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Hello, this is Eric Simonson calling from Base Camp on April 6th, and we are getting ready to head up with our second load of yaks for ABC. A lot has taken place in the last few days, and I'm excited to let everybody know that we're hoping today to establish Camp IV on the North Col.

Myself and the rest of the team have been struggling with our yak drivers down here to organize our second load of 42 yaks, which has been quite a project. Dave and Jake and Tap and Conrad and Thom have been busy with our Sherpas, or at least six of them, up at ABC the last couple days. During that time, they've established ABC and gotten the tents up, and then yesterday they did a reconnaissance on the North Col, and today they are hoping to establish the route on the Col.

Based upon the radio communication we had this morning, they say the route is further to the left than in the past, which means that it's steeper, but more direct. Also, since there's been so little snow in the Himalayas this year, the route is almost all blue ice. So it sounds like it's going to be quite sporty, and hopefully generate some great pictures, which we'll hope to get back to you sooner rather than later.

On the Base Camp front, our yak drivers came down from their first trip, and the yaks were quite tired, so they took a rest day. This time of the year, coming out of winter, the yaks are skinny and weak. For this second trip up, we've had to cut back on our loads because the yaks aren't very strong, and so we had to do a lot of repacking and reorganizing in order to generate 84 yak loads for this second trip up. We'll be able to get most of our gear up now, and we're going to need a third yak load train next week to get the remainder of our expedition gear up. We had hoped to be able to get it all up in two trips, but it looks like we're going to need at least a handful of yaks to go a third time.

Otherwise, we're organized and we'll be heading out today for Intermediate Camp, and then tomorrow for Camp II, and the next day for Camp III, ABC. So everything's looking good. That's about it from Base Camp. I'm going to be taking the phone up with me, and so we're hoping to be able to transmit from ABC in a few days. Okee-doke, talk to you guys later. Bye.

—Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

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