We made it to base camp yesterday. That trek kicked my ass and I have a horrendous headache. It will pass though.
Coming into base camp is always like that. We're just gonna spend the next five days doing nothing so we can properly acclimatize. So that's good, I can catch up on some mental training and get some sweet footage for the VR camera I'm lugging around with me.
I guess it's about time I give a little mention about my team mates:
Nelson - That's me.
Phil - Our team leader NOT our guide (he will stress that). He's summitted Everest 7 times and has gone on over 40 8000m peak expeditions. Woah.
Ben - An Aussie electrician. He previously summitted Everest in 2012 with Peak Freaks and is here with his wife Laura to do it again. He's gotta heck of a good sense of humor but the most unintelligible accent.
Laura - Ben's wife and first time Everest climber. She is or was a professional cyclist and has a fashion blog type thing on the side. And she shares my birthday, what the...
Robert - Climbing buddy from Everest 2013. Robert has come short on Everest 2 times prior (like me), so we share a lot of the same struggles here. He owns the TOP motorcycle dealer in the USA (and by top he means he has gone to the top of the world. Does that count? Ehhh....)
Barbara - The queen of bad luck. She had a crappy situation happen to her on Everest in 2013 (faulty oxygen tank) and then was here the last two years (Avalanche and earthquake). So she is here for the 4th time to finally, hopefully, get to the top. She's from Guatemala and stands in malls all day raising money for her climbs.
Lyle - South African fitness guru. He climbs for Huntingtons Disease and was also here last year (cut short by the Avalanche). He is a strong dude and fast as hell. He'll summit before anyone even knows he has. Not sure what he does for work but it sounds super top secret.
Alan - The famous Alan Arnette. He's actually climbing Lhotse (which is the 4th highest peak and attached to Everest high camp). He's one of the top reporters on all things Everest and has an awesome blog. He also climbs for Alzheimer's like me.
So there you have it. Between us, we were calculating this morning, we have 28 8000m expeditions (not including Phil's). That's a lot of experience! Looks like our Puja ceremony will be on the 14th (that's where we do a big party and blessing on everything before we start climbing).