Yesterday, we got all fired up and moving. It was a great feeling to head from Base Camp well rested and ready to go high. As many times as we've all felt the magic of acclimatization kick in, it was still a pleasure to get some hard use from our bodies on the same East Rongbuk that has slowed us to a breathless stumble in all too recent weeks.

Picture the difference between a power mower with a dirty carburetor, fouled spark plug, and dull blades mired down in tall, wet grass and the tuned-up and sharp version, chewing up everything in its path and roaring out in perfect mechanical pitch. Five of us did it in one push from Base Camp yesterday, and the rest kicked it in to ABC from CII. Must have been the fine spring weather that had me thinking of cut grass. None of that, of course, but there was water running everywhere.

The easy temperature certainly made the hike a bit easier. One just had to keep one ear free of Walkman music to be sure no spring rockfall got to sneak down from above. Turning the last corner to ABC and seeing Everest and the North Col again took that spring feeling away quickly. Clouds were swinging like those old lawnmower blades up on the Northeast Ridge, and the cold gusts were finding their way all the way down to ABC. Having been spoiled in balmy BC, we spent the evening shivering and hunched up in lots of goose feathers.

This morning was no better — cold and windy. We

					"Dawa and the Sherpas burned up the East Rongbuk themselves today. If we came up cutting nice swaths in the grass, they turned the darn thing into a putting green. They are strong and ready to put in Camp VI now..."

had today down as a regrouping and final resting opportunity before the assault. We may have to extend that program for a day or two for a couple of reasons. First, as so often is the case on big mountains, we may have to wait for the weather to stabilize. The jet stream is taking a personal interest in these mountains now. Productive searching above 8000 meters is a lot like safe climbing in that neighborhood, you can't do it like a rugby match. Rugby climbing has its place, but its limits as well.

If we are going to commit to burning the oxygen that has been laboriously put into place, there needs to be a decent chance that we can get to the region we're interested in. That chance would be enhanced if fixed rope were in place to Camp VI, but the team responsible for that effort has, understandably, been kept to the Col and below by the wind. Dawa and the Sherpas burned up the East Rongbuk themselves today. If we came up cutting nice swaths in the grass, they turned the darn thing into a putting green. They are strong and ready to put in Camp VI now.

We will have to come up with just the right mix of patience and pushing to blend their work with ours and get our several goals accomplished. Perhaps that makes it sound like we'll be working hard strategizing tomorrow. Maybe, or else just reading good books, laughing at one another, and eating everything in sight while we wait for the world to spin and the wind to take off after some other mountain for a while.

—Dave Hahn, Climber

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