Sun 22nd April 2012 Everest Base Camp 5300m

Not great sleep, often wake up about 4.30am feeling cold. Rubbish sleeping bag.....-30 deg C......pah, salesmen !

Spent the morning on the blog. It takes ages doing this blog but thanks for the positive feedback, clearly the most amusing part so far seems to be the double No 2s on the summit of Lobuche! Ok so now I know were the sweet spot is for my readers I can compose accordingly!

After  lunch we have a treat, the guides have set up an ‘Icicle Obstacle Course’ which we will go and play on this afternoon.

This consists of 30ft ascents, traverses and descents, together with up and down ladders and a horizontal ladder to simulate a crevasse crossing. This is to practice all our techniques we may need in the icefall.

We spend just under two hours with one group going one way and another going the other way, then everyone turning around and doing it in reverse, crossing each other in the process, which is fun.

It really teaches you how important technique is at this altitude, if your crampons slip on the near vertical ice the weight is often transferred to your arms as well as the other leg and any large exertion needs a lot of panting to recover from.

We all agree every fun park should have one and kids would love it.

I get some rest when we get back; it was really good training but quite tiring too.

Movie tonight is Zombieland. Lots and lots and lots of Zombies dies, but the four heroes and heroines don’t!