Greetings folks from Mount Everest Base Camp,

We're here at Base Camp waiting for the jet stream to move away from Everest to give us the few days we need to climb this puppy and come home. We are doing our best to keep our positive spirits alive and our health in good condition while we await a window of good weather for our summit attempt.

Tentatively, our plans are to ascend directly to Camp 2 in a couple of days (May 17) where we'll wait for the window of opportunity to take the message of CTD and TE '03 to the top of the world (May 20/21). We are ready, the window will come, it is now all about patience.

Since we returned to Base Camp, we've been inventing daily projects to keep ourselves active. Yesterday, the wonderful climbing Sherpa and I spent roughly 6 hours building a Texas "sundeck" (all the Sherpa grooving to the tunes of "Rasta Man - Alien" by Urban Roots as we were moving the rocks!). As the glacier at Base Camp continues to move, change and melt, all tents inevitably become unstable. Basically, the tents provide shade to the ice underneath them, which doesn't melt, while all the ice around the tent does melt. After several weeks, your tent is pitched on a platform of ice that is elevated 5-8 feet because all the ice around it has melted! So our Texas sundeck is really just building up moving rocks to keep our tent in place. We are trying our best to make the hard work of reinforcing our tents a little more bearable, as well as aesthetically pleasing!

I can not tell you how much your emails mean to us and your support of our message, CTD and our campaign. To the Challenge Trek members, the Sherpa have been asking how you all are doing since you have returned back home. You have really touched their lives, as you did so many others around the world.

As a matter of fact, over the last couple of days, representatives of CCTV-Central China Television have been our guests at Base Camp. We had a lovely visit, and a great exchange of ideas with our new Chinese friends Ming and Pin and their crew here at camp. They interviewed our climbing Sherpa and me on video, which will be flown back to Beijing to be aired throughout China. Disability awareness to a whole new level! Team Everest continues to rock the world - promoting the potential of people with disabilities. Thank you to CCTV and all of our supporters in China! Bless you all and good luck to the Chinese team on the North side of Mount Everest!

It is a fact of life at 17,000ft that you never really feel 100%. We keep discussing the powerful message behind TE '03 and what we have accomplished so far and I have to say that these are the best motivational discussions we have. Team Everest '03 is all about positive human spirit - regardless of culture, nationality, ability or disability.

In our down time at Base Camp, we are continuing to improve our Sherpa language skills. Today we spent some time learning mountain-related words, which we'd like to share with you, especially the students at Texas School for the Deaf Middle School, Mrs. Jaensch's 8th grade class at Easthampton Middle School in NJ, Dripping Springs, TX and the 2nd graders in Riga, Latvia! We love that you are learning the Sherpa language with us!

Now for the words: tent: tambu, mountain:kangri, rock:dou, icefall:charum, glacier:druk, avalanche:kugi tokpa, crevasse: sirka, ice: charum, Everest: Chomolungma, South Summit: mola gola, Summit: gola, snow: kha, wind: lung, helicopter: heli. [For those who are wondering, didi means sister in the Nepali language - not Sherpa!]

We'd like to send a huge congratulations to our Expedition doctor Janis Tupesis for his appointment to the National Emergency Medicine Residents Association - International Emergency Medicine Committee. Way to go Janis!! Thanks again to the Emergency Department at the University of Chicago for loaning Janis to us!

More to come in the next few days!
Gary Guller