Dispatch 4/14/2002: For whomever knows Martine it will not come as a surprise that although she is living the dream of her life, climbing Mt Everest, she has this incredible sense of friendship and love, to have remembered and made sure to pass her wishes for a Happy Birthday to her beloved friend Tala.

As she had said in her previous dispatch, early morning April 12th, she left Base Camp  to Camp 1 with some sherpas, crossing the Khumbu Icefall was a real challenge, she was trying to describe but had difficulty verbalizing what one feels while doing this crossing, the amount of focusing one needs to go one step at a time over the ladders that allow the passage over the crevasses. She stopped at Camp 1 and remained for the night, a short night of sleep because of such high winds that she thought she would be blown away as is, with the tent. April 13th, the climb resumed to reach Camp 2, there the weather was clear which offered her the chance to enjoy the  sight of Mount Everest right there in full view. She unfortunately had to descend back to Base Camp as she had to follow the Sherpas who quickly had to return to get some more equipments, Martine is very positive toward the sherpas, she describes them as fast, very strong, incredibly helpful and gentle people where nothing would be possible without their constant assistance, all this while carrying huge loads of equipments up and down between the various camps.

Martine made it back to Base Camp in just above 3 hours!! She was almost running behind the Sherpas who were encouraging her, she found the time and energy to teach them some French words though. Today, April 14th, Martine is in Base Camp, that will be her last three days of complete rest. A Russian expedition has arrived, they have set themselves a sauna, built from stones, they kindly offered Martine the use of it, she is thrilled. Martine has, of course, made friends with about everybody. She sounds to be in top form, she has not lost any weight yet, she seems to be well fed.