NOTE THIS UPDATE COVERING A FEW WEEKS.....

March 25, 2002: The road to Namche Bazaar. This road is terribly long, and terribly steep! Not that it is really a road, but a trail. The yaks are the cars, and the bridges are the yield signs. Nothing to say about this day except that we hiked all day and it was all uphill. We started at 8,500 and ended up at 11,000 feet. Arrived in Namche and looked around the town a bit, only to find internet access was 50 cents a minute, as opposed to Katmandu's 50 cents an hour. We settled into our new home for the next 2 days. I attempted to do some work at a plug in the Lodge we were staying. After about an hour, my adapter shot out some huge sparks and quit working. Talk about freaking out! I thought that my computer fried. Sean and I were told that 2 out of 3 laptops break on the way to Base Camp. So I had been carrying my own, so I can protect it and watch everything that happens to it. I am glad, however, that Sean brought his, because I have to use his adapter now. I also bought a car adapter, so we are not entirely down and out yet! Ate dinner and went to bed! Of course after some Old Maid with the Sherpas!!

Day 9, Wednesday, March 27th: Awoke after tossing and turning all night in our room. Got up and had some breakfast, while Sean was checking and writing email for 30 bucks and hour! Afterward we decided to go on an acclimatization hike to Thome, west of Namche. I really looked a lot like Rocky Mountain National Park, in Colorado with the coniferous forests that we hiked through. The only difference was the HUGE pieces of rock that stuck out about 18-24,000 feet in the air, as opposed to the 12-13,000 foot ones in the park. We hiked through a few villages and had lunch in Thome after visiting a convent. They were in the middle of chanting when we arrived, "Ohhm Manne Pahd Mee Ohhm!" (excuse the spelling) over and over, faster and faster. Sean got up to leave and a small girl pointed and said, "Donation!" Everything that these women do is based on donations from the towns and foreigners. After waiting over 2 hours for lunch we headed back to Namche. Food in the back country of Nepal takes a long time, because they usually only have one stove, and they have to cook everything over a fire. Back to Namche to discover that our bags had arrived from Lukla. You may never see your bags, or know where they are, but they always appear right when you need them. I got Sean's adapter and tried it in my laptop to find with great relief that it worked. We met a team from Brown University, going to Everest Base Camp to do a High Altitude linguistics study. After a few hours of plugging/unplugging as to not fry Sean's adapter, I finished some updates (which have been brought to my attention as being flawed...hopefully fixed now) and ran to the Internet cafe, with my laptop, because I had to load a program on the computer there. It took over an hour to finish uploading everything I had on their slow connection. While I was waiting the attendant taught me how to play snooker on the computer! When it was finally finished, it was after the city curfew, due to the Maoists and the military. I had to walk back to the lodge with my arms in the air with the I'm no threat look about me. I was scared! Got back safely, played old maid and went to bed. Apparently as I have learned now (4-10-02) the Maoists are very visitor friendly, if you ask around town, they will take you to their camp and tell you all about what they are doing and why. Not that I would want to that is.

Day 10, Thursday, March 28th: Up after tossing and turning all night again, good thing I don't sleep much anyway. Went to the Internet cafe again before breakfast. Spent on Internet in Namche Bazaar so far ~ 5,000 rupees, or around 65 bucks! It doesn't help when it is 50 cents a minute and it takes a minimum of 5 minutes just to log into the system, and another 3 to check one email. A 30 kbps connection through a satellite is not that bad, but when it is shared by 4-5 computers, it is cut down tremendously. So if you are not getting email, or if it is very short, please understand the circumstances, and we apologize profusely! After breakfast we headed to Kalapathar, elevation 12,500 feet. It was about 2-3 miles from Namche, but it was up up, then down into the Kalapathar valley. This is apparently the Beverly Hills of Nepal. All the Sherpas that make a lot of money climbing have houses here. It is also the city where Sir Edmund Hillary built a school and a hospital. We come into town, check into our lodge, and head to lunch. Sean is having cold and sinus problems, so he decides to take it easy the rest of the day and not aggravate it. Sean had an incredible cheeseburger (that's cheese with a ton of veggies, no meat), burger, I think, refers to the bread. After lunch we relaxed at the lodge with a few games of Old Maid, Crazy 8's, and Go Fish (Mahtsah Manos! phonetic spelling of course!) Simple games seem to be the most fun.

