Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! Happy New Year! Bonne Année! Feliz Año Nuevo!Pozdrowienia z base campu! Greetings from base camp! Bises du camp de base! Saludos del campamento base!

...I wake up with a terrible headache which I wish had been caused by excessive drinking....I develop pulmonary edema (HAPE) and am supposed to be helicoptered back to lower altitudes....I send a porter to fetch my things from the high camp (a luxury!)....In the meantime, however I spend my day idling about waiting for the chopper to come, more and more convinced that because of the white wind it won't come today....When it finally comes in the evening they g...

...I (and the tent) survive a very windy night and what happens to be a minor hailstorm....I meet my first mouse while cooking breakfast in the tent vestibule. Luckily no food in the tent....I make another attempt to carry part of my stuff to one of the high camps (Nido at 5.550) and would normally have succeeded but for a sudden whiteout that came literally out of the blue (sky). One minute it's Copacabana, the next - Alaska in winter. Put it this way: when ...

...I take a break to let my muscles recuperate and so not much happens....a break is needed anyway because weather (wind) forecast for the next few days is scary. I mean knock-you-over-while-you're-standing-and break-your-tent-in-the-middle-of-the-night-scary....I meet the first Polish tourists fresh from the summit. They leave me their sunscreen! Thank you!...I do the laundry just for the sake of doing something and it's not very effective anyway....I pr...

1. A long night (headache, windy) and two paracetamols later I woke like a newborn. The second (and last) of the required med checks (still stay off salt, O2 still ok at 91% at 4,350m).2. Beautiful morning, night somehow less cold than 950 m below. Never dropped below 2,5C. Good tent!!! And I got my warm stuff now!!!3. Breakfast and on the lookout for the world's most absurdly priced wifi (1US$/minute), thanks to which you're reading this. I'll try to...