Dispatch 44: Big Winds at Advance Base, Good Poker Game for Dave

GreatOutdoors, this is Dave, I'm at Everest Base Camp on the south side, Nepal. And today started out kind of gloomy down here at Base Camp, snowing, socked in, cold, but at least it was calm. By mid morning we were hearing the wind was roaring up at advance base camp, strong enough to blow down tents, and it sounded like it blew down a bunch of tents. out team didn't lose much but other teams probably lost a fair amount. Haven't heard anybody was hurt, so that's good. It stayed calm down here all day and in fact the sun came out by afternoon. So not too bad. Everybody in our team is in a holding pattern, waiting down here at base camp, trying to pick a hole in the weather, trying to figure out when to go up. I'm sitting at a pretty good card game right now, chips, rupees moving all around the table and it seems like the right way to sit out this down time. For me I'm not yet picking a day cause I'm still resting up from last time up the hill. And I'm happy to be playing a little poker, reading some books, taking it easy, probably tomorrow I'll start doing a hike or two, getting my legs stretched and getting ready for the summit. Bye for now.