Greetings from Loubche

Hello Everyone,

I will be Robert's communications liaison for the next few weeks. Robert will be calling from a sat phone and I will relay his reports to all of you fellow arm chair travelers.

Robert left Pheriche, a quaint village at 14,000 feet, yesterday and is now at Loubche, 16,200 feet. They will stay here two nights. On the hike up, the group passed a chortens (memorial) to Scott Fischer who died in 1996 on his Everest attempt.

It is quite a bit cooler at 16,200 ft. so Robert needs to wear a jacket when not in the main room of the hotel. He is sharing a room with two others. It must be a tiny room as they need to leave their gear in the hallway. Robert is very healthy although several others have developed colds and have miscellaneous other complaints.

When he called he was outside looking at a magnificent sunset over Nuptse. The call lasted about 1 minute, after several attempts to get a good connection, so that is all I have to report.

We will be depending on satelite phone communication from now on and the coverage can be less dependable than normal so I will report as I hear from Robert. Don't be concerned if there isn't a post every day. Robert will call when he has a signal.

Those who are on the e-mail list will also receive a GPS "Spot" report on occasion. Robert's position on the map will be marked. My favorite map is the satelite map. You can click for that application in the upper right hand corner. On the left sidebar there are often photos to click on. I have found that particularly interesting as the photo pops up on a location on the map which I assume is where the photo was taken. Cool.

Enjoy your day. It is a beautiful one here in NE.
Patty