After sending yesterday's update, our Sirdar recommended that our Porters be given a rest day today. This is for a couple of reasons: Yesterday was a particularly arduous day for the porters with height gain of 1400 metres, and the weather had not allowed us to dry any equipment or charge our communications kit. So, we spent a day at our camp site, which is aprox 3500 metres above sea level.

The day started with promising weather, clear skies and bright sunshine. This allowed us to hang some kit out to dry, air the tents and get some charge into out batteries. A few of us walked up the trail a little further to about 3800 metres in order to assist our acclimatization.

It did not take long, however, before the clouds rolled in and it has rained or hailed for the remainder of the day. The change in climate here has been incredible, a few days ago it was too hot to get into our sleeping bags and now we wear hats, gloves and fleeces all day! Our camp site now resembles the Somme and we are praying hard for some clearer weather but the forecast for tomorrow is not good. Anyway, we rise at 6 in the morning and head off for Shipton's Pass.