On a more serious note somebody must have a key stuck on their keyboard. Henrietta has told me that over 320 people are following this blog which has got to be a mistake - I've not got that many friends!
No in all honesty that's absolutely fantastic as although a lot of time goes into them (yes, hard to believe I know) I do enjoy writing them. The readership is almost global: UK naturally ,but also Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, Poland, Costa Rica, India, Russia and Singapore todate. Now if you think any of your friends or family would enjoy following my blog please tell them about it. It would be great to get to 500 or more. Many thanks.
It's a sunny morning here at BC but there is a biting wind making it uncomfortable to sit outside and enjoy the view. Thankfully it's warm in the tent as I intend to catch up on some sleep. For some reason I didn't sleep well last night.
Today is just for relaxing and preparing for tomorrow when we go to Camp one again. On Tuesday it's up to Camp two followed by a rest day there. On Thursday we make a sortie up to the bergschund at the bottom of the Lhotse face, whilst Friday is an acclimatisation day at Camp two before returning to BC early on Saturday morning. So we are away from BC for almost a week.
We've got to get all of our high altitude gear up to Camp two over the next two trips up as David wants our packs to be as light as possible for our third and final push to the summit.
Now to the work of the 'ice doctors'. As I've mentioned before their sole task is to maintain the fixed ropes and ladders through the icefall.
On our last trip down we saw five of them including the head of the team. Four of them had five or six foot ladders strapped horizontally across their backs which they were steadily taking up the icefall. We will see where they've been used tomorrow.
Along side all the ladder crossings are two fixed ropes either side of the ladder. These are used for clipping into to protect you should you fall off the ladder and also to act as handrails. The idea is that you'll just dangle a few feet into the crevasse rather than tumbling to the bottom never to be seen again. The trouble with using them as handrails is that you have to put some tension into ropes. Personally I think there are more for confidence rather than aiding balance. The ladders range from being horizontal to vertical depending upon the obstacle.
As the glacier moves at about 8cm a day, a) there is less of the ladder resting on the ice either side of the crevasse and b) the handrail ropes get closer and closer to the ground meaning you have to stoop down when crossing the ladders. So far the ladders have ranged from single to doubles strapped together at their midpoint. I understand that on previous years there have been as many as five ladders strapped together to span a particularly wide crevasse.
So the ice doctors are constantly having to adjust the existing ladders as well as forge a new route when an avalanche occurs.
