So last night after dinner Ang Gelou came to my tent 7.30pm and said, ‘okay tea in the morning at 4 am, breakfast 4.30, leave at 5am’. I was like ‘what?’, Jeez, I’d spent the afternoon in a lovely, warm tent reading and relaxing when I could easily have packed my bag and got everything ready for an early start. It’s dark and cold now but I try and organise some things. I hate packing stuff up at stupid o’clock in the cold by light of head torch. If only he’d told me earlier. Oh well, c’est la vie.
So I slept not in my large puffy but in an intermediate light puffy jacket and that seemed to do the trick. I was warmer and had no headache.
I woke and had tea at 4am, ate as much porridge as I could stomach at this ungodly hour, finished packing, got geared up and we left at 5.30 am.
The route back down to Camp One was easy and fast. The western cwm is a gradual slope and rather nice walking when descending. The only obstacles are the big wall which again is much easier to rappel than climb and the two ladders. I appear to be getting slightly better at them. But they still put the fear of god into me. Just a wee bit less.
Then we kept on descending through the icefall. There were parts I was like, ‘I don’t remember this bit’ but as it moves all the time, it changes and new ladders are installed, ropes retied and routes re-established. It’s certainly more messy now with more tricky bits and more ladders. The icefall doctors really do a good job. They’re like these little, magical people who come out at night (like little leprechauns lol) and rework the icefall in places it gets damaged in. We owe them a great deal of
gratitude for their work.
Four hours after we set out we arrived at base camp and it was lovely to see Bob again and Craig. The little family is back together.
I have been informed that international relations between Our Camp and the French Canadians has hit an all time low, probably non recoverable and may even start WW3.
Craig has a lovely small banner marking the 65th anniversary of Tenzing and Hillary summiting Everest. It has in tiny little writing on the bottom www.gotrek.com. It’s so small you can hardly see it. This is what they’re objecting to. It’s been blessed by the Lama and we had it on the Chorten. They keep taking it down. So apparently a huge row had erupted just as Bob strolled into base camp yesterday lol. They said he was insulting the Nepali people. Craig is one of the nicest guys, lived in Nepal for years, speaks the language and had been coming to Everest for 30 years. It’s apparent they have issues with all Americans from the conversation that went on. I use the term ‘conversation’ here very loosely.
They’re flying a Canadian flag in our Camp but we’re not out removing it. Very strange and rude people. It’s quite possible Craig is not safe to be left on his own here.
On a warmer note, Bob’s arm is mending albeit slowly but we still have 3 or 4 rest days now. I am very glad of these as I’ve been on the go every day for 5 days. I think it’s quite possibly beer o’clock. Even though it’s 11am.