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The
ceremony begins with the prayers being chanted by a
former Nepali monk and a local Tibetan. They start a
small fire with sticks brought from below. On top of
this they put lots of incense. The prayer flags and
other flags are erected on a pole, with the prayer
flags streaming off the pole in five directions and
in five colors to represent the five virtues. We are
all given rice and at the right time it is touched
to your forehead and thrown into the air. This is
repeated several times. Then, while the chanting
goes on, we are given drinks of milk tea and
offerings of barley flower that are also thrown into
the air at the right time. This is the finale and it
comes to an end with wishes of safety and good luck.
The
Puja is always such an emotional thing for me for a
couple of reasons. First, you cannot help but feel
in awe of Chomolungma [Mt. Everest in Tibetan,
meaning "Mother Goddess of the Universe"]
towering above us and know that this ceremony is for
your safety up there in one of the most dangerous
places on earth and that the summit is actually your
goal and a chance to achieve a long held dream is at
hand. Second, you cannot help but think about the
people back home that you love so much, the ones you
miss so bad it becomes a physical pain and who feel
the same about you and also are thinking of your
safety as well. It just drives it home that these
are the things that life is really about. It is
always good to remember that coming home to them is
the real goal and thus, we have our Puja.
Schedule:
We plan to make a carry to Camp 1 [Camp 4 on the
maps] tomorrow to drop some gear. About the camps;
we are using them as you have it except we make Camp
3 [Camp 6 on the maps] at 7,800 meters [25,600 feet]
and try to sleep there. On the summit push we move
that one to 8,200 meters [26,900 feet] just to brew
up and rest a while before we go for it [the
summit].
Weather:
The weather was snowy this morning, but has broken
up a little bit this afternoon.
Sanitation:
The sanitation is just like it was on Aconcagua. [No
toilets, just do your business where you can. :)) ]
Health:
Adrian and I have dry, raspy throats. The air is so
dry and cold. [I assume, since Scott was not
included here, he is not suffering the dry, raspy
throat condition.]
From
Adrian: I appreciate a lot that folks back home are
interested and concerned about this planned ski
descent that I hope will take place. But as most of
you know, it is not only up to me; it is up to the
mountain, conditions and how I feel once I am up
there. As you know the acclimatization process and
fixing the camps is most of the work and I can only
hope all this comes together to present me the
opportunity to ski it. I also hope both Scott and
Jimmy feel good and we are able to set the camps
together and make the summit attempt. You need to
understand there is a lot of ice that concerns me.
Hopefully by the end of May conditions will be
better, with good snow. It is a big puzzle and there
are a lot of bugs to be worked out. It is a slow
process, but I hope this mountain will show me the
way to do it. I know I may sound pessimistic, but
this is Everest folks, so God bless you and hope for
the best. Thank you so much!
 Dispatches
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