Thursday, 6:30 am

Chris calls down from Camp 3 ½ to base camp to check in.  The winds have been blowing very strongly all night at Base Camp and Chris reports they were howling all night above.  Aurellio, a reporter traveling with Joao Garcia (the Portuguese climber also at Camp 3 ½), is kind enough to bring his laptop to our camp to display our weather report (which we had forwarded to him since our computer is still down).  The weather report calls for the same conditions as have been forecasted for the last several days - good weather with low winds (10 mph and less) Thursday morning thru Friday night, increasing winds on Saturday (25-35 mph) and snow, higher winds and stormy weather starting Sunday.  The winds last night were higher than forecasted, so Chris asks if we can see any winds blowing on the shoulder (where the ridge dips above them) - there are none.

Chris, Don and Bruce expect to wait a short while and begin with Joao at about 10:00 am - they will await news of what the other teams at C3 are planning to do, as there is more than enough work for everyone in breaking trail to C4. 

Thursday, 7:00 am

Marco and Claudio, two Italian journalists, arrive at our base camp to exchange information on behalf of their team.  Yesterday was very long for the Italian climbers.  Three of them left from C1 at 8 am with one arriving at C3 at 7:30 pm and the other two at 9:30 pm.  When they arrived they found their stove was missing so they spent the next few hours receiving boiled water from the Russians to reclaim fluids and warmth.  This morning it wasn't clear if all of them were going to continue so they were trying to determine if there were extra stoves and tent space should only one or two proceed.  Chris is asked how the conditions compare to yesterday and he responds that the leading climbers will find the same trail breaking in waist deep snow the rest of the way to C4.  He adds, "The first 5 climbers will have a hard time of it and the 6th will wonder what all the fuss is about." 

Thursday, 9:00 am

The climbers are starting to get ready for the day's ascent, and Don calls down to ask us to survey the other base camps for current information.  After 30 minutes we determine the Koreans have left for

C4 at 8:00 am, two Italian climbers have left at 9:00 am, and the Russians have still not left, although indications are that they will later in the morning.  (We learn later that the Russians leave sometime after 10:00 am and the Korean women are also moving from C3 to C4 today.)  Our climbers are glad to hear that trail-breaking help will be arriving behind them.

Thursday, 1:30 pm 

Don roars through the radio, "We have arrived at C4 - and the ‘we' are two Koreans, Jaoa and Amin, two Russians, and your three humble Shared Summit teammates.  We all worked together and did a valiant job.  Right now we're going to get set up here; radio us in an hour."

(Ed. Note: all times are local, UTC/GMT +5 hours. We hope to get more text and, hopefully, audio later today.)