Greetings from Tibet, After four lazy days of short walks and a whole lot of sitting around at 16,000 feet, we are finally ready to start our way up to our Advanced Base Camp. Four of our sherpa team (Danuru, Mingma, Phunuru, and Karma Rita) left Base Camp with 35 yak loads of expedition gear on the 2nd to move up the mountain and establish our IMG Advanced Base at 18,500 feet. The rest of us (11 climbers, 1 trekker, 4 guides, 3 Sherpa, 3 cook staff, and 25 yaks) will start our walk up valley on the 4th. We plan to make an Interim Camp at a little over 17,000 feet for the night of the 4th, and move the rest of the way to ABC on the 5th. After moving all necessary gear up to ABC we will not return to Base Camp until the end of our expedition. We are all currently feeling healthy and strong after recovering from the usual stomach problems we encounter while driving across the Tibetan Plateau for five days. Once we get on the mountain and have the joy of Pemba's fantastic cooking everyone's stomach issues seem to go away, and we sit and eat as much of his food as we can possibly get down.

It's great to have a gluttonous month and a half of vacation and still come back thinner that when you left! All this food, and we have entertainment to boot. After our tasty pizza dinner last night we all sat back with full stomachs and enjoyed our first movie night on Cho Oyu. Thanks to the marvels of lap tops and DVD's we were able to relax and let Hollywood entertain our  IMG expedition over here in Tibet. After we arrive at ABC we will check back in with everyone via e-mail and will also have the satellite phone up and running, as many people are looking forward to calling home during the next week.

That's all for now from Base Camp. It's time to start moving higher on the mountain. Chris Booher