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September 1, 1999 It was great to be back: the yak herders' dogs barking during the night, the sound of the river nearby, yak bells clanging somewhere out there, and the occasional whiff of a yak-dung fire, made it clear it was not a dream — we were at Base Camp.
It starting raining after lunch, with some thunder and lightning, a reminder that the monsoon is still not over. By afternoon tea, at 3pm, it had cleared up and things were looking good outside and it was time to make a move.
This afternoon we got together with the Sherpas to build a rock enclosure at Base Camp to enclose the garbage better. We also cleaned up the place and picked up quite a bit of trash. It looks pretty good now! Later in the afternoon, the jeep driver and Mr. Jong, our Liaison Officer, went fishing and brought back about eight fish that looked somewhat like brook trout, but I don’t think they are — they have no scales! Mr. Jong was pretty proud of himself, and now I know what he will be doing for the next month while we are climbing — in between bouts of card playing. We’re looking forward to wrapping up the packing tomorrow and taking some longer day hikes over the next couple days as the team gets more acclimatized. Everyone is doing well and, with the exception of a few headaches, we don’t have any problems.
Eric Simonson, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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