15th April 2007 EVEREST BASECAMP. Well the team has been at base camp for a few days now and its been a busy time. I arrived on the 11th after a couple of long days trekking in an effort to catch the main team. I finally met them at BC its self and all were in fine form after their 12days of trekking. The first day was spent sorting all the barrels of equipment and trying to make our tents as comfortable as possible, these will be home for the next 50days after all. After 3 years of coming up here I have learnt that a little money spent on pillows and extra blankets in Kathmandu goes a long way during the cold long nights. My tent is an oasis of down sleeping bags and lovely thick blankets. Base camp is a strange place, with maybe up to 200 climbers this year there is a true international feel to things, from Brits to Yanks, French and Koreans. For me it’s a great time to catch up with old friends many of whom I only see once a year on expeditions. These meant the first couple of days involved drinking way too much tea and catching up with all the gossip, both good and bad. The big feature that dominates base camp is the huge tottering icefall that flows down from the western cwm. Like a huge river of ice, this is the first obstacle that the team needs to over come. We ventured into this near vertical wall of ice a couple of days ago. Leaving BC at 6am we walked through silent camps and onto the ice. The crisp air crystallized into a fine mist as we breathed heavily while we struggled with frozen fingers and cold crampons. As we moved the sound of the crampons on the ice is soothing for me and I quickly fell into a content rhythm and slowly climbed up through huge ice blocks.  Greg near the top of the ice fall. There was a bitterly cold north wind which meant that all of us were cold and longed for the sun to come up. The view looking across to Pumori (a near by mountain) was amazing and we eagerly watched the sun creep down its flanks and towards us. I was moving up with Greg and Omar and as the team leader I was very happy with how things were going and the progress made. The icefall was very quite almost eerily so, with no other people around and none of the normal cracking and creaking of the icefall as it makes its slow prehistoric movement down hill. It was a wonderful experience being alone there, one that I am sure we will all treasure for many years. The route this year is pretty safe, the ropes wind through some huge blocks and pass some Tolkienesque caves and tunnels where all sorts of beasts must live. We were lucky and the beasts let us pass with out bother and our passage was safe. I’m happy with this years route and I’m hoping that it will be a safe year for all concerned as they climb up through the icefall.  View of icefall from Base camp Everest Greg and I topped out at the top of the icefall after about 4hrs of upward hard climbing. I was very happy with the day and we turned round to trot back down to base camp. We picked up Omar, Ben and Torri on the way back down and zipped down the ropes for a much earnt cup of tea. We all got back to BC for a late lunch and boasted to the others at BC about the days events. The afternoon was lazy all of us snoozing and drinking tea with a content feeling that comes after a great day in the mountains. Today is the second of our rest days. The time for me has been spent trying to get all the coms at BC working. I have managed to frazzle two laptops and only got things up and running with the help of Ben. So this is in a way an apology for the lack of update but I hope you can see why. Commercial expeditions are as much about getting everything running at 5300m as they are about climbing mountains. Image trying to run all the equipment in your office up here. We have internet access via satellites, printers, laptops, phones and radios, and all sorts of solar panels to work it all. This all gets to BC by yak and porters, bouncing its way for 7days up dusty paths. Its freezing cold at night then roasting hot in the sun. it’s a miracle that any thing works here at all. Yet between us all we seem to have done it and BC is officially open!!!!!!! Tomorrow the team will climb back through the dangers of the icefall and spend the night at camp 1 (6100m), before pushing up into the majestic western cwm and onto camp 2 (6300m) to return to camp 1 and BC. Base camp today is a jolly place with sherpas resting and the team preparing for the days ahead. I’m off for a much needed shower and a shave so I’ll leave you now and update you with the adventure that will be the western cwm in a few days. Enjoy Kenton