Hello again from Everest Base Camp!  We’ve had a great stay at our semi luxurious base camp here at 17,500 ft on the Khumbu Glacier, but we are ready to start climbing this big mountain that looms over us. We’ve spent the last week acclimatizing, practicing some ice climbing and ladder crossing skills, and preparing for the move up to Camp 1 and we are excited that the time has come to go.  We will leave camp tonight at around 2 am and hope to top out of the icefall, around 8 am when the sun hits.

Greg and Vanessa got their first chance to cross some ladders today when we set up a couple just a few hundred yards out of camp for practice.  They both took to it like the climbers they have become in recent years and did great.  Yesterday we hiked up into the bottom of the icefall a bit to get a feel for the route and get a view of at least the lower part of it.  We’ve done everything we can to prepare, and we are excited to get climbing, although not completely thrilled at the idea of getting up at 12:30am to do it..!

We’ll have our Sat Phone and satellite modem up at C1 and plan to post an update tomorrow, although the satellites can be harder to connect with as they can be blocked by the mountains towering above us.  We plan to spend 2 nights at Camp 1 at about 20,000 ft and then move up to Camp 2 at about 21,500 ft for another couple of nights before returning to the comforts of our base camp home.

Everyone is doing well, anxious, and excited to get up the mountain!

Thanks for following and sending all of the support from home.

-Bill Allen

Everest Base Camp