Sunday 22nd April – Day 24

Today we walked up past base camp for Pumori, a mountain that lies opposite Everest. On the way we heard a big rumble behind us, turned and we saw that obviously a big chunk of something had fallen off close to camp one and a large snow cloud was descending down the icefall. We hoped everyone is alright.
We walked up to 18,300 feet and returned to EBC (Everest Base Camp) in time for lunch. This was just to keep us active and also relieve the boredom.
Tonight we are going out. Yay. We are visiting Craig’s friend Willy Benegas who is here with one client. We have been invited for dinner and a movie. I have brushed my hair and creamed my chin in honour of our night out.
I got burnt when we went through the icefall couple days ago. It’s crazy how much the sun reflects off the snow and is still strong and burns. Even when it’s cold. The skin from underneath my bottom lip down to my chin is really hard and crusty now. It will peel off in the next few days so I’m just putting lots of my Avon night cream on it to try and make it less dry. It looks pretty gross though. I may have to wear my Rolling Stones buff over my chin this evening to hide it.
On the way to his dining tent, about 10/15 min walk, Bob steps on a big rock and the whole thing upends, his feet slide down it as it’s upending and they wedge underneath while he face plants in front of it. Well it’s just the funniest thing I ever saw and for a few moments I have to do deep breathing so I don’t just burst out laughing. I can’t even ask him if he’s alright as anything that comes out of my mouth will be accompanied by maniacal laughter. He gets his feet out of under the rock and we move on while I try and keep myself under control. About 10 feet further on, he steps too far to the edge of a frozen piece of water and the ice breaks and his right foot goes down about 10 inches into frozen water, well that was it. I couldn’t hold it any longer, and so commenced the uncontrollable, maniacal laughter while I’m holding my sides bent over having laughing convulsions. I’m not sure Bob saw the funny side. I have stored this slapstick comedy but for when I am in the doldrums higher up and I can pull it from my memory bank to hopefully raise a smile.

So we’ve returned from dinner and seeing how the other half live.Their dining tent is lovely and warm and quite big and they had a movie screen up and lots of racks with bits in. We didn’t watch a movie because Willy invited the medical team from the clinic tent as well so it was nice and we had good conversation through dinner. Some of it involved needles, frostbite and things I’d rather not hear about lol but one piece of very interesting news was that the big thing that had fallen between camp one and camp two today was a bit of that huge 40m sheer ice wall that I really don’t want to have to climb. So maybe I’m hoping it’s a bit smaller now but it means it’s not very safe really. We’ll see, I have to get to camp one yet, never mind two.
After dinner I ask where their toilet tent is and I’m told “outside to the right and follow the solar lights”. Well of course they have solar lights to light the way. Most ordinary mortals have to use their head torch.
Willy has one client, an exceptionally young (20) but exceptional climber. He has already done quite a few of the 8000m peaks and summited Cho Oyu when he was 16!
Anyway I get to the toilet tent very impressed with their wide footpaths that they’ve made and really good staircases in the rocks, I unzip the tent and what is before my eyes…..only an actual toilet that you can sit on. Oh my days, it’s been a while lol. This is pure luxury. It’s still the barrel underneath that you poo in but just to sit on a throne and not have to squat is wonderful.
For all these privileges Willy’s one client has paid almost double what I paid so given a choice I would still stay where I am. But it is like staying in a basic but perfectly functioning motel room in town and going to visit your mate for dinner who is in the 5 star hotel down the road.
We return to our wee homes and guess who unzips their tent and calls out our names, it’s Ang Galou, he’s back, yay. Now we can plan to move up the hill. Finally .