Report from Vivian at BC

Here's the latest dispatch from guest blogger Vivian.

Namaste!

We are back in Base Camp after our break down in wonderfully heavy and oxygen-saturated air of Dingboche. We had a blast doing not much more than eating, sleeping, walking around, and re-acquainting ourselves with civilization again and planning our summit bid in the Spring sunshine of 4400m/15000ft!

Coming back up to BC was incredibly fast - going to show how much stronger and acclimatized we've become. We had hoped to aim for a summit window around 16th-18th May, which looked like a decent weather window but the jetstream's moved back and has been causing havoc these past few days with extreme wind - 140km/hr blasting the higher camps.

We've heard that Camp 2 has been badly hit with a bunch of tents shredded/blown away. Luckily, our Camp 2 base has escaped the tent carnage so far. Da Phinju Sherpa has been in charge of keeping things together at Camp 2 while we are gone. He's had his hands full up there making sure our tents survive the winds, just another example of the incredible hard work our Sherpa team puts in to make this expedition possible. The rest of our Sherpa team is taking a few well deserved days of rest down in Dingboche after getting all of our oxygen and tents to Camp 3 and Camp 4 (at the S. Col).

The increasing strength of the sun's rays is melting the icefall and the glacier upon which base camp is perched. While this means pleasant and balmy waiting days here, it also brings back some ghosts from the past.....

Yesterday, the Sherpas discovered the recently revealed bodies of four climbers, perhaps from expeditions going back 30-40 years. In all likelihood, they probably had accidents and fell into crevasses higher up and their remains have been slowly moving down the mountain in the glacier over the years. It was a solemn sight, seeing the remains being taken away, but at the same time peaceful amidst the incredible beauty of this setting. I guess one just has to be here to appreciate this opinion...:-)

We're going to be watching the weather closely now and hope to start our summit bid within the next week.

That's all for now folks! More from sunny BC soon...