Best surprise EVER 2 days ago when my friend Leon Watts from Tampa, FL stopped by our camp to say hello. It’s always nice to get a visit from an old friend at 17,600’. Leon was leading a group on a trek to BC and managed to wander around long enough to find our digs (not easy, as it takes over an hour to walk all the way through base camp). Not only did he bring warm greetings, but he also delivered an awesome care package to me – jelly beans, chocolate, earplugs, emergen-c, tiger balm for sore muscles, etc. All very practical stuff that will be put to good use (but if anyone else is planning to come here and surprise me please bring me a fooz ball table, diamond tiara, chia pet and some spanx). Seeing Leon and meeting his trekking group really made my day. Check out his company Adventure Outfitters ([adventuretampa.com]). They do really unique and interesting trips – everything from Machu Picchu treks to multi-day scuba trips to spear-fishing.

We have been resting peacefully at BC for the past few days, and the plan is to head back up the mountain for our second rotation around 4am on the 29th. We will stay at camp 1 for one night, camp 2 for two nights, and then we will push it all the way to camp 3 which is everyone’s least favorite camp. No one likes this camp because it is situated on the steep, icy Lhotse face and you can’t walk around at all (too steep/icy) and you have to clip into a safety line just to go to the bathroom. We’ll spend a night up at the dreaded camp 3 and then we’ll come down to rest at camp 2 for a night before returning to BC around May 4th. The reason for going up the mountain and then back down again is all related to acclimatization. You want to climb up high to get used to the altitude and to allow your body to produce more red blood cells, but the problem is that the human body starts to deteriorate more rapidly above 18,000’ – you lose muscle mass, lose your appetite, sleeping becomes very difficult — so you have to keep coming back down to a lower altitude (back down to BC) in order to recover, sleep and to regain your strength. It’s a crazy catch 22 of wanting to spend time up high to get used to the altitude but having to keep coming back down low to recover in order to be ready for a summit attempt when the time is right. Maintaining this practice is both physically and psychologically exhausting.

I continue to be impressed by the physical preparedness of this team. Everyone clearly trained hard for the climb. We all discussed our various training regimens. Vanessa is probably the best prepared as she has spent the past year climbing all over the world and has done private trips with many of the world’s finest mountain guides. If you have the time and the financial resources, there is no better way to learn the ropes (literally). She is incredibly strong and she is also VERY bright (that’s exactly what you want in a teammate). I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to climb with her. I nicknamed her REMARKELY because she is a combination of remarkable and lovely (one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met). The rest of us will be working hard to stay on her heels. I could go on and on about how amazing she is, but my computer only has 4 hours of battery time left.

The rest of us all complain that we have these things called “jobs” that interfered with our training, but everyone did their best to get to the fitness/skill level they needed to reach in order to give this bad boy of a mountain a real shot. My teammates asked how I was able to train given I travel so much for work, so I explained that in order to prepare for the climb I watched the movie Vertical Limit. Everyone looked slightly concerned (make that mortified) when they heard my response so I assured them that I watched it multiple times…but for some reason the looks of anxiety remained on their faces.

Actually, when my travel schedule allowed, I managed to do a bunch of hiking in CO and would like to give a shout out to my favorite hiking partners Erikapedia and Kristin “Aloha” Knous. Also big hellos to Dave G, Mike Z, Tim K, and the other folks from the Colorado Mountain Club ([cmc.org]) that I had the privilege of meeting and hiking with (I know I just ended a sentence with a preposition but get over it because this is a blog and is not a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature). But yes, most of the time I am stuck in hotel rooms for work, so in order to train when I am on the road I always take the TRX Trainer ([fitnessanywhere.com]) with me and this allows me to keep my fitness level up regardless of there I am.

Okay lastly, I would like to address a subject that has been troubling me for the past few days. I have received a ridiculous amount of emails and txts from people who are skeptical that the photo from my last blog is really me. Many of you mentioned that the Alison you know would never be caught dead in those shoes. I would like to remind the disbelievers out there of the fact that we have been in a recession and therefore I did not have time to run to the shoe dept at Barney’s before heading to BC. I tried shopping on the trek in to BC but nothing was on sale. As far as the other parts of the photo supposedly not looking like me and perhaps appearing “enhanced” — I freely admit that I recently had “some work done” and you can call Dr Michael MacDonald (plastic surgeon in San Francisco) and he can confirm that last August he took cartilage from my septum and rebuilt the sides of my nose so that I could breathe better (thanks Dr Mac — so far the new nose is holding up brilliantly), so I am guessing the slight difference in the shape of my nose is what is throwing people off when they look at the photo. I didn’t think anyone could even spot the difference, but I guess you guys have a pretty keen eye and given you could detect that slight nuance I’m betting bet you’re awesome at Where’s Waldo!

PS — Happy birthday to my dad on the 28th and my brother Adam on the 29th.