Well... I know I promised you a summit report today it unfortunately, we are once again completely exhausted and while I have enough energy to type tonight, the story of today is a little more immediate.

Gopal, Sanchar and four porters arrived in our base camp yesterday to help with hauling our gear over the nearby Teshi Lapke pass (I'm not sure how to spell it and the map is buried right now). Our route home would be through the popular Khumbu valley, home of the Everest Base Camp trek. Our plan is to hike over the pass toward Thame in the Khumbu then trek down toward Namche Bazaar, then Lukla where we will eventually fly to Kathmandu.

We woke up early and packed up all our gear. We all hike up the lateral moraine toward the pass in good spirits. It was sunny and warm. Ryan and I had left out climbing gear near the base of the pass the day before after making a detour from our advanced base camp after summiting Jabou Ri.

Gopal and Dorje have traversed the pass several times before, before the earthquake. On our map, it states that 20 meters of fixed line may be necessary on the way up and on the way down from the actual pass. Ryan set up a short fixed line for the porters and we were once again on a glacier hauling heavy packs at altitude. Fun fun.

In a couple hours, we made the top of the pass, a straight forward slog up the glacier. Once there we took a short break and Sonchar and Dorje hung some prayer flags. After a few minutes, we started down the glacier on the other side, but the conditions quickly deteriorated. It was now snowing and a whiteout and when we reached the point where there is generally a short fixed line to get down on the rocks, we found that the earthquake had obliterated the route.

We followed was a five and a half hour epic relay of porters and gear down three pitches in the blowing snow and cold wind. Ryan definitely gets the gold star (and then some) for rigging and scouting. Luckily, there were three steps in our route where we could stage people and gear while either Ryan and I belayed them down.

We arrived in a somewhat safe spot just down from a crazy rock scree field on the opposite side of a moraine right at night fall. We quickly set up our MSR tents and climbed inside.

Tomorrow, we hope, will provide a much more relaxing travel day, however nothing about this expedition has been easy so we our moderating our expectations.

Tomorrow, the Jabou Ri summit story. I promise.