Daily Dispatches [CLICK FOR INDEX] Todd Burleson Snowfall in the Khumbu
Fri, April 9, 1999 — Gorak Shep, Nepal
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Hi Mountain Zone, it's Todd. We've just reached Gorak Shep. It's good, but it's snowing hard up here right now. It's really really warm, almost to the point of being rain—exceptionally warm here for this time of year. I'm kind of under the impression that we may get a big snowfall tonight. We got about three or four inches last night, which made it a little tricky walking up from Lobuche up to Gorak Shep. The rocks were pretty slippery and the yaks were sliding around a bit.

But we're all up here. Everybody's feeling pretty good, a couple of headaches, but not too bad. Now, we're just sitting here watching the snowfall. It makes me a little nervous, especially for so early in the day. It's about 11:30 or something, our time, and usually you see snowfalls in the afternoon if at all. So we'll keep you updated on that.

We spent last night in Lobuche right by the Italian Research Center at the Pyramid. It's a great place. We actually, six of us, slept in the Pyramid because there wasn't enough room for us to sleep in some of the other rooms. It's an amazing place. It's just huge: a three story, however tall that is, glass pyramid. It gets hot in the day as you can imagine. It's all run by solar panels...amazing place.

The day before, we came up from Pheriche and went to the Sherpa Memorial, always an amazing place. I have a lot of friends that have died on the mountains and their chortens are there, so it's always a special moment for all of us to pay our respects.

We'll give you a call soon. Our goal right now, hopefully, is to either make Base Camp or Kala Pattar in the morning. We'll have to just see what the snow does. I hope Pete's okay in Base. I bet they may be getting a lot of snow up on the big mountain right now. Hopefully, we'll see Pete tomorrow if he's in Base, and we'll call you from Base or Kala Pattar. Talk to you later. Bye bye.

Todd Burleson, Trek Leader
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