We had an early morning today, waking up at 4am in Camp 2 and starting down by 5am to both beat the heat and hopefully have an uneventful passage through the icefall.  As as the day warms, there is a higher amount of activity in the icefall, so we hoped to get through before things got too exciting. It took us 4 hours down to reach Base Camp from Camp 2 this morning.

The icefall is really in better shape than I have seen in the last few years. The walk down from Camp 2 to 1 at that time of the morning is beautiful. with great views of the sunrise on Lingtren and Pumori. What a great feeling it is to be down where we can breath easy, literally.

We plan to spend at least 4 days here at EBC before going back up the mountain. Also, the Mountain Trip Island Peak group stopped by here for lunch, but they will stay in Gorak Shep. The best surprise was to find Trudi here at Base Camp, as she joined the MT Island Peak team.  All of us are enjoying a perfect hot and sunny afternoon. Sorry about the gap in reports.  Our internet connection didn’t want to connect in Camp 2, so we were a bit incommunicado.

-Scott Woolums reporting from Everest Base Camp

Below Lhotse Face

In+the+Icefall

Mountain Trip Island Peak Group in Base Camp

Pumori this Morning