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Rumbling Glacier
Camp II 6am- May 22, 2002

Prittie
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Good morning to everyone out there, it's actually evening for you, but it's 6am in the morning for us here at Camp II on Mount Everest.

Excitement is running high amongst everybody here at Camp II, climbers as well as Sherpas because we're actually pushing up and beginning what we consider our final push to the summit.

We really got a windy day yesterday, and we have an absolutely gorgeous, windless day here at Camp II this morning. So it's going to be a really great day to climb up to Camp III. Last night was a very nice, silent night to get as much rest as possible. Today...this time of year... for the mountain, the warmest time of the year high in the upper elevations.

"So we were all pretty much lulled to sleep by the sound of gurgling streams of water most of the night long..."
So we were all pretty much lulled to sleep by the sound of gurgling streams of water most of the night long. It's an interesting concept to think of there actually being running streams and rivers here at over 21,000 feet, but that is in fact the case... across the top of the melting glacier ice of the streams and waterfalls pouring down the rocks on the sides of the valley, they definitely warmed us significantly here...we actually did our first peg of Camp II I guess that over a month ago at this time.

Somewhere about two-thirds or three-quarters of the way through the night of course most of that freezes. And then the most obvious noise is sort of a backdrop for our sleep at that point is the glacier moving. You hear that it's moving with snaps, pops, cracks... and rumbles. It reminds one about every 15 minutes or so that yes we are indeed camped here at Camp II on an active, moving glacier ice.

So like I said everybody's excited to really be moving here. This is once again kind of what we think of as the first day towards our summit bid. Up to Camp III today, IV tomorrow, a rest, a brief rest and recovery period at Camp IV and then, if the weather gods are kind to us, it'll be off for the ...air of the summit the day after that.

So we'll keep you posted, probably with three cybercasts per day to let you know how everything is going, how everyone is doing and we'll also be keeping watch on the weather to make sure the window doesn't slam shut on us.

So that's all for this early morning, Wednesday, across the dateline, the 22nd of May.

— Willi Prittie, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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