Work continues unseen on the mountain today, with the 2 Daves, Uisdean and Alec moving from Intermediate Camp to Camp 2 along with our 3 Sherpas. This should give them the opportunity to fully establish Camp 3 tomorrow and begin work on the route towards the Black Gendarme. At last the weather forecast, sent to us by Headquarters Strike Command, is beginning to look more favourable with wind strengths at 7000m dropping to 20 knots. Several members of the team sat around the table this evening would have appreciated the wind decreasing in strength several days ago - Ben and Colin have both lost several layers of skin from their noses!

We have been inundated with rope today, 200m have arrived from our Service Patron's Expedition which is currently camped a day below Base Camp, and 200m have been purchased from an expedition recently successful on the normal route. This small team (one British and one American climber) experienced the same extreme winds, losing 3 tents during the course of their ascent. The arrival of more rope means that Boycie and Ady have an early start tomorrow to get it up to Camp 1 in order to hand it over to one of the Sherpas descending from Camp 2. For the rest of us, the highlight tomorrow will be the arrival of Sir Sam and Lady Cowan - at least the topics of conversation should improve!!

Along with the delivery of rope today came the first delivery of mail since the beginning of the expedition. After 12 days on the trail the letters were hand delivered by the Porter - all for the cost of a first class stamp.

This evening we give a special mention to Aragon Primary School, Morden, Surrey who have been following the progress of the expedition via the website. Pupils at the school have sent several questionnaires to the expedition regarding aspects of our venture as part of their project on the mountain environment. We look forward to meeting members of the school on our return to the UK.

With our activities now centred high on the mountain and no movement today between the upper and lower camps we regret the abscence of photographs. However, we hope to resume normal service, bringing you images of Camp 2 and the route to Camp 3.

Colin Scott
Expedition Leader