Yesterday,was a very sad day at EBC.  In the early afternoon, a Sherpa died in Base Camp before the climbing even began.  We don’t have details on the cause of death, but we know that he had been sick for several days.  Please include his family in your thoughts and prayers.  May God rest his soul.

We did some training yesterday on the use of jumars and rapelling devices and today on crossing the ladders in the Khumbu Icefall.  I participated in the training session yesterday and was glad I did because I was a bit rusty on the use of the “figure 8” rapelling device.  That device is rarely usedon the North side, which is where I was in 2010 and 2011.  I skipped the training session today.

In the afternoon, I attended a team meeting for all the expedition leaders of theteams on the mountain.  The meeting was very interesting. At the site of the meeting, there were 50 plastic bags containing a total of over 30,000 feet of rope that will be fixed on the mountain. The plan is to have the rope fixed to Camp 2 by April 24 and to the summit by May 5. This was music to my ears because last year, on the North side, the Chinese did not fix the lines to the summit until May 22, ruining any chance for a double.

At the meting, the doctors stationed at the Medical Tent reported a lot of activity with sick climbers.  We were aware of this fact because of the heavy traffic of helicopters ferrying climbers from Base Camp to Kathmandu throughout the day.

Our team plans to do some acclimatization climbing to Camp 1 in the next few daysand to begin the serious climbing after the Puja on April 22 (more on the Pujalater)

We learned yesterday, that James Cameron, the Director of the movie “Titanic” anda member of the Adventurers Club of Los Angeles Club, wished Allan and I well on our expedition. Mr. Cameron just finished a solo dive to the deepest part ofthe ocean in a submersible. I think the Club hopes to sponsor an event in which the 3 of us talk about our adventures to the top and the bottom of the earth.

Beloware some Base Camp photos.

Blessings to all of you,

Bill

Bill and Allan

Bill

Everest Base Camp

The famous Khumbu Icefall

Practice at EBC