Preparations for camp one

The morning has been spent preparing for our early start tomorrow morning (David kindly informed us that it's up at 1.00 am and off at 2.00am - so spare a thought for us at about 9.30 pm uk time!).

Whilst it's sunny there's a strong wind which is making it feel quite chilly.

We've assembled two days worth of food which includes: two main meals (one of which is dehydrated), drinks, soup, tuna, pepperami, flapjack, nuts, an assortment of snacks and chocolate bars. I don't think we will starve however I know the real problem from last time is trying to force yourself to eat and drink as the altitude surpresses your appetite.

Thankfully the Sherpas are going to carry our sleeping bags and food up to camp one so that's 4 kg saved which I'm very grateful for. We have to carry the rest of our personal gear as well as some of the other kit we will need higher up the mountain: ie down boots, down mitts. David has suggested taking a little at a time to make things easier. I suspect our packs will be around 10-12kg. Plus big boots and crampons (4kg) and climbing harness etc (1.5kg).

Talking of big boots I've included a picture of one of my high altitude boots together with its silver inner boot. To give you an idea of size that's one of my trekking boots on left!

There was a lot of helicopter activity this morning and speculation is rife that Prince Harry may be making an appearance in support of the Walking with the Wounded expedition. However David announced mid morning that they were in fact helicopter evacuations.

So what's BC like. Well it's a bit like a mini tented city - think Glastonbury without the mud and whacky backy! Having said that there is a lot of incense being burnt.

David reckons there are about 40 teams this year who have each set up their own little enclave with personal tents, a mess tent, one or two cooking tents and some stores. BC here is much more like ABC on the north side which is also set upon a glacier. It's a very sociable place with most of the team leaders knowing one another. There's also a good deal of co-operation for instance this afternoon (here comes yet another helicopter over head) all of the team leaders are getting together at Russell Brice's behest to discuss and finalise the fixing of the rope all the way to the summit from Camp 2.

So how many people are here? If we assume each team has an average of say 10 climbers (we are 8) then there wil be 10 Sherpas to support them on summit day, plus say 5 BC staff ie cooks etc and there's potentialy around 1000 people here! I don't think it's quite that many but it could easily be 800. Now I know what you're all thinking what about all that waste, well it all gets carried out and used as fertiliser.

In comparison on the north side two years ago there were 7 teams and a Chinese army barracks! My own view is that the south side seems colder than I remember the north. A plus is that all of our Sherpas and camp staff seem a lot more relaxed on this side. We are also in a bowl with mountains on three sides which is a stunning backdrop even though we can't see the summit.

Talking of two years ago we bumped in to Kenton Cool again yesterday and I wasn't sure whether to mention that we had a mutual friend in common. Let me know Heather!!

A couple of guys are going down to Gorak Shep this afternoon but I'm just going to relax and drink as much as possible ready for tomorrow morning.

Next post from Camp One!!