The negative aspect of sleeping even fitfully for 12 hours then moving to a new altitude is that you tend not to sleep so well the next night. And so it was with me, laying awake for eight or nine hours before finally dozing off.

With only a short acclimatization hike on the agenda, Chhering and I waited until after the sun was poking above Lhotse before heading up. This was both good and bad - the nice part being we were able to pack up our gear in relative comfort. The negative aspect was that we were soon baking in the warm sun. Iin no time, I was stripped down to my white long sleeved Terramar Terra T - it is proving to be one of my most used pieces of gear and after nearly a month of constant wear, probably needs a wash. I have long ago forgone wearing hardshell pants in favor of my Sierra Designs soft shells.

Despite the heat Chhering and I had an incredible hike to the base of the Lhotse face. Just outside of Camp 2 our path wound up and down fragmented ice formations similar to the ice fall. As we gained altitude, we the whole Khumbu Glacier unfolded before us - all neatly hemmed in by the steep walls of Lhotse, Nuptse and Everest. Farther down, we could just begin to distinguish small dots that was the rest of our team coming up from Camp 1.

By the time we had arrived back in Camp 2 so had the rest of the 'boys'. We took a short break then started building another tent platform. The original plan was to build two spots - one for eating/cooking and another for sleeping, but the guys judged they would be more comfortable in one big pile, so no other construction projects were completed. Instead, they all threw their sleeping bags inside and called it good. Laater, we all crawled underneath while eating a huge Nepalese-style dinner.

This week Roze Braz from the Center for Biological Diversity offers her perspective on climate change with the following essay titled Our Climate Can't Wait.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=19483&post=110100&uid=87935556696#post110100

Image: The boys, sleeping bags and dinner.