Day 11, Friday, March 29th: Woke up and had breakfast. Decided to go to the local monastery that claims to have a Yeti Skull!! A monk with the biggest Goiter I had ever seen, is in charge of the key, he opened the case.... I guess it was the back of a skull...maybe. I was expecting to see a skull, not the back of a head. So needless to say, I was disappointed. So it was on to Tengboche Monastery, 5 hours away, the most famous in Nepal! I learned later that it is on the back of a 50 rupee bill. 2,000 vertical feet down, cross a river, and 2,500 feet back up the other side to about 13,000 feet. The trek down was about an hour of constant pounding on the knees. Crossed the river around 10,500 feet and had to go all the way back up. The way up was actually not that bad, the weather was extremely cloudy and it was cold, perfect hiking weather, as opposed to hot and sunny. The only bad thing is that this particular section is supposed to be beautiful, but all we saw were clouds. I guess because of the conditions, and lack of picture stops, and we are in good shape it took us only two and a half hours to complete the 5 hour hike. We looked around the monastery and had lunch. After lunch we went to the monastery's museum. On a brand new Sony flat screen TV and brand new Sony 6 head VCR we watched a video. The whole video was about us giving them money. Just thought it was a bit weird that they were asking for money using these brand new expensive tools. We decided to hike down from Tengboche, and stay in Deboche, about 1/2 hour down the other side of the hill from Tengboche. We stayed at the famous AmaDablam Garden Lodge. We played pool on the highest pool table in Nepal. It used to be the highest in the world, but those Tibetans love their pool! I took a cold cold shower in the snow, while Sean got a cold haircut. We had dinner and listened to a Nepali Radio station called anything goes, and apparently it is right. They played Puff Daddy, and the next song was the Carpenters. After music time we hit the sac... I couldn't find the cards anymore :(

Day 12, Saturday, March 30th: Got up for breakfast and while I was sanitizing some water, I reached my hand into my pocket and what would happen to be there.... the cards! The view in the morning of AmaDablam was amazing! When we hiked into Deboche we could not see anything due to the clouds. Every afternoon clouds roll in and we have constant fog until the next morning. Today we were off to Dingboche at 14,300 feet. The highest mountain in the lower 49 states is ~14,400 feet, Mount Whitney in California. So we had a constant uphill of around 2,000 vertical feet, in 5 hours of hiking. Today we took about 3 hours. On the way we stopped at a little know Llama that blesses climbers, gives them a necklace, for protection, and also gave Sean and Gombu a card to hold close to their heart on summit day. This card will give safe passage down from the mountain. After tea with the Llama we headed to Samboche for lunch. (On our long hike many days from now, I inquired as to what boche meant... after much confusion and questions, it turned out to mean footprint) The clouds started to roll in, so we high tailed it to Dingboche. We of course played Old Maid, with the Sherpas, and some people from a British trekking group on their way down.

Day 13, Sunday, March 31st: Woke up on our rest day to find out that we are going on an acclimatization hike. We eat, decide we are going to go to a high altitude talk in Pheriche on the other side of the ridge, and head out. Sean, Gombu, Pemba and I head up a "hill". Pemba turns back at 14,800 feet for some reason. I turn back at 15,500 feet because I want to rest on a "rest day". Sean and Gombu head up to the top of the "hill" at 16,500 feet. Lunch and at 2:30 we head over to Pheriche for the talk. It was all about HAPE, HACE, HAFE, and AMS. (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, High Altitude Cerebral Edema, High Altitude Flattis Expulsion, and Acute Mountain Sickness) The doctor then read our pulse rate and amount of oxygen dissolved in the body with an infrared device. A German man that was at the talk topped out with 124 pulse rate and 74% oxygen dissolved. These were very extreme readings, high pulse and low Oxygen means that you are not adapting well to the altitude and you are a very very high candidate for AMS or worse. Sean came in with an extremely low pulse rate of 64, and 86% oxygen dissolved. Average oxygen but extremely low pulse means that his body deals very very well with the lower oxygen, meaning that his body does not have to increase heart rate to distribute the oxygen. My reading was different as well. My pulse came in at 74, but my oxygen dissolved was very high at 90%. So we are both doing very well with acclimatizing. Back to Dingboche for dinner and a bit of cards. After dinner everyone went to bed except 5 of the British group, and myself. We stayed up and played a British version of Blackjack. Like crazy 8's but with a twist. We played for a few hours, and they were good sports. The lowest score wins... I had 200, and everyone else was over 500, some over 600 even. Each time they tried to play "gang up on the American" it failed miserably. But it was all in good fun.

