Day 2 at camp 1

Monday April 26th
2nd Day at camp 1
We went to bed in the cold and wind and awoke in better weather. I felt better after a good night’s sleep and our plan was to get up and go for a 2 hour hike up the mountain in hopes of at least seeing camp 2 (ABC- advanced base Camp).
We finally got up around 10 am and started walking towards the (ABC) to see how we felt and take pictures. We were at the base of the valley looking at Nuptse on the right, Lhotse face in the middle and the big one, Mt Everest on the left. What an amazing place to see in one’s life. (Jim got some pictures) We started our walk up the 7 mile journey and was actually moving pretty good with what we had been through the previous day and in about 1:30 mins we were at a great place with a view on ABC and we could even see the first of the tents being placed on Lhotse face at camp 3. The weather was pretty good and we got some outstanding shots of the summit of Mt Everest. We took some lunch up there on the trail admiring all the views and listening to stories of climbs Jim had done over the past 20+ years and I was just was in awe of where I was and what I was doing. I appreciate all the people who allowed me to do this adventure. When you see things like this in nature, it really gives you an appreciation for the world we live in and the opportunities we are afforded and that we must take more of them or we will die and never really have seen the world around us.
After lunch, we decided to go back to the camp. We made it rather quickly and by then it was in the afternoon and the clouds and snow came back to welcome us into the evening. Again the main purpose when you return to the tent is to get warm. Jim and I both went to sleep with little conversation and you didn’t hear anything from either of us until about 9 pm and then it was too late to eat or try to cook and we just kept sleeping. We had to get up early in the morning for our trek into ABC and we knew the Sherpa’s would be up from base up around 6 am.
It was a long cold night and you cannot sleep 14 hours so you end up turning over and over hoping it is daylight when you open your eyes. I can only sleep on my side and the hard ground (even when you have a sleeping pad) make your hips hurt so that adds to the anticipation of the morning sunlight.