Potterfield

From Peter Potterfield's Satellite Phone Call:
It snowed again last night, but we now see the first sun in days... The clear weather, which looks like it's going to be a short while here, is nevertheless exciting because we can see the mountains around us -- including the south face of Lhotse, Island Peak, and several other striking peaks. We're going to remain here for at least another day before moving up to Lobuche at 16,000' so everybody can recover somewhat before moving to higher altitude.

The Gossip
Some of the gossip here at Dingboche is that Russians climbing on Lhotse this year plan a traverse from Lhotse, to Lhotse middle, to Lhotse Shar. It's never been done, and there are questions here of whether they have the permits to do that. It'll be interesting to see how it's played out.

The Indonesian team apparently had a climb-off to decide who among the large group would be allowed to climb this spring. Team members climbed Island Peak twice under the watchful eye of Anatoli Boukreev, who then made a decision on who they'd bring on the permit for the climb this month. Apparently the leader of the Malaysian team came down with altitude sickness while in Pheriche [14,000'] on a climb with that group.

The Stories
When we were in Namche Bazaar, we went to Ongchu's house, a sherpa who has climbed with Burleson for years and regularly visits him in the US. We were the only gringos there, sitting around drinking beer, about four of us along with Lhakpa Rita, who is the sirdar of our expedition. His mom happened to be in Namche for market, and she gave all of us a kata, the Nepalese religious scarf. It was a touching moment.

When we were in Thyangboche, we were granted a brief audience with the rinpoche, the most holy man in the monastery. He spent a little time with us and blessed us by giving us small, red strings which we tied around our necks. Hopefully, they'll safeguard us.

-- Peter Potterfield, Mountain Zone Correspondent