Day 14, Monday, April 1st: Woke up and had breakfast. All the British folk were leaving, so we said our good-byes. What a good group of people. I was sorry to see them go. One man let Sean use his satellite phone to call home even. As they were leaving one of the men wanted the famous Nima Gombu, 7 time Everest summiter to sign his backpack, which started an hour-long signing session, everyone wanted the autograph! Not sure he understood what was going on, but he had a smile on his face the whole time...though it is tough to find him without a smile! When that was over we were off to Chhukung at 15,800 feet, at the base of Island Peak. Tomorrow we head for Island Peak Base Camp. I had the oiliest eggs for breakfast, and Sean was telling me a story of oily eggs before he climbed a peak in Guatemala, he regurgitated them on the way up... so needless to say, I was very very slow today, trying to control my stomach. I made it safely to Chhukung with everything in tact, so that was good. We arrived, had lunch, and played cards with whomever would play. Sean and I tried to explain some games to the women that drive our Yaks, but it was extremely difficult with the language barrier. After failed card games, we had dinner. I had the traditional Nepali meal Dahl Baht. It is rice, curried vegetables, with a lentil soup. They eat this twice a day, every day. I have always wondered if dogs were ok with eating the same thing everyday, but I asked our Sherpas, and they seem to enjoy it. Around 11 pm, I awoke with draining sinus cavity, that would not stop. I stayed up all night with this...it was a horrible night. Around dawn I got up and it went away. I think it has to do with some kind of defense mechanism when it drops below freezing. I sure hope it doesn't continue every night!

Day 15, Tuesday, April 2nd: I got up with the sinus problem, and it eventually went away. Ate breakfast and headed out to Island Peak Base Camp. I felt great on the hike despite my night. On the way we picked up a British guy named Simon who was struggling with his stuff and his 2 porters. It turns out his guide was taken to the hospital due to extreme alcohol poisoning the night before. Good way to start a climb like Island Peak! We threw some stuff on one of our Yaks...actually Nak, the female version of the Yak. Made it to Base Camp and set up our very small geodesic dome tents. My head hits one wall while my feet hit the other. I am glad I brought my own tent for Everest Base Camp! So here we were at 17,100 feet, I hope I don't damage the tent at night when I move! Played some cards, ate dinner and went to bed to write. My nose started to run about a liter an hour, so all I could do is lay there and wait for it to get warmer. It was the most miserable night of my life!! My nose is raw and running because of the weather, and I have 2 more months of this... I hope it stops... and sometime soon!

Day 16, Wednesday, April 3rd: I sat up and Sean told me that he was going to go back to Chhukung, because he was not feeling well. No reason to aggravate what he has by the stress and altitude. He went down, and the rest of us continued on to Island Peak High Camp after we sorted through all the gear and stuff that we needed now that Sean was not with us. This is the part where I am not supposed to tell you about the girl that hauled up the 70+ pound bag to High camp at 18,500 feet, while I struggled with my 30 pound backpack. She literally ran up, set up tents and went back down while I was still on the way up. The people here are amazing!! It is so easy to see that they are genetically different, simply astounding! I have an antihistamine to try for tonight, for my nose, hopefully it will work. Dinner, and bed. During dinner I felt very strange, almost detached from my body. I asked a couple of people about it and read some things about altitude, and came up empty handed. Everything had to have a headache to go along with it, and I felt fine otherwise. Needless to say, I went to bed and did not take the antihistamine, due to this reason. Who knows what would have happened, and I don't want to take any chances. So again, I laid awake all night with sinuses running like the Niagara.

Day 17, Thursday, April 4th: After laying awake all night again, and with the sinuses draining, I developed a cough. I also felt like tremendous crap due to lack of sleep for 3-4 days. I decided not to push it. I'm not even sure if my body could have handled summiting or not. It really is amazing what 1-2 hours of sleep can do for you body a night. So when you do not get those precious hours, it really hits you like a hammer. I was more exhausted than I had ever been in my life. I started down by myself, because I wanted to just move, or I would collapse. I made it down to Base Camp, dropped off some stuff from my backpack for the Yaks, and kept going. The hike back to Chhukung was long, tedious, and lonely. I got back safely and crashed in the dining room. Sean was out climbing Chhukung Ri ~ 18,000 feet, so I could not get into the room. It was warm in the dining room, so I was out like a light! I was sleeping so soundly until Pemba came in with the radio with Sean on the other end wanting to talk to me. Needless to say, I was kept up until Sean returned and we had dinner. I took the antihistamine after dinner and went to bed for the most relaxing nights sleep I had had in a long time.

