Greetings to everyone out there this is Willi Prittie reporting from Everest Base Camp. Yes the Alpine Ascents International 2003 Everest Expedition is still at base camp and today we are glad of it. A rather dreary bone-chillingly cold snowy day today, it snowed all the way down the valleys to below Pheriche.
Reports from Ang Tsering at our Camp II suggest almost a meter of fresh snow up on the upper mountain. Here at Base Camp we've only had a few inches but itıs been persistently snowy and cold and damp this day. So we've been very happy to hibernate still continuing our rest cycle from going up the mountain the first time to Camp II.
Also we've heard from Matthew Holt, he actually went down to Pheriche three days ago to get to a little lower elevation and thicker oxygen and recover from some bronchitis. He says he is doing much better and is planning on coming backup to Base Camp tomorrow so we're excitedly looking forward to the reunion of our team here at Base Camp.
We're hoping that this weather will actually improve in the next couple of days and we can be thinking towards making our second go around this time as far as Camp III for acclimatization on the mountain. As it stands right now however there are a lot of people at Base Camp and we're all making do with playing cards playing chess, playing musical instruments, hanging out and just waiting in general for Mama Nature to cooperate. So that's all on this day from Everest Base Camp and we hope that the weather will allow us soon to report a lot more than simply sitting around on a rest and acclimation day.
We are sending a photo for the website of Ellie's "Mani Quilt" especially for the trekkers who were unable to see it at Everest Base Camp. This "quilt" has been three years in the making and is inspired by the many mani stones and rocks seen throughout the Buddhist Himalaya. It is all hand sewn, and all characters are made of home-dyed fabrics. The Sherpas in particular have taken great interest in this project of Ellie's and have watched it unfold since its beginnings on the 2000 Alpine Ascents Everest expedition.
— Willi Prittie, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent