2007-05-22 Tuesday Gorak Shep -> Everest Base Camp altitude 5300m

My throat infection returned, and I had some difficulties in drinking. En route to base camp, I snapped one of my trekking poles, when I slipped. It snapped in two, and considering they are made of titanium, I must have exerted some massive force on it. At base camp I managed to pull the other pole out of its lock, and took about 15 minutes to replace it. I had a brief moment of "That's not the ice fall" as I saw what turned out to be a snow fall, and then saw the ice fall and had the "THAT'S THE ICE FALL (or the 2/3 of it that is visible from base camp)." It is vast, and goes straight up for 750m or more. The glacier is weird. As we got to the base camp, we set up for a group photograph. Mungo (team leader) put his camera gear down on a boulder to come over for the photo. As he moved over, the boulder turned over, deposited his camera gear on the ground, and rolled onto the camera case. Two seconds and £3000 worth of camera gear completely busted - including the metal body of an Olympus professional camera split into two. The glacier's surface melts during the day, and refreezes during the night. As a consequence the surface of the glacier is moving all the time. As a result the tents at base camp have shifted and tilted and it looks a little like a refugee tent city. The manager at the hotel in Katmandu, who expedited the logistics of the expedition, said that they had shifted 25 tons of equipment up the mountain, most of which has ended up at base camp. The Xtreme Everest team are attempting to summit tonight.