First Day at Everest Basse camp

I was up at 6 am because I just couldn’t stand to be in the tent any longer. I went to bed at 8 pm and by 6 am I was like a caged animal and my side hurt from laying down so much. I knew the sun would not be on us until about 745 am so I just went to mess tent and waited on the others to get up or the sun to come up and it would be much warmer. We had more snow last night about 2 inches and the temp was below freezing.
I did get a hot water bottle before I went to bed and even though it wasn’t as hot as the one I had gotten the night before it still seemed to last until about 4 am. It got my feet warm early in the night and then I moved it up to my belly and had it there for the rest of the morning.
I didn’t sleep well last night as the excitement of finally getting to base camp was really bringing reality to the situation. Had lots on the mind and I am sure I still got 8 hours of sleep somewhere in those times of restlessness.
I did like the tent and bed layout and while I am not looking forward to spending the next month in there it is pretty comfortable.
We didn’t have a busy day planned, due to our last 3 days of pretty tough walking and lots of organizing to do for the upcoming days. The first thing on the agenda was getting a shower which was nice after being without one for 5 days. Funny how good a hot shower feels in 40 degree weather but it was awesome. Nothing like putting clean clothes on a clean body for a change and it might e a few more days before that happens again. I got a few clothes washed which was nice also.
The other thing that was done today was to try out the new bathroom or the “The Throne” as we call it. This is completely made out of stone and perch high (about 4 ½ ft) like you are the king sitting on it and it is lined with felt paper to make the toilet seat. It is by far the best homemade toilet that I have ever seen or used for that matter. Sorry but you always have to have at least 1 or 2 potty stories on your trip because people always wonder but never ask.

After we did the necessities we proceeded to have the Puja at 11 am which lasted 2 hours. The Puja is performed at every expedition site before anything can happen. It is a blessing for the people, the food we brought (even the Mt Dew) and our tools for summit day (ice axe boots harness and crampons) that we will have strength and safety for our trip. We then went to David Beshears grand opening which was nice and had some outstanding pictures.