Today was our first stormy day since we arrived at base camp. It has snowed in the afternoon many days, but not all day. We spent much of the afternoon in our dinning tent talking and reading.

There was no new news about the Chinese progress with the torch. Many rumors, but that has become a daily happening that does not help base camp morale.

The highlight of the day was a tension relief party at the Mountain Professionals camp. It probably seems strange to most folks to have a party at over 17,500 feet, but given the circumstances it made good sense. Many different nationalities were represented at the party. There was some beer and lots of rum punch that really had a punch. There was also lots of food compliments of their Nepalese staff. It started at 5 PM with drinks and snacks. Chet Steve and I stayed until it was nearly dark. We wanted to be able to negotiate the rocky moraine back to our camp with some light left.

Once back at our camp we could hear the party well into the night. Chet headed to his tent and Steve and I stayed in the dinning tent talking with Wonchu for a while. Hearing Wonchu tell us about leaving his village in Solu at 11 years old to find work in Kathmandu made it clear that a book should be in the works. Imagine an 11 year old leaving home in the US to find work and developing a career as Wonchu has.