Day 4 - Base Camp

Being someone who needs and enjoys nesting in whatever environment I'm in, I've quite easily moved in at base camp. We're using 3 person tents for 2 people so there's a bit of room to spread out. We also have access to a mess tent where we can eat and hang out quite comfortably.

The national park here requires that each person be medically examined at base camp before they head higher on the mountain. This involves the resident doc taking blood saturation and pulse levels and generally assessing how someone feels. All our group passed with flying colors and weather permitting we'll be heading up to do a gear carry to camp one at 16240 feet.

We'll bring supplies up that we'll be needing higher up on the mountain. These include things like food, crampons, ice axes and clothing that we'll need for summit day. After our carry we'll be coming back down to sleep at base camp. The "carry up" and "sleeping low" all part of our acclimation process.

Base camp on our route is a very pleasant spot, with plenty of room with not too many tents and bodies. We are surrounded by various multicolored rock faces and scree slopes. Not a bad spot to have some down time. I'm feeling a bit tired and lazy today and will cap on that with lots of eating, drinking, and napping. I'll also use the time to do a bit of washing. It's amazing how much better you can feel by just rinsing our a shirt you've been wearing for the last few days.

I've acquired a nickname from my group of "Garbage Disposal" because I seem to be able to eat and drink large quanitites at any single time. Not such a bad trait to acquire at altitude. The plan is to continue to live up to my new nickname.

Best to all back home. I'm sending the blog posts to Penni back home via satellite and hoping that you're getting them and they are coming through and that everyone is doing well.

I'll be back at you after our carry to camp one.

xxoo

Terri
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Penni's comment: Sorry to have so many posts come up at once. I was gone for three days and the weather and power failures have conspired to create a little back up in the posts over the weekend. Two more to get everyone caught up to today are coming later this evening.