on an impromptu show for an hour as they entertained us.

Our head sherpa, or sirdar, is Tsherling (pronounced Sherling) Sherpa. He is 30 years old and has a girlfriend that lives in New York. He lost his father when he was just 14 days old when he was killed in an avalanche leading another expedition. He speaks excellent English and has a laugh that lights up the mountain. He tends to go ahead of the expedition and negotiate our arrival in each village, buying supplies, organising yaks and generally smoothing the path of the expedition.

Elia, the Rogers cameraman, has been teaching some of the sherpas how to use his camera. Elia will not be joining Sean the whole way up Mount Everest and needs the sherpas’ help in getting some footage. The look like they know exactly what they are doing.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is another short day as we hike to Lobuche and climb another 250m. We hope to arrive at Base Camp on Friday.

More later.

Terry