Day 8: Saturday, 1/2/10: Rest Day at Plaza Argentina

Original plans were for a move to Camp 1 today, but we decided for another rest day at Base Camp. I had my best night's sleep up to this point. I had crafted a more comfortable pillow with some of my down gear and it made a huge difference. The wind also let up for the night. There was a hail storm that was working it's way down the mountain which gave us another reason to remain here and strengthen up for our moves to the higher camps. We treated ourselves to a pizza for lunch at the Daniel Lopez Expedition tent. The rice and pea-sized hail rolled into Base Camp and lasted for about 2 hours. Later in the evening, Laurie rolled through after a visit to Camp 1. He arose from the hail storm in his blue jeans as if we had just gone for a walk through central park on a cool autumn day. His legend grew for us and we enjoyed our encounters more and more with him. I was not becoming a fan of rest days at this point. When the objective for