Happy Easter!

We spent today conducting reconnaissance of route possibilities to the South East Col. Our original plan had been to climb the ice fall, but glacial retreat means that the approach to the ice fall is not as straight forward as we had hoped.

So, we split into 4 teams; 3 teams looked at various approaches to the ice fall, while the 4th climbed onto the ridge above base camp. The 4th team were investigating the possibility of gaining the Col via Peak 3, instead of climbing the ice fall, and reached an altitude of 5700 metres. They discovered straightforward climbing to below a subsidiary peak at 6200 metres where the main difficulties lie. They were afforded splendid views of Everest and Lhotse Shar and saw Baruntse for the first time.

All teams were back at Base Camp by 3 this afternoon. A further day of acclimatisation and reconnaissance is planned tomorrow.