The last few days have been spent sorting equipment and preparing loads for the yaks to take to advance basecamp (abc). Some yaks moved up yesterday and some more will go tomorrow.

In my spare time I’ve been climbing a nearby hill up to 5650 metres each day for acclimatisation and to keep the blood circulating. Snow last night and today has left a light covering over basecamp and we’ve had a report of about 20cm new cover at abc. The odd glimpse of the hill through the cloud reveals lots of fresh snow up high.

Tomorrow I’ll start the trek to advance basecamp which will take 2 to 3 days the first time. The walk is only 22 kilometres or so but gains 1300 metres to 6450 metres. Thats a big jump in altitude, so I’ll need to make an interim camp halfway up and spend one or two nights there to acclimatise before moving on. Once at abc, I plan to carry some loads to Camp 1 on the North Col at 7000 metres and will decide then whether to climb higher or return to basecamp for some rest.

Managed to grab a bucket of hot water for a wash and a shave today (to dispose of some alarmingly light coloured whiskers) and cracked a box of chocolates that the office gave me before I departed (tks Di and Jo). Perfect timing for Easter.

Back in a week or so.