Rain, sleet, snow and thunder

Well what started out as a nice morning has rapidly deteriorated to an awful afternoon. The clouds bubbled up and quickly filled the valley to then make it reasonably dark in Dingboche - so much so that we had difficulty seeing the cards and dice in the bakery!

And now it's thundering as well. Thankfully we are on a well earned rest day and so are staying put - but I do feel for all those trekkers who are now in the middle of their hike to their next destination. Particularly if they were hoping for views.

We're off tomorrow to a great little camp at a grassy meadow on the way to the Kongma La and then 2 nights camping just below the col with some of the best views in The Khumbu looking across to Baruntse and Makalu. We'll pop up Pokalde and then make our way to EBC.

Don't forget that you can e mail any of the group at firstname@thebige2011.co.uk (abi, chris, giles, jen, partha, susan, tim).

Conditions are soon going to be getting colder and we'll be living higher - which is quite a stressful and arduous environment. Added to that the fact that everything is going to be getting much more serious and suddenly messages are even more welcome than usual and are a real morale booster.

Also you can text the team on 00977 98131 65232 - please start your message with 'For Abi' or 'For Chris' rather than 'Hey babe I had the most awesome dream about you last night ...'

So that's all for now and possibly for the next few days.

Cheers for now - Tim and the team.