Day 14 - Waiting AD BC

I wake up very shortly before the bed tea arrives at 07:30 am. This is great in theory but does not work so well in practice. The cook boy (that is his job title - and stage one on the way to becoming a Sherpa) opens the two layers of my tent and gives me an empty mug which he proceeds to fill to the brim with boiling hot liquid. I now have open flaps letting the cold air in, am slightly off balance as I was having to reach for the cup and have a cup that I can't put down as the floor is unsurprisingly not level and the liquid will spill and get my gear wet and I can't drink any of the tea to lower the level as it is too hot. Quite an amusing predicament to find oneself in!

Anyway with slightly wet gear and a slightly burned mouth I head off to breakfast where we discuss our climb. It seems that the fixing team (the Sherpas who go up and fix ropes on the mountain for everyone to use) headed up yesterday afternoon and so the mountain will soon be open. The groups that we have talked to seem to be planning to go up to camp 1 and / or 2 and then back to base camp. This should give us the opportunity to follow them up and then stay up and summit when they come back down - this would be remarkably convenient if it pans out! Then we head out to the rock to do some more climbing practice before a lunch.

Close of view of AD summit

 

The afternoon is pretty lazy as well - I have a shower and shave which is pretty nice - and then we meet at 4 for tea and some rather good brownies courtesy of Mrs Alastair Burns. After that we read and chat until supper which is mushroom, garlic and pepper soup with pink prawn crackers and then an interesting mix of cheese, tomato and mushroom pizza, tandoori chicken and roast potato all served on a sizzling plate. 

We find out that our Puja has changed. Before each ascent of a mountain, the mainly Buddhist Sherpas want to get a blessing from the local llama to ensure their luck and safety on the mountain. This is a longstanding tradition that is popular with climbers as well and you normally give between $20 and $50 to the llama and Sherpas to cover the Llama's costs as well as some special food and drink for the ceremony. We have been discussing our Puja for some time given the delay of our start on the mountain and have just found out that rather than as we were told when handing the money over (admittedly a bargain at $15) that the Sherpas were going to into Pangboche to buy supplies and bring the Llama back with them, they are in fact heading in to have the Puja themselves in the Pangboche monastery. This is the monastery we visited a couple of days ago and were pretty unimpressed at the time.

Then after dinner we play cards for a bit. Despite not doing a great deal it is amazing how tired we are each night and how difficult that makes even easy things like arranging your hand in suits.