Friday, April 27, 2012

to touch the mountain

Today I head up the mountain with a large load to camp at intermediate site (16500) just below advanced base camp, by myself. We sent young Mark down to Deboche to recover accompanied by Nima. The plan is to establish came 1 tomorrow, then move to camp 2 and then the summit. My personal plan is to touch the mountain. Three groups of climbers have returned to base without summitting. Conditions above the Dablam are solid blue ice

Ueli Steck, the Swiss machine and Freddy Wilkenson were at camp 3 last night, perhaps I will run into them on my way up.  Steck was the first recipient of the Eiger Award for his mountaineering achievements. Wilkenson has spent the last ten years perfecting a unique style of full gonzo adventure climbing and is a great story teller.

 Yesterday was a rest day so I sat in the tent pondering the allegory of the tame olive tree, eating comfort food, packing for the trip today and building a large Richard Longrsque rock mandala in the valley which attracted several curious people including JT who threw in the last random stone which landed in the perfect spot.

Ask Dan, I rarely go out to lunch here, here I go out to breakfast lunch, and dinner every day in the blue tent. Here taking a shower is w big event involving careful planning. I noticed a nice community with nature, our water comes from the same stream where yaks wade...today i started using my water filter pump, even though the water we are served is boiled.



So now I start the walk into the mountain, 
goodbye everyone, 
namaste

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