The best news was that Gary Guller and Gary Scott are happily ensconced at Camp 2, with Scott readying a day-trip up to Camp 3 today. Base camp folks say that Gary Guller then plans to return w/Gary Scott for a night at Camp 3, and the two will then return to base camp for rest and regrouping on April 26. All of the expeditions on Everest's south side are planning a team-leader meeting on the 26th to discuss fixing ropes on the South Col and above and other safety issues, so the TE03 climbers hope to be back down to attend.

Janis reports that weather may turn lousy again in the next two days, which could briefly delay the team. Both Janis and Christine noted that recent high winds have added a twist to the hot days and frigid nights at base camp; Christine said that windy conditions several days ago had folks huddling in their tents to try to keep warm instead of basking in the daily heat waves.

Janis reports that Gary Guller is climbing well. He notes that Gary’s first trip through the Khumbu Icefall (which Guller reported last week had involved traversing some 25-30 ladders strung over crevasses as well as the usual hair-raising ups-and-downs over ice chunks the size of houses and more) was "at a quick pace for him,'' taking about half the time of his first trip in 2001. "He’s feeling strong,’’ Janis said.

Summit team member Chris Watkins of Thunder Bay, Canada, left base camp for home on Tuesday. Chris had struggled during the trek with altitude-related physical problems, and Christine and Janis say he decided it would be best to head down for good after visiting TE03's base camp this past week.

Chris’s dedication to the team and its message was nothing short of remarkable. While in Katmandu recovering from altitude-related illness, he single handedly arranged a welcome-back reception and news conference for the Challenge Trek team with the U.S. Embassy’s deputy ambassador and consul. (And, as good Canadian luck would have it, even selected a reception site close enough to the ridiculously lavish National Geographic India reality TV show party that TE03 members were able to scarf free drinks and eats!) Because of Chris’s efforts, TE03’s meeting with U.S. diplomats was featured in every major Nepali newspaper, as well as the country’s main morning TV newscasts. Christine and Janis say he’ll be sorely missed.

Vince Bousselaire of Golden, Co., the fourth member of the summit team, remains at lower altitude in Pheriche. Janis says he’ll be there for the next four or five days, resting up and regaining strength before trying to regroup with the team at base camp.

While spirits are high, base camp communications remain in the ditch. The team’s beleaguered Honda generator, miraculously raised from the dead multiple times by Mingma Sherpa, Nikomar Margar and other mechanical whizzes during the challenge trek to base camp, is so dead and gone that all of the team’s computers are out of batteries – and thus out of commission for emails and dispatches. Christine reports that TE03's logistical genius in Katmandu, Loben Sherpa, sent in a temporary reinforcement on a recent helicopter flight: a car battery. Trouble was, to get it on the flight, it had to be, um, mislabeled as 'oxygen.’ So the base camp team spent much time after the helo arrived sorting through the goodies sent from Katmandu, passing by the 'oxygen’ package (and wondering, why did they send THAT?), and while wondering where the heck their temporary juice might've ended up. Someone finally opened the mislabeled package yesterday afternoon, and base camp is now expecting another Sherpa mechanical miracle: Christine predicts that the battery and solar panels could be jury-rigged to provide a temporary electricity source within the next day or so. It won’t replace the still sorely mourned generator, but would keep things limping along for a while.

Christine says that TE03 is not alone in its electricity woes. She estimates that fully 50 percent of the expeditions are now sans power at base camp (along w/the megapublicized base camp cyber cafe), thanks to the high demands and harsh conditions at base camp (those of us who found ourselves sleeping with our electronic equipment at base camp to keep it from succumbing to low nighttime temps can testify that it is NOT a machine-friendly environment).

Those few camps with generators still working apparently aren’t winning any popularity contests when they crank up their engines either. "You hear one or two going, and you want to throw rock at them!’’ said a base camp manager who spoke on condition on anonymity. - Lee Hancock The Dallas Morning News