We have returned to base camp, the expedition winding to a close. Attached are a few photos I thought you might be able to use. We are of course a bit sad to be leaving without reaching the summit. But we are looking forward to long hot showers, steak dinners and our loving families. The order is deliberate: our families might reject us upon first smell and our wives and girlfriends would be shocked by our emaciated bodies.

I apologize for the scarcity of photos and the rapid demise of our abililty to send videos. While the camera and sat. phone worked flawlessly, the laptops were a miserable selection. I had the top of the line Sony laptop and it's harddrive froze on the first night I was at ABC. Russell had a great Dell which also had its hard drive freeze. Then his other Compaq suffered from a frozen screen. What we were left with is an old Compaq that wasn't capable of handling the software and hardware we need to run the video stuff or hook up the faster modem.
So we ordered a laptop from Kathmandu. They in turn tried to get it from Singapore. It eventually landed in Nepal, but was held captive in a Customs officer's strike. It appears that the Nepali government fired some customs employees following the recent Air India hijacking. Their co workers chose to go on strike in May, stopping the import of all goods via the airport. Our laptop is still in customs in Kathmandu.
Life is full of challenges.

Chris Warner

Photos:
1: Gyalgen shoveling snow from the tents at camp 2.
2: Tony Kelly arriving at Camp 2 in a blizzard.
3: Graham Hoyland yachting on the glacial lake.
4: A last sunset on Everest.