Watched Goodfellas last night after dinner. Today we put on crampons and helmets and ventured out onto the lower Icefall. The shock is how hard the ice is. It is bullet hard and you really have to be very positive with your crampons. Hopefully when we go through for real there will be some good steps cut already. I can see that efficient use of crampons is the key to saving energy in the thin air. Back at camp now and looking forward to an afternoon reading a book. Doesn't look like Phillip will be returning - if only he had been wearing his helmet.
The weather is usually sunny in the morning and snow in the afternoon. Regarding pictures, the charging and wifi have not really settled down yet and so I haven't risked sending a picture but will do over the coming days. I expect that the Jagged Globe web site has some pictures on it. Tomorrow we hike up to about 5,700 metres as part of our acclimatisation.
Bye for now.