News release: 13 May, Camp life

It was unusually cloudy this morning and the film people took an enormous amount of time sorting their stuff out so we were actually airborne just after seven which is rather late. I had climbed to about 2000 ft above the airfield when Angelo released, not very high but there was a bit of a risk of the airfield suddenly disappearing into a cloud...

By the time Angelo had landed and I had released the tow rope it had cleared a bit so I climbed to about 2500 ft over the airfield just above the cloud so Sydney Spider could get a view of Everest. From this position South of Everest the Geography is not very clear, and unless you know, it is quite easy to mis-identify the highest mountain in the World. From Sydney's aspect, the Solu Khumbu valley is straight ahead, but it turns left more or less abreast Amadablam, the striking peak on the right. In front of Everest is Nuptse to the left and Lhotse to the right with a ridge between them, so from this aspect Sydney can see only the very top of Everest above the ridge. To fly there we will follow the valley, turn right around Nuptse, over Everest base camp and up into a deep valley with a glacier in it known as the Western Cwm. Only then will we be able to see the whole south face of Everest.

Our flying activities end at about 9 am, so what do we do for the rest of the day? There is plenty to do getting our kit ready and checking everything, and there is plenty to eat, in fact far too much really as our cooks are used to catering for energetic climbers burning thousands of calories. Barty, who has been to Nepal many times generally rekons on losing weight whilst in Nepal, but he doesn't think he will this time!

Our four cooks produce the most delicious meals seemingly out of nothing. They have two or three kerosine burners and lots of dishes and things, but no furniture of any kind in their tent, it is all done on the ground. Full breakfast, lunch & dinner, not to mention elevensies and tea and biscuits at tea time. I suppose that if they have one fault it is that they think Italians always eat pasta so we almost always have something like Spagetti or Lasagne. Yesterday they produced a huge cake for pudding, goodness only knows how they made it.

A weather window for our attempt still looks viable in four of five days time. In the meantime we will do some more training flights so that when the time comes we will be ready.