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The Sound of Ice Falls
Base Camp - Monday, May 29, 2000

DISPATCHES

Prittie

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Hello Mountain Zone, this is Willi Prittie reporting from Everest Base Camp still. We've been waiting here for three days for our yaks and porters to show up so we can do a final evacuation and start the long journey home.

It's three days of alternate hot sun and wet snow falling; three days of nighttime silences and daytime being alive with the sounds of running water as things warm up here, and the glacier is melting, rockfall coming off the sides continuously, rocks falling over here around Base Camp. And it's also been three days of the valley reverberating in the sound of ice falls off the massive ice cliffs along the sides of the upper Khumbu Valley here.

However, three days of inactivity have suited me just fine. Just coming off an expedition, it's always nice to hibernate a little bit, maybe read a few books, and helps the body recover a little bit from the physical demands of being very high on a peak such as Everest.

However, we are looking forward to getting on the trail again tomorrow morning. Our yaks and porters are stringing in today and in a few days we'll be re-entering modern civilization again. Modern civilization being defined as a place where you have computers, but you also have indoor, sit down, flush plumbing. That's all for now from Mount Everest Base Camp.

— Willi Prittie, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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