It used to be a camp in the snow…20 years ago. But global warming has taken its toll on the mountain with even the glacier itself rapidly shrinking. The farmers in country also speak of it often. It is easier to see the direct effects of global climate change when you are a farmer who lives off the land to survive.
This morning was the end of the line for Dex. After a full assessment at breakfast, it was determined that he had developed a chest infection. He is to by pass Barafu ‘snow’ camp and go directly to our last camp which sits at a comfortable 3100m. There he will await our arrival. An arrival that is too difficult to determine in what manner we will come.
It was a short, slow ascent to Barafu. Only a matter of three hours, steep at times but welcomed and expected. We were climbing higher to position ourselves for the summit push.
Lunch was met with a surprise Cadbury chocolate. The winds can be forceful at times up here. One gust took a tent up into the air and dropped it into the valley we’d come from after shooting up into the sky 100’s of feet like a helium filled balloon. It was quite the laughter for us all along the way. Especially when the porter passed us along the trail to chase after it.
There has been much laughter on our team. I’m unsure how much of it is from pure enjoyment and how much is the thin air speaking. Nevertheless, dinners are never a dull moment among us. (The picture below shows us in our hysteria. It only erupted more when this picture came out the way it did. 'Mountain madness' as the locals call it.)
My meditation is now fully memorized and has sunk down inside me. Reading Eknath Easwaran’s “Seeing With the Eyes of Love” has been a powerful piece to bring aboard this trek. So much time to meditate along the way. Summit begins late tonight, 11:30ish. I must rest now.
Hello,
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Posted by: anthony | December 16, 2011 at 03:40 AM