We arrived back at Base Camp yesterday morning from our drop back feeling refreshed and pleased to be “home”. As I think you’d have gathered from my last blog we all enjoyed the time down at a lower altitude and all fell like we benefited from the thick air. There’s not much yet to report from being back: Having showered and settled back in we’ve spent the day relaxing waiting to prepare for our next and final push. I went down and visited Becky, Molly and Bonita and had a very social afternoon stopping in for a long chat with Adele on the way back – Becky and Molly are both off up tomorrow morning for their summit push, aiming for the weather window on the 18th/19th, but Adele and Bonita are staying back at least for another couple of days (Bonita perhaps longer) as they wait for Lhotse to be fixed. It’s looking as if they’re going to try and fix this summit simultaneously with Everest (16th/17th), but many are expressing their doubts that this will actually happen so perhaps slightly after.

Tomorrow we’re practicing and becoming familiar with our oxygen systems, learning how to check them as well as making sure we can use them comfortably. We’ll be heading up the mountain the day after, but keeping our summit day a little flexible to take into account the number of teams who’ll be on the summit ridge when we want to go up, as well as of course the weather. It’s an exciting but nerve racking prospect leaving for our final attempt. It’s now the be all or end all. We just hope that everything goes safely and that we all feel strong and healthy. Fingers crossed and I’ll update you once more before we leave!
I’ve attached some random photos just for the sake of showing you more: A yak on our drop back, crossing a ladder above Camp One with Nuptse behind, and another photo of the Ice Fall.