737 Leg 7 Everest - Day 141

We had a Puja ceremony in the morning, which was fantastic. The Llama blessed us for the climb and some of our gear. Our grivel crampons and ice axes, plus some Nepalese prayer flags that I've got. It was about an hour long. In the arvo Steve, Passang (our Sherpa leader) and myself went onto the ice to run through some scenarios that we might face up there. Abseiling over knots, jumaring over somebody or an obstacle in the fixed lines. We just had some fun for a couple of hours, nothing we didn't know but a valuable refresh. There were lots of avalanches around base camp in the evening. One massive one whilst I was having a pee in the dark. It sounded like it was right on top of me, it wasn't, but I did question if this was how I was going to go! Steve and his dad spent the evening playing monopoly, which Steve won.

FACT: Jumaring, also referred to as jugging, is where the second climber (the one who belays the lead climber on the route) uses ascenders to climb the rope instead of climbing directly on the rock.