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The mountain weather here continues to be very warm and dry. You can see this affect places where we normally expect to see snow on the upper mountain and are however dry. The majority of the Lhotse Face itself is quite icy at the moment although we expect that as more traffic that goes up and down the Lhotse Face, the effect of crampons on the ice will be to eventually wear away some footsteps and make for easier going.

While we were up on the flat, we installed some temperature and pressure probes that [inaudible audio] has given us so that we can build a temperature and pressure log for various sites on the mountain over the coming year. This afternoon, David Mencin and M.I.T. students, Chris Metcalfe and Matt Lau, arrived in Base Camp. So it was good to see them. David looks much better from his recent run-in with a high fever and whatever else was going on there. He seems much recovered and quite energetic. They're all settling in this afternoon and this evening. We just finished supper here and everybody feels a good appetite and is doing very well.

So really our next phase now is sorting out our packages for the summit work and also keeping an eye on the weather forecast to see when a good weather window will come—in the next week or so we hope. And then we can do our push up to the summit and complete our work on Mt. Everest. As you heard from Pete when they went over to [inaudible audio]. He went over to reconnoiter Nuptse. It was pretty awesome, the view that they had, from the lower slopes of Nuptse looking back across to the southwest face.

One of the interesting things from this year, being so dry, is it appears that the mysterious yellow band strata of rock—actually sort of a closed loop on the Lhotse Face. Obviously, we can't dig away all the ice and snow there to prove that this really is the case, but you may be able to see things from the pictures I've put together over the last while. [inaudible audio] that the bedding plane [inaudible audio] bends over and then the Khumbu Glacier as it comes over the Lhotse Face through the bedding planes, [inaudible audio] if you like, a circular exposure of strata which this year are quite readily visible.

Our program for the next few days is: we're going to rest up, eat a lot, relax, get everything ready for a summit push, and then bide our time until the weather looks like it's going to be good over the summit. The forecast over the next few days seems to show increasing wind, so I don't think we'll be going up tomorrow or the day after. But if we get the next weather forecast, if that shows a decreasing trend in wind, then we're going to go for the gold. I think I will leave it at that for now. I trust that all is well with everybody who is tuned into the site. We look forward to keeping in touch, and sending in more images. That's it. This is Charles Corfield, Everest Base Camp, Nepal, signing off.

—Charles Corfield, Climber

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