The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
The first rays of sunshine eventually brought some warmth back into my tent. Soon after Matt showed up with a nice hot cup of lemon tea (he had lost last night's Cho Dai Dee game!). The sunny side of life (or day) was certainly more agreeable up here. Breakfast was top notch with cheese omelets, crispy bacon, toast, fresh coffee, corn flakes, yogurt and whatever craving one had (including vegemite for those hard core kiwis!).
Right after breakfast everybody prepared for the all-important puja ceremony, which is performed by a local lama for the purpose of blessing the entire expedition. Ice axes, crampons and helmets are stacked next to an impromptu stone shrine over which prayer flags are unfurled - representing the five elements. To the constant burning of juniper, the lama - who had trekked all the way from Pangboche just for this purpose - chanted his prayers and performed various rituals. These include throwing rice over your shoulder and rubbing flour into your teammates' faces, which apparently represents the snow of the high mountains. In addition, everybody was invited to drink Coke or San Miguel during the ceremony and given the fact that the lama himself opted for the latter, we all indulged in one or two cans of beer - strictly for purification purpose, of course! Needless to say that the effect of two cans at this altitude equals about a six-pack at sea level, thus adding to the cheer of the occasion. But seriously, it was a beautiful ceremony under clear blue skies and the final verdict by the Sherpas and the lama was that it was a "good" puja and the expedition could thus proceed.
Having overcome our mid-day hangover we spent the rest of the afternoon practicing some fixed-line rope work before settling for an excellent dinner of dhal bhat and more games of Chinese poker which by now was renamed "Sherpa Poker" because the punishments invariably involved some Sherpa task (fetching water, doing dishes, etc.)
The weather changed overnight and we awoke for the first time to gray skies. In fact, it snowed throughout the night and our colorful tent city on green grass of yesterday had turned into an igloo colony. I slept warm and cozy, however, having added three foam mattresses to my bed and taken two hot water bottles into my sleeping bag. The program for the day was an "acclimatization hike" to Yak Camp, or Advanced Base Camp. This is how far the yaks could carry loads and was about a five hour "hike" up from Base Camp. Given the poor weather conditions there was not much of a view as we trudged through a black and white environment. It turned out to be a longer than expected slog up the hill as the Sherpas had established Yak Camp far higher than we thought. In the end we gained almost 1000 meters in elevation, reaching camp at 5500 m before returning to base in deteriorating weather. Back at Base Camp at 4.30 pm everybody was fairly exhausted, enjoying a warm dinner and an early night in bed.
A rest day. It continued to snow and the Sherpas were busy shaking off the snow from our tents during the night thus preventing them from collapsing under the weight of the snow. Four or five of us spent the day most productively playing "Kings & Arseholes" from morning to late night, a card game which sees the loser being designated "arsehole", wearing a silly hat made of a cornflakes box, and thus becoming a virtual slave for the other players. Very amusing, particularly if you're King most of the time.
During the course of our rest days we also had interesting arguments about Northern Hemisphere (ie. American) expressions versus Southern Hemisphere (i.e. Kiwi/Aussie). There was a particularly heated debate on "gherkins" vs. "pickles" and a most amusing episode involving different definitions for gynecologists, which unfortunately cannot be repeated on a family-friendly website. We also spent our spare time studying "Sports Illustrated" which is well illustrated but doesn't feature much sports (unless you count semi-naked fly fishing…). For dinner Luis, who has got some Latin blood, dished up excellent burritos, which ensured all our tents were well ventilated that night. To round off our lazy day we watched "The Sweetest Thing" - a real chick flick - on a tiny DVD player. Imagine nine guys and some highly excited Sherpas staring at Cameron Diaz' shapely figure on a four-inch screen!!!
Another weather-induced rest day. The sun was out in the morning but there was still plenty of snow and unstable weather. Luis and Steve had spoken with the weather girls in Sweden (no kidding!) who confirmed a low-pressure system coming up from India, which may bog us down for a few more days. Thereafter some good weather should be on the way, raising our hopes for our summit bid. In the meantime, it was more rest day activities, starting off which an overdue shave outside my tent, which attracted a barrage of snowballs on my semi-naked body. I also had a shower, which is pure luxury at 4600 meters! Some people tried their luck at laundry, which wasn't such a brilliant idea as it started to snow again shortly before noon. Italian dinner of pizza and spaghetti was followed by "G.I. Jane" on our big screen cinema.
Final rest day before we head up the mountain tomorrow. I slept miserably and tried the entire day to catch up on some desperately needed rest. As people started to get restless in Base Camp interesting activities to pass time were invited, such as building a phallic snow sculpture, later converted into model version of Ama Dablam; a Rps 50 boat race down the stream, whereby the ships were created out of butter cookie cups; and lots of football and rugby action which, needless to say, at 4565m makes you spew your lungs out!
