Filming and ice climbing lessons

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Well, life in the little international village of EBC is ticking along nicely. Trek F was delayed in flying into Lukla at the beginning of their trip, which meant that we had 3 consecutive days off last week. Some went to climb Pokalde, whilst some of us stayed for some well-earned R&R in EBC. Our climbers came off the mountain after reports of terrible weather, and we relaxed together in the gorgeous sunshine in camp (you have to love the meteorologists!).

On the second day off, after being trounced in a snowball fight with the Sherpa?s, George and I headed into a choss-pile circ behind EBC to see whether we could find a way up onto the steep, rocky ridge directly behind the camp. It was soon evident, however, that the other side of the ridge is just as prone to rock falls as the side we can see from the camp and, in best interests of returning with all limbs intact, we elected to abort the mission. We were not to be totally deterred from exploration and expedition, however, and the following day set off to just beyond Gorak Shep, where two slug-like glaciers occupy convergent valleys. The glacier in which we are particularly interested (Changri Nup glacier) leads right to the Changri La and seems to have been little explored up until now. Since we didn?t have very much time, we satisfied ourselves with finding a way up the remote valley. In the weeks to come, we will hopefully be able to make our way further up the valley.

The IMAX team is in town and they have with them the stars from their 1996 film. They join us for meals and evening entertainment, and I have been fortunate to meet both Aracelli and Jamling Norgay (Tenzing?s son). We have been introduced to the world of film and been involved in painstakingly setting up scenes for the IMAX shots. Jamling has also been very kind in taking time to coach some of us in ice climbing and has proven to be a skilled and patient teacher.

Once again, many thanks for the blog contact.
? Mom ? was fantastic to chat the other evening when I got back from the glacier. Also, Yak Pack 4 arrived 5 minutes ago with our re-supply yak train ? thank-you!
? Dad ? good to hear from you.
? Johnny B ? great to hear from you! How was Sudwannah?
? Colin ? well hello there!! Brilliant to hear from you! In answer to your question: yes, we are conducting neuropsychological tests. They look at memory, cognition, pattern recognition, motor control. I?m not sure of the exact names for each of the tests, but I could get hold of them for you.
? Dot ? hellooo! Yeah - sorry about our disastrous meeting at Trafalgar Square at Chinese New Year. Hope things are going well!
? Mags ? glad to know that the Clan at least knows where I am. Please send them my love.

Take care all, and do keep in touch
Ciao
Gwen

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Blog by Gwen Morgan