Day 13 - Move to High Camp (ha ha !)

Up early to be ready for the early start up to high camp - there is a bit of wind but nothing that I have not dealt with before. The sky is clear and it will warm up when the sun comes round the mountain. However, I get a bit concerned when there is no movement from the rest of the camp.

Sure enough, it is thought to be too windy and so we are not moving today. As feared, this means yet another boring day in the tents (there are crevasse fields all round us so not really much option for getting a bit of exercise by oneself) and also the concern over congestion higher up as other groups catch up with us. It turns our that there are likely to be about 50 people heading up tomorrow which is going to make it very slow painful progress!
Still this is part of what makes mountain climbing - it is amazing how many stories there are of individuals not summiting through sense of humour failures over such waits.
If anything, the weather gets worse as the day progresses and it gets pretty chilly in the mess tent when we are together as we are not moving around at all. As such people tend to retire to their tents and read / write where it is warmer. Here are some nice pictures to improve this post!

The problems are going to be difficulty sleeping tonight and getting a stiff / sore back and legs from having spent most of yet another day in bed.
We also hear that the Polish team who we were climbing with a few days ago decided rather sensibly to go the extra 200m to the High Camp that day and have now summited in the glorious weather yesterday and are making their way back down now. It really is important to make the most of good weather when you have it in the mountains! The problem is that the US companies take pretty much anyone in their expeditions and so there are people who could  not cope with the slightly tougher regime that that would require.

The weather forecast seems to be improving for Weds and Thurs now so if we can get up to High Camp tomorrow we should have pretty good conditions for summiting.

Food:
French toast with bacon and sausages.
Macaroni cheese with bits of sausage.