Monday 11th April, 8pm. Everest Base Camp, 5,350m
(EST is 9 hours 45mins behind Nepal)

We bless the climbers and win a hockey game

Today we took part in a very special ceremony to bless the climbers, Sean, Dave and Harold. The stone altar that we had built was decorated with colourful prayer flags that flapped in the wind as the ceremony took place. It was almost two hours long and was led by a 67 year old lama who burned juniper in a small fire in front of the altar. Everyone was involved and we threw rice over the climbers and sipped beer to protect them and celebrate them.

Last night there were more avalanches and cracking ice; the wind was so fierce that it almost lifted our tents off the ground. It made sleeping difficult as the tent walls were cracked and buffeted by the elements

This morning, in calmer weather, a good crowd of spectators came out to watch the highest game of ice hockey in the world. The ice rink on the glacier, or “glink”, was in excellent shape; the conditions were good; and the puck was flying. Canada played a team from the Rest of the World which included players from Australia, Nepal and the USA.

Gerry Gaetz opened the scoring for Canada with a goal after just 16 seconds.

Refereeing the game was our head sherpa, Tsherling. Although this was his first refereeing engagement he did an outstanding job and had as much fun as all the players. He called a lot of penalties and a lot of time was spent in a crevasse, which doubled as the penalty box. But it was all played in great spirits. The game was interrupted by there yaks at one point which decided that they needed to cross the rink and one of them even watered the ice surface for us. Who needs a Zamboni when you have yaks to help you out?

Canada eventually won this record-breaking game, 21 - 13.

Dr Burgess’ research is going well and he thinks he’ll be completed within the next day or so.

The first group of us will leave Base Camp on Tuesday lunchtime and hike back to Gorak Shep. The party will include Gerry, Howard, Nicole, Lisa, Yvan, Katie, Keith and myself. The rest of the hikers will leave on Wednesday, but not before Dave gets up at 4.30am and tackles the icefall with a couple of sherpas!

We’ll leave behind Sean and Harold who will continue the preparations for Sean’s summit bid.

More later.

Terry