Day 18, Friday, April 5th: Today was the longest day EVER. We left Chhukung at around 9 in the morning. Down to Dingboche, up over the ridge towards Pheriche, on over to a 1 building village called Thukla for lunch, Up a huge wall and through Everest Climber Memorials down into Lobuche. Around 5 o'clock. Total, about 8 hours of hiking up and down! The Everest Climber Memorials were very interesting and scary. We also saw the memorial for Scott Fischer, a man that died in the '96 disaster. Into Lobuche we went to our tiny cold lodge. There is a lodge in Town that is $15 a night, as opposed to the $2-$3 a night we are used to, so we went over to see what made it so much more expensive. We saw carpet, heat was felt on the skin, and the food looked amazing. Sean decided that the heat in the rooms would be very beneficial to the health of the team, so we opted to spend the extra... only to discover that there were no longer any rooms available. We decided that the dormitory would be ok, and that was the same price as a room at the other lodge in town. We were the only people in the dormitory, so it should be ok. It was still very very cold, but my sinus problem seems to be cleared up. Dinner was another ordeal... Heather, being a vegetarian, ordered the vegetarian pizza, only to discover Spam on it. She was extremely upset and nauseous, and the manager did not understand why she had eaten any if she knew there was Spam on it. The debate continued into the morning with the bill as well. She has not eaten meat in 15 years, until now. The dormitory beds were set up as a huge bunk bed system. 15 beds on top and 15 on the bottom, each with their own "well," meaning that there was a little space for the mattress to sit in, surrounded by wood, like a frame. I had to stack 3 mattresses on top of one another, so my feet could stick out above this wooden frame, but other than that, I was quite comfortable.

Day 19, Saturday, April 6th: Woke up and headed out to breakfast... passed the very very tempting indoor shower, that was, of course, not working. (days without a shower... 8) We ate and decided to go to Gorak Shep, instead of Base Camp. We were all still a bit tired from the day before and some of us were not feeling quite up to par. Gorak Shep is the last village before Everest Base Camp. The 2 hour hike took us about 3 1/2 hours to finish, so it turned out to be a really good idea. On the way, a 60 train of Yak passed us going in the opposite direction. We also passed some amazing glaciers, and saw the end of the Khumbu glacier! (the one that base camp sits on) After what felt like forever, we turned a corner and saw Gorak Shep in the valley. I couldn't wait to sit! We entered the lodge and had lunch. After lunch, Sean, Heather, and the two Sherpas, Pemba and Gombu, headed up Kalapathar an ~18,500 feet hill to help them acclimatize, and so they could see Base Camp. I was too tired and had a lot of work to do, so I stayed at the lodge. After a while, a situation started to develop on the radio. Apparently there were two people in the National Geographic group that were heading down due to mountain sickness or worse. They kept saying they needed a contact in Gorak Shep, and I kept saying that I would do whatever they needed. They started down, and Sean and Gombu went to go meet them, to see what they could do to help. The leader of their group told Sean to get off their frequency. Whether he understood that we were trying to help is still up for debate, however. They came through Gorak Shep, and I spoke with one of the guys I knew that was not feeling well. He didn't look that bad, but they had a horse waiting outside Lobuche for him, because the horse could not cross the glacier. The goal was to get them to Pheriche, and to my understanding that was accomplished. As that passed, I was sitting back in the lodge, and a couple came up to me and asked if the radio went to Base Camp. I said sure it did, what can I help[ you with? It turned out that the woman was Peter Hillary's cousin, and she was on her way up to see him, and they needed to know what they needed to bring up with them. It was decided that they were going to spend the night at BC and needed some stuff. I volunteered all the extra stuff we had for them to use. They accepted graciously. We said our "see you tomorrows" and went to bed after dinner and some great conversation. I had a queen size bed too! Just thought I would throw that in, because it was wonderful.

