After a nice 5-day respite in Pangboche (13,000′), where all cuts, blisters and ailments healed exceptionally quickly after not healing at all at higher elevations, we headed back toward base camp yesterday and arrived there today after an overnight stop in Thukla (15,000′).  While in Pangboche, we ate copious amounts of food, rested, stayed at one of our climbing Sherpa’s lodge where his wife cooked tons of food for us, witnessed/participated in their big annual harvest celebration, and received additional blessings from Lama Geshi for our upcoming summit attempt.  It was a great reprieve and nice to regain some strength for the summit push.

I stopped at Gorak Shep today on the way back to base camp and was finally able to upload some photos.  Click on the picture above for some photos over the past month.  I also gave a quick call to Mom from the trail, but she wasn’t home.  Regardless, Happy Mother’s Day!  Love you.  Thanks for all your love and support.

The fixed lines from the South Col to the summit may be set on the 17th or 18th.  Many teams are lining up for a summit attempt on the 19th, including IMG’s guided/Hybrid team.  My team will wait this one out as it’s usually chaos up there for the first summit window with everyone going for it at once.  We’ll let some of that craziness clear in front of us and hope for another window soon thereafter.  With Himex and the eager beavers out of the way, we’ll hopefully have a less crazy/crowded summit day.  Time will tell.  At this point, the earliest we’ll leave for the summit appears to be the 17th, which would put us on the summit on the 21st in a perfect world.  No guarantees yet, so stay tuned…