We stayed in Camp 2 for about 40 minutes, talking to Jim, who, as always, was hibernating in his tent.

Going back down to Camp 1.5 was a piece of cake, thanks to the heavy training I had had during the Spring season. During those months my 43kg (95lb) wife Lin had been a happy volunteer to serve as weight on my back during my stair-walking workouts.

Back in Camp 1.5 we met an American-Kazakh team that had set up their tent a few hours before, and where now enjoying a healthy game of cards. Not that that was anything special; but the fact that they were playing outside in the middle of a (mild) snowstorm was.

Not that I was any less "out there." I started to notice that my brain was playing tricks on me when I discovered that I had no warm clothes left in Camp 1.5; I had taken them all up to Camp 2. Fairly stupid, to say the least, and already the second time that that had happened. So, many thanks to Dave and his team for letting me use one of their windstopper jackets in Camp 1.5.

We moved to Camp 2 on August 8th. Camp 2 felt different from Camp 1.5 in that there was much more snow, that breathing was even more difficult, and that the nights were getting darn cold. For softies like ourselves it was very difficult to do anything constructive before the sun came up. Every morning at around 7:30, lying deep in my comfortable sleeping bag, I would be thinking of George Harrison's classic "Here Comes The Sun." And when it did, life was beautiful.