Day 20, Sunday, April 7th: Up for breakfast, and off to Base Camp, after the most rude Korean team demanded service of all the Sherpas, whether or not they worked at the lodge or not, and they were pushing people out of the way as well. It turns out that they were "very famous" Korean actors shooting a commercial at BC for the world cup. Still not an excuse to be rude and mean in my book. On our hike to BC, we heard a chopper come in... it came to take the Korean team to Kathmandu. $3,000 worth of a chopper. After an hour of hiking we met Hillary Carlisle and her husband Robert on the trail to BC, they were the ones going to meet Peter Hillary. If they are in the Hillary family, and their last name is not Hillary, then there is one in the family with a first or middle name of Hillary. Apparently, Edmund Hillary is the only non-royalty alive that is on currency... the New Zealand $5 bill. We hiked in with them over the tremendous Khumbu glacier. The sheer size of this glacier is unfathomable. There is really no way to measure how deep it is. It supposedly moves upwards of 4 feet a day, and is just enormous. We were walking over rock, gravel, and boulders, and every once in a while you were reminded that it all sat on ice, with a little piece showing here and there, or when a huge spire of ice shot out from below. Miles long, miles wide, and probably miles deep... amazing! Also on the way in we passed a stumbling man with a guide. The man was walking drunk, and stumbling over and falling over many things, and had trouble speaking. Everyone that passed him asked if he was ok, and suggested going down, for fear of his life, but he refused saying that he was simply tired. I hope he is ok now! We walked into Base Camp and hunted for our camp. We wander into our camp... a half circle around a frozen lagoon, very nice location actually. (now that I have had some time to wander BC, it is actually the nicest spot, just not big enough for larger expeditions.) We set up my Cabela's tent and I move in. Home for the next who knows how many days. It actually felt pretty good knowing that this was going to be my home for the next so many days. It is good to have a home for a little bit. I even found a car battery that seems to work with my inverter to change the power into household current. Hopefully the small solar panel that we have will charge the battery and I will be set with power. Hillary and Roger came over for tea time, asked us for 2 sleeping pads and a balaclava for Roger and we happily complied. We had some great conversation and they went back to their camp for dinner. Delightful people. During Dinner a porter popped his head in and gave us a box with the last piece of vital equipment we needed. It took the mail runner 3 days from Kathmandu to BC. These Sherpa people are amazing!! Went to bed with a ton of things to do tomorrow now that I had power. Also the ceremony for Sean, called a puja, to ask the mountain if Sean can climb.

Day 21, Monday, April 8th: Woke up and started charging batteries. The car battery work :) Now I hope the solar panel will charge it when I need it to. Had breakfast and the Puja started shortly after. Apparently each team has their own puja. This was a very strange ceremony indeed. Rice was thrown, junipur was burnt, chang was drank, food was eaten, then the Lama disappeared. But that did not stop anything. More and more people showed up until late afternoon. Apparently these pujas are a good excuse for the Sherpas to get drunk, even if they don't know the person. There was a lot of chanting by the Lama, we set up a lot of prayer flags surrounding and flowing over our camp, we attached our Cancer Climber Association flag to the pole with all the prayer flags, as a sign of good luck, and the ceremony was over. That was definitely the highlight of the day. Afterward, I went through over 400 pictures, and did some other work, to have to car battery die on me after about 10 hours of use. Not too bad. Tomorrow I get to see if the solar panels work to recharge the battery.

Day 22, Tuesday, April 9th: Got up and the sun was blaring! So I jumped up and set out the solar panel hooked up to the battery and crossed my fingers. After breakfast I went for a walk to give it some time to charge. I wanted to find the Brown university group and say hello. Pemba went with me and through the Sherpa vine we found them next to Adventure Consultants, one of the biggest companies on Everest. Apparently they are working together somehow. A.C. is a company from New Zealand. The leader of the Brown group has been sick for the last 3 days, I spoke with her a bit, then with Guy Cotter (A.C. leader) and Arthur (Brown undergrad). They have a huge communications tent set up so that anyone can come and email for like 7 bucks and email!! They do have to find some way to pay for the $3000 permit for the satellite phone. The solar panels had been charging the battery for a good 4 hours, so I tested the battery to find that it was more drained than when I started to charge it. Meaning that the solar panels were useless! Basically I was up the creek without a paddle now. I ran back over to Adventure Consultants and Brown University and asked them how much they would charge me to power the battery every other day. He thought about it, and then turned around and gave me a huge solar panel, a control box (so it will not overcharge the battery) and soldered a bunch of things together for me, with 2 stipulations, don't step on it, and don't fold it! What a great guy. Guy Cotter and Adventure Consultants are class acts in my book. The only problem is that he might need them back in like 2 weeks for camp 2. I ran home and hooked everything together and almost immediately had power. The only problem now is that the little battery that I have now does not keep a charge that long anymore. So the only time I can actually do work now is in the early morning when there is a ton of sunlight. As I was carrying everything back to the camp, I saw an elderly couple fall down a hill. I helped them up and they told me about another person in their group that was training about 10 minutes ago and fell and broke their leg. Sean came back later and told me that he saw this person fall from repelling and break their leg. They were taken out on the back of a ladder. We had an extremely cold dinner, and went to bed.

