Hi Guys
Well this is a round up from the expedition of the last week, Nick Bullock and myself (along with two Dutch dudes) have finally got to basecamp. We arrived yesterday to misty damp conditions not unlike N Wales. The site of BC is pretty cool, a nice grassy meadow with some great views (when we can see anything) of some of the surrounding mountains. We can't see Klanka yet but a short (3hr) walk up the glacier should give us views of the face.
This am has been spent setting up BC, I spent hours setting up the laptop, Rbgan, Solar panels and batteries only for none of it too work. I've no idea why and after leaving it for a couple of hours it all seemed to work, now that's different to how things normally pan out!!.
The hold ups in Josimath weren't too bad in the end and after losing a day there we got the jeeps to the road head and started the walk in. As ever the porters were all pretty manic and somehow 25 loads became 35 but we didn't mind as the price is per load and the porters were all good natured. The first day of walking was a steep uphill path, Nick and I got to the village pretty quickly but the 1500m height gain was telling and Nick had a headache that eve (to go with his cold although Nick thinks he has Maleria). We spent the night in a wee hut and yesterday saw a 4hr walk to BC.Again there was quite a steep path and as we got to BC both myself and Mike (Dutch guy) fell into a stream getting wet feet, Then to add insult to injury it started to rain. However we all quickly got tents up and soon the stove hummed and Herea (the cook) was serving tea.
Tomorrow will see us walking up glacier in a hope the clouds part and we can see the line.
Right I'm off to read my book and bask in the glory of getting all the electrics working
KC
