SummitClimb Cho Oyu 2004: Arnold Coster reporting in...

Arnold Coster here writing in from Nyalam, on behalf of the entire SummitClimb team. We spent the day taking day hikes on the surrounding hills for acclimatization. Most members reached elevations of 4,500m, so we are getting used to the altitude and are ready to travel up to Tingri in the morning. We are planning to leave via 4-wheel drive land cruisers and the trip should take us around 4 hours. We will spend one night in Tingri on the 10th and plan to meet our truck carrying the rest of our food and equipment for the final trip to Chinese Base Camp.

Mon and Neil have informed us of a new breed of British underclass called chavs and we were all very interested to find out the specifics of the lifestyle. We were wondering if any of us would be classified as a chav.

We have received reports that the weather in Basecamp has been good so far and that there are approximately 15 teams already on the mountain. It should be a busy year, as it is the 50th anniversary of the first ascent.

As you can imagine, the internet connection in this high Tibetan town is not exactly lightning fast, so a few of us passed the afternoon by watching Roland try to send one important email over roughly a two hour period. The good news is it finally went through, bad news, I lost 10 yuan bet that it wouldn't.

All of us are feeling good and from here on out we will be calling in dispatches via satellite phone so hope to send another report soon. Thanks from the SummitClimb team.

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