The Climb - Day 18
May 28 Summary

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The team was to do a carry-forward up to Camp III today, however, a storm hit and provided a lot of wind, with -17 temperatures and white outs so they hunkered down and built snow-walls around their tents to wait it out. Even Norbert Joos, a friend of James from Switzerland who was further up the mountain, passed through the SOC camp on the way back down the mountain after encountering 80 km/h winds up at Prospectors Col. Norbert, who was originally lined up to be part of the SOC team, had joined up with another group as he needed to adhere to an earlier time schedule. Unfortunately, his trip is now over as they head back to Base Camp.

In the meantime, the extra day lay-over has allowed the team's health to rebound. Another challenge the team constantly faces is to keep the batteries warm to maintain the charges and their power supplies. The solar panels and wind turbine are working great, but even so, a full charge only lasts for so long in a very cold environment. In today's audio blog, James discusses the weather, the cold, and the challenges they have been facing each day in order to keep communications flowing and provide the details of their experiences through audio blogs and conference calls.