A great day at 14,000 ft and above. In the pattern we've come to expect, it was all blue sky and sunshine to start the day and then cloudy and even a bit snowy to end the day. But we made excellent use of the sunny and calm morning to go for a hike about 1,200 ft up on the hills behind Pheriche. Right off the bat, we enjoyed views of the sixth, fifth and fourth highest mountains in the world. Everest is now hidden from our view by Nuptse, and that will continue until we are above our final tea house in Lobuche, but Cho Oyu, Makalu and Lhotse were trying their utmost to make us forget our central goal of the trip. They had to fight it out with closer giants like Ama Dablam, Towoche, and Cholatse. Giant eagle/vultures cruised overhead as we climbed, hoping we'd leave one or two climbers behind, but everybody kept up just fine and the birds went hungry. We took a bunch of hero shots at our high point and beat feet back down to our luxurious digs in Pheriche. In the afternoon, the team strolled next door to receive an excellent lecture on altitude illness given by one of the docs of the Himalayan Rescue Association. The dining room was not nearly as busy as it had been yesterday and the team enjoyed slightly better internet connectivity through the late afternoon and evening. And that is good, since we don't expect much web surfing in Lobuche for the next couple of nights. We'll try to get our progress out if possible, but of course -no news from us is good news. Mark Tucker, our soon-to-be basecamp manager, brought his basecamp trekking team back down to Pheriche as planned today. Nice to see him and his gang. We'll say goodbye to him in the morning as he continues guiding his folks back down to Lukla before sprinting back up to be with us. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map