Ama Dablam, Everest and The Bob Graham Round (oh and the B&B as well)

Well it's been a pretty busy fortnight. There's been the usual coming and going of guests, various amounts of laundry, tidying, making beds, cleaning rooms, shopping for supplies and keeping up to date with paperwork not to mention attending a Level 2 Food Hygiene Course. But there's been a few other (more interesting?) bits going on as well. In no particular order:

Assisted on leg 4 of the BGR the weekend before last and was suitably impressed with the guy who was doing it as he was 45 minutes up on a 22 hour schedule. Now that is quite a pace and he'd already been going for about 14 hours when we met him and went from Wasdale over to Honister (via Yewbarrow, Red Pike, Steeple, Pillar, Kirk Fell, The Gables, Brandreth and Grey Knotts). And I guess I was suitably chuffed with myself as the pace was reasonable and it all seemed achievable - although I hadn't been going for the previous 14 hours! At the top of Red Pike it started raining a tad and by Steeple it was snowing so the conditions were far from perfect. But great to be on the hill and sussing out the route.

Then ... last weekend I did Leg 1 again with local legend Chris Scammel. Unfortunately I was doped up with Paracetamol having come down with a bout of man flu and not slept at all well that night (and having been up quite a bit throughout the week with Max who just won't go through a whole night without waking at least once and sometimes 3 or 4 times). Anyroadup, we started at quite a lick and legged it up Skiddaw in just over an hour, over to Great Calva, down and up to Blencathra and down to Threlkeld. I felt positively vile for the majority of the route but still came in at 3 hours 30 mins. Chris kept his split times and would have been in at around 3 hours - which is a sub 20 hours schedule! No wonder I felt knackered and went home - he went on to do Leg 2 with Joe Grove in around 3 and 3/4 hours.

And - have received yet more enquiries for Ama Dablam and another 2 bookings (so that is now 12 on the permit). It's all starting to take up more and more of my time with the usual need to get paperwork from folk, arrange their itineraries, start looking at the logistics and tying it all together. Met with the Keswick posse who are coming along and we ended up having a few more beers in The Square Orange than anticipated. 'Twas a good night.

Also - have received my third Everest deposit for Spring 2011. So that confirms that trip too - which I am obviously extremely excited about. We'll be on the Nepal (South side) which is warmer and safer than the Tibet (North side) where I was in 2005 with a bunch of mates. It takes quite a bit longer to get to Base Camp as we'll be in for a 2 or 3 week trek whereas on the North side you drive to Base Camp in a few days. But at least we'll be reasonably well acclimatised when we arrive. All the respective Camps on the South are at lower elevations than on the North which will make for a more comfortable trip (although I doubt many people would describe what we are letting ourselves in for as being any where near comfortable). And another benefit on the South side is that you can easily escape Base Camp and drop down for a rest at a lower altitude whereas on the North you're pretty much stuck on the Tibetan Plateau. So hopefully we'll be able to keep the blog updated and share all our adventures and photos with everyone back home.

Apart from that we have also bought new cutlery, crockery and pillows. I managed to get out for a few runs, finish off some mapping work that I do as another sideline and I'm out rock climbing with some clients this weekend.

That's about all for now ...