Day 23, Wednesday, April 10th: Every afternoon around 1, the clouds roll in and it starts to snow. The temperature goes from about 60 to 20 in a matter of seconds once those clouds cover the sun. It is amazing how fast the temperature drops. Today we woke up and had breakfast, and I started to work on some updates. Sean was bored so we went to visit the sick friend at the Brown University camp. She was looking a little better, actually moving around a bit. I helped Arthur set up a large antenna for the radio, which took basically all morning. The clouds started to roll in and we high tailed it back to our camp as the snow started to pour out of the sky. I tried to work some more, but my fingers and the laptop were just too cold, as well as the battery. A cold battery does not hold a charge very well or long. I retreated to my tent, under a few sleeping bags, and read all afternoon, to emerge for dinner only.

Day 24, Thursday, April 11th: Sean left camp with his climbing Sherpas at 5 am to tackle the Khumbu Icefall. I awoke to find that it was about 65 degrees and bright bright sun shining outside. Which meant that Sean was boiling up on the icefall. Imagine being about 19,000 feet closer to the sun, meaning stronger more intense rays of light, as well as these rays bouncing from every direction due to the fact that you are surrounded by ice! He claims that he would have been comfortable naked... of course he would have looked like a chili pepper from sunburn, but he would have been comfortable with the heat. He came back to camp and rang out his socks, because his boots were that hot and full of sweat. He got up and down the icefall in about 6 hours, which is incredibly fast considering some of the other climbers have told me that it has taken them 5 hours to just get up. It also might help that Sean's climbing Sherpa are like human mountain goats. bounding over 300 foot deep crevasses covered by a ladder, and acting like they are on flat sandy beaches or something. These people, I can not stress enough are amazing! They are going back up tomorrow to supply camp 1, and then again on Saturday with Sean again. Sean came back from his first trip up the icefall and looked exhausted, most likely from the heat and dehydration, but again, the Sherpas did not even drink anything the whole trip. Sean expired his own water, and both of the Sherpas waters. The first time up is obviously a learning experience, and I think Sean learned not to wear so much! It was his Sherpas, however, that told him to keep putting more and more on. I'm not sure they understand that Sean is the guy that climbs in shorts in the snow in Colorado! He has a rest day tomorrow and is going to Camp 1 on Saturday. After a nice lunch and resting a bit, we had some visitors from the Brown Camp, and decided that tonight would be the first Everest Movie Night! So everyone was looking forward to that later in the day. While Sean was in the Icefall, I finished up most of the updates you have been reading, so I was not just lazing around :) We had dinner and went to movie night. (Our camp is to cold we don't have heaters and electricity like most of the other camps) I brought the movie and we had a huge turnout, about 13 people showed up for a break in the monotony. It was quite a success! We hope to have them every few days as to relieve boredom, as well as keeping people from going stir crazy. But next time it has to be a comedy!

Day 25, Friday, April 12th: Sean has a rest day today while his climbing Sherpas are up the icefall setting up camp 1 for next week. Sean will start to sleep in the higher camp next week in order to acclimatize to the altitude. I was awakened by Pemba, our cook, yelling at me to have some tea. I was snuggled under a ton of sleeping bags and could not hear anything, except a faint dream-like... Seth.... hello.... Seth. I woke up and found that the wind was howling. All I could think of was the solar panel... thankfully it was ok, and I had some tea, and got to work on updates. I finished up the text updates, while Sean read inspirational books all day. Had some lunch and dinner then basically retired for the evening. The clouds were out all day keeping me from having a charged battery for more work. Hopefully tomorrow I can start on some pictures to upload for the site. Seth (Sean's Brother)

Dispatches