Yesterday was the Nepalese New Year! Welcome to 2068!

I just took a walk to Gorak Shep and had a lovely climb up Kalapathar –
a ‘little’ hill that is nearby. Tandra and I went up it last fall,
reaching the top just as dawn broke. It was one of the most incredible
mornings of my life – perfect day and a 360 degree view of all the major
peaks. If you search this blog you can find the pics – my connection is
too slow to suss out the link.

I still don’t know why people choose to go to Everest Base Camp instead
of Kalapathar – both are options from Gorak Shep. You can’t see Everest
from the base camp, whereas Kalapathar actually looks down at the base
camp and gives you a little thrill if you do the scramble to the very top.

Today was a bit more exercise oriented for me but I managed to get a
nice view of Everest before the clouds came in and the scramble (plus
some really strong winds and being at ~18,500ft) got my heart going big
time. I got hailed on while coming down and am sitting back in my
favorite spot at Buddha Lodge with hot chocolate in hand. Some people at
BC are teasing me for my frequent trips here (I think this is #5 in two
weeks if you include my pass-through while going to Pheriche) but it is
really the only place to walk to, a beautiful walk if you can dodge
hypoxic trekkers and the yaks, and I can get a strong enough signal here
to use my laptop broadband stick. I still harbor hopes to trail run here
and do some hill work on Kalapathar but I’m still acclimating and don’t
want to push it.

I got back to EBC from my little sojourn to Pheriche a few days ago on
the 12th. It felt a little like coming home and I arrived just in time for the Puja ceremony which was
beautiful. Have spent the last few days doing various things around camp
including some more practice on the glacier – just about reaching the
base of the ice fall. I crossed my first ladder, but it was just a baby
with ~5 rungs and only a few feet up. Still – a little tricky to walk
across with crampons. Also had a nice visit last night to the HRA tent
for a New Year’s Celebration. Damai and Kami have been to Camp I and
Camp II to ‘fix’ the camps with supplies. I’m hoping to join them this
weekend. I’m more nervous about the endurance aspect then the crevasses.

Time to head back to camp. Attached is a pic of Everest I took a couple
hours ago on Kalapathar – you can’t see the mtn from BC. There are also
some pics of the Puja Ceremony on
https://picasaweb.google.com/wolpin/PujaCeremony#
Thanks for the comments from everyone and emails. I’m still struggling
with connectivity at BC but will eventually get some emails answered.
Sorry for the delay! Cheers, Seth.