Bright sunshine today at ABC. Big winds too. All day long we've been getting these great rolling gusts tearing through camp. Now, by mid-afternoon, those who were going to walk or climb in some direction have done so and things are fairly quiet. Most everybody is hunkered in their tent, either snoozing in the sunshine (powerful stuff when it comes through a tent wall at 21,000 feet) or reading or writing... or messing with electronic gadgets. Those not fully unconscious will be hearing the wind ripping through Boardman and Tasker's pinnacles up there around 8000 meters. They might also hear a roar from Changtse's cliffs now and then. If they listen well, they'll catch the big Venturi effect of air sloshing through the North Col itself. Drifting in and out of sleep, one might just think one is standing near Niagara Falls on a quiet day.

Dawa had the Sherpa team out of their 23,000-foot sleeping bags early this morning for an eight-man assault on Camp V. Yesterday, in big winds, as well, they hammered out a route, roping it as they went, to 25,000' on the North Ridge. That was good, hard work, and it had everybody dreaming that they might make the final 700' into Camp V today. No such luck though. At about 7 am they were out of camp intent on climbing when they ran into that 100 mile-an-hour wind (Dawa's estimate) and had to turn back to Camp IV. This didn't really break any hearts, though. We figure we have been getting darn lucky so far and are quite happy with a 25,000 foot high point for mid-April. The Sherpas came down to ABC later in the morning looking ready for the good sleep they are now enjoying. Conrad, Jake, and Thom went up to take their places at the Col, and in fact should be ripping the zippers open on those tents right about now. Tap carried his to the Col yesterday and so is recharging his batteries today for a move up tomorrow.

Eric and I are on that plan as well, although we didn't work quite so hard yesterday. We went with Andy and Jochen to that old tent site Andy had seen melting out of the glacier. Standing and kneeling and crawling around on the blue ice in the big wind, we played detectives and ice carvers to boot. We did some major chopping with our axes as we tried to get to the bottom of things. I'll let Andy fill you in more on "the Andy site" (since we really haven't quit arguing over whose tents these were...maybe Andy planted them). He probably won't get around to telling stories today since he is now well into the six-hour marathon of dust eating and ankle twisting that we forced on him. Andy is headed for a rest in Base Camp. We all have been trying to push him that way for days, but to tell the truth, Andy didn't really look all that worn down or tired, despite what we all figured: he was getting to be too long on a too high tour of duty.

Andy should have run into our trek group today as it neared Camp II on the East Rongbuk. They will sleep there tonight, and Heidi and Heather will get them up on a day hike into ABC tomorrow. Lee is anchoring the whole thing down in Base Camp these days, doctoring his throat (we hear it getting more human-like every six hours on the radio), and any other headaching human who wanders into his range.

Things still seem mighty quiet compared to last year, remembering of course that we are way ahead of last year's "schedule." I suspect that a bunch of trips are now pulling into the gravel pit at the end of the Rongbuk and starting their expeditions. So far though, it isn't all that big a chore keeping track of the folks up here. The Ukrainians seem intent on staying just a jump or two in front of us, no matter how much it hurts, so they probably have a tent up shredding in the Camp V wind. The Russell Brice "International Expedition" has a fine ABC up awaiting their customers. The Belgians have made a carry to the North Col already and established a camp there. The Chinese solo climber seems to like it just fine in his ABC tent thus far. A small expedition of two climbers and one or two strong Sherpas has set up about 40 feet from our ABC mess tent.

Pemba is whacking on some metal now, calling us to afternoon tea. Everybody will be climbing into their down clothes and stuffing headlights into their pockets even as the sun beams down from high in the sky. It will get behind Changtse any minute now and make things a little more serious. Darkness will come while we are eating dinner, and we'll then stumble out over the moonless, rocky moraine to our tents and another 12 hours of sleep. Then we'll see what kind of day we get to work with tomorrow.

—Dave Hahn, Climber

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