Days 43 to 44 - First Couple of Rest Days at Base Camp

The object over the rest period is to recover from this rotation, reorganise ourselves and recharge in time for our bid for the summit. The big unknown is when we will set off again as that is entirely dependent on the weather and especially when there is a period of light winds and hopefully not too much snow which will provide the window for us. Each team here has a slightly different source for their weather information so we will be speaking to the other groups much more than before. It will also be interesting to talk to them and see a bit more of their set up. I have been pretty critical of the organisation and equipment of this expedition so far so it will be interesting to see whether or not I am being fair!

The Russian group are famed for always having a party at the beginning of this trip and this takes place the day after I get down to BC. Russians are usually great hosts as you know that the drink will be flowing all evening and that they themselves will be seriously tucking in!

Their set up is very impressive with a huge mess tent, wifi and a series of generators and heaters providing plenty of heat and power. The food is also excellent and there is plenty of it. We feel very much the poor relations and then pretty annoyed when we find the organisation's brochures and see that their expedition is also considerably cheaper!

I meet a few people who were down in Antarctica and a number of others doing the 7 Summits or similar challenges so it is very interesting to swap stories and plans. Everyone has achieved what they needed to have done by this point so there is a real atmosphere of celebration and relaxation and a number of the groups are heading down to Tingri to get some time away from altitude to help them recover for the summit push so there isn't going to much holding back tonight! Over the course of the evening there are numerous drinking challenges and dancing competitions which have the predictable results at such an altitude with more than a few people left slouched in the corners later on.
The final surprise of the evening is a firework display which is fantastic having Everest as a backdrop! 

Enthused by the other expeditions heading down the mountain for some R&R we discuss that ourselves. A few of us are carrying little niggles which it would be good to get rid of and it would be more relaxing mentally to be in a different place for a bit so we are relatively keen to try to organise it. However this is not included in our expedition and so we would have to go through the CTMA who know that they have us over a barrel and so it would be pretty expensive and, perhaps more crucially, our visas are specific Everest ones which don't allow us further into Tibet and so our only real option would be to head to Zhangmu back on the border which would be a good part of a day's drive each way - which would make it very expensive and not really very restful. That means we are going to remain in an eerily empty BC until we head up for our summit push.

Unfortunately, the forecasts show the wind getting stronger for the foreseeable future and so it is very unlikely that we are going to move up the mountain anytime soon. There only seems to be a bit of a respite in the wind in late May - spending two weeks here is going to be tough!