First view of the Lhoste face

This morning as part of our acclimatisation process we walked back out of BC and up to the approximate position of BC for those who choose to climb Pumori. I had the Spot2 set to 'track' so you might be able to see our route on the interactive map if it was working ok. The route up was very reminiscent of the route up the side of Pen yr Ole Wen directly from Ogwen Cottage in North Wales (apologies to all Welsh speakers if the spelling is incorrect!) but with only half the oxygen.

Our reward was an excellent view into the upper reaches of the Western Cwm and the sun glistening across the Lhotse face, an 850m wall of ice that has to be climbed to reach the South Col.
Actually the best bit for me was getting a 3G signal from Gorak Shep! Consequently I was able to check my emails and Twitter. Sadly not Facebook though (I know they'll be a number reading this saying 'that's no great loss').

Whilst it not possible to thank you all personally I do enjoy getting the messages so please keep them coming.

For those of you who have kindly posted comments on the blog there is a delay of approx 24 hours as all comments are moderated first. This is primarily to make sure my brothers don't post anything inappropriate! We got back down to BC for lunch and the afternoon has followed its typical (thankfully) lazy pattern.

Well it's been almost three weeks since we left the uk and our beards are coming along nicely. Sadly despite my mother's genes I don't think I'll win best beard of the trip though - David had a head start! (I can afford to be a bit cheeky at Mum's expense as at her age she will have forgotten by the time I get home!!).

Looking forward to tomorrow as after our usual play in the icefall in the morning I'm hoping to meet up with my friend Jeremy who is also out here in Nepal hoping to climb Island Peak.

Now I wonder what film it will be tonight? (don't worry Heather, Top Gun is there waiting to be seen). Last night it was a knock off copy of the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo with Daniel Craig. A couple of the guys found it quite hard to follow but it helps if you've read the book (or trilogy). Best bit for me though is that it means I won't have to take Caroline to see it - a few bob saved! Actually I've already been served with yellow card for some of my observations (humour). She's threatened to change the door locks.
Ah well bye from EBC. Ps yet another avalanche has descended whilst I was checking the above.