Camp 2, 19, 614

October 30

Went to bed around 6:15, read a few pages of Mosiah I had torn out of the book, to save weight.  Then had to stay in the tent in bed until around 7:00 when the sun finally hits.  It is very cold. Put the climbing harness on and filled up the pack with a huge load for camp 2. We are not coming back this time. We climbed the difficult chimney again and the rest of the route to camp 2. We often had to wait while parties ahead of us tried to ascend and manage their jumar technique. Then we arrived again at the disaster known as camp 2, a tiny collection of rock ledges perched above the precipice. It is cold and smells bd, like a New York City subway station in the old times. 

And since when did Nepalese Sherpa guides take up smoking?  Maybe it is to calm their nerves from ferrying people up the mountain on fixed lines. Soon I would realize that this is how it is done here for almost everyone.  The Sherpa guides put up fixed lines and everyone else pulls themselves up. Most of the people, were not even climbers at all. I am super excited to get home, Tanner is very excited to get on the mountain, but I am worried about the cold, I want to keep all my fingers and toes. And it is very cold in our tent and even colder outside. This will be our fourth night above 19,000 feet. Yikes! A rat just walked into the tent vestibule. Rats and fat ravens and endless fixed lines going around the camp.