trail walk to gorbakshep

Went to bed at 9 pm last night and it was a little less cold than the previous 2 nights. I crawled in the bed and it seemed like I slept all night. I peeped out of the sleeping bag and it was light. What a relief and I felt good.
I just laid there listening to the IPOD, relaxing and thinking about the trip today. Finally got up at 810am for the breakfast call and had pancakes with melted butter and some great scrambled eggs. This was only the 2nd meal, (1 being dinner last night) that I actually could look at the food and not feel like I was going to throw up. I don’t know if that was because I had been sick or the thought that Jim was going to make me shovel something down. Anyway it was a good breakfast and we had decided to leave at 930am so I went back to the tent to change clothes and get my back ready.
Jim was on the computer and finally came by about 930am and said let’s go. A dash through the snacks and I was out the door. In the meantime ( only mins) Jim got consumed looking through the stuff that the porters brought up late last night. He was going through the list and of course I was looking myself. I saw Kraft Thousand Island Dressing; I saw 4 boxes of Pop Tarts, French’s mustard, Heinz Ketchup and 2 more bottles of Heinz 57. This made my morning today. It was like in the old days when Mom would come home from the store and we would tear through all the packages to see what favorite we go this month. (Yes we only went to the store 1 time per month) Then I thought I saw something else when they started removing all the stuff and taking it to the kitchen and dining tent, it looked like a jar of pickle spears. I knew I had requested them but Jim never acknowledge that he got them on the list. Well when I saw them I thought of 2 things 1) I want one of them right now and I did eat one and 2) wouldn’t my friend Roger Williams want one of my Clausen Dill spears. He loves them as much as I do.
After this small celebration, we were off to Gorbakshep. We are on one end of the base camp so we walk across base camp for almost 25 mins meandering up and down and around to we finally get clear and on the trail. The walk was rather slow; Jim was very deliberate so not to let me overdo it. It was a nice walk and we made it down there in an about 2 hrs and I felt pretty good. The only thing today was the wind was there all day so I never really warmed up, which would have been really nice. Nawaan went with us so he could use the land line phone to call and check on his wife, who is having the baby in KAT and they said that it would be around the first of May. He mother had arrived in KAT a couple of days ago so he was checking on them. He is such a nice guy (30 years old) and very inquisitive in a learning type way so it is very nice talking to him. We had a few teas and a hot lemon, I had a few snacks and Jim and Nawaan had some noodles and we were on our way back.
We are stating about 320 meters lower in altitude than when we left base camp so we knew we were moving back uphill but still this walk is a classic “up and down” Khumba region walk. Trails, large boulders, small rocks, water, mud, and yak poop etc so it is not just get on the trail and walk. We were back home in about 1 ½ hours and I still felt pretty good. A little tired but overall pretty good after the 5 hour round trip. We met people along the trail and heard that 3 more people are on their way home by helicopter. One lady Wanda was a MS lady who had climbed 6 of the 7 summits but just could not get this one done. This was her 2nd try and her lungs just would not let her take the long times at altitude. She was being taken up by one of my friends I met at Mt Rainier many years ago. He had just let her off at the helicopter in Pheriche and he was on his way back to base camp.
We arrived at the camp and went it to drink a little Mt Dew and Jim wanted some tea. We had a visitor from IMG to come over and pick up a violin that had been delivered by our porter last night. Vern Tejas who is accomplished violinist/guitaiarts/Fiddle player himself side he had a classical Violinist on his team and he wanted to hear some music so he had one sent up the trail but the case was also full of drugs (all legal) so we gave Vern a hard time about really wanted to hear music or did he need the drugs. I wanted a picture with Vern because I see about 5 to 6 guys here( all in mid 50’s) who are all starting to see that they cannot continue to be the leaders at the top of the mountains anymore and the guard is changing. These 5-7 guys were the leaders of making this place and others what is it is today and were the reason why people like I want to come here and try to climb this massive mountain. Vern has submitted 8 times in 14 tries. He is a great guy and is very well respected in this small circle of Professional mountain guides.

As he was leaving Russell Brice was walking up. All of you should know Russell Brice. He is the guy who started “Beyond the limits: Everest” on the discovery channel a few years ago. What a nice guy. He was collecting money ($100 per climber) for the fixed lines being installed up to the top of the mountain. ( they are installing 7000 linear feet of rope with 1000 carabineers help people like me get too the top safely) I got a picture with him also as I think he is a really nice guy vs what my impression was off the TV show.
I finally went to my tent to change clothes and get into something warmer and then to check email and write this blog. I am now going to dinner and then to bed and hopefully another good night’s sleep.

I hope all of you have a great Friday and a great weekend tomorrow will be a day off and I will write more.