Before went to bed last night we shoveled snow from around the tent. The slow steady snowfall was accumulating. Seemingly a build up around the tent can result in suffocation, unlikely I’d say, but why take a chance. I’m not that bored….yet! During the night the guides got up and cleared all round the tents again. I woke/got up at about 9, and there was another 6” or more around the tent. It snowed all day. It was expected to stop at 2, at 4, and finally stopped at 6pm. I guess we had about 20” accumulation. We were in a complete whiteout for most of the day, the other tents around camp being barely visible. At this stage, it is getting boring. Today we could not leave the tents, so snooze, read, chat, snooze, read…….. Some people – thankfully not Andrew – , and other’s little idiosyncrasies, are becoming irritating, even annoying in some cases. However, it is only a few more days (one way or the other), so no need to upset the applecart.
Blue skies at 6pm was a cause for celebration. Perhaps we will move tomorrow. The arrival of the sun was followed by a huge avalanche down the Meisner glacier behind us. I stood and arched it wit Dominic from outside the mess tent, huge thunderclap sound, followed by a massive rush of snow. Then a massive cloud of snow dust covered the camp, even though we were a distance from the avalanche. Nature….its wild!
As we talked over dinner, Dominic said we need more avalanches to shift the fresh snow off our route to 17,000, so amazingly we are wishing for avalanches. Isn’t that wild!
Walking around camp after dinner, many teams are hoping to move tomorrow, as Saturday is expected to be a good day to attempt to summit. Ideally, some overnight (unlikely) or early morning avalanches, and then a team or two ahead of us to break the ground tomorrow. But like every day for the last 5, we’ll wait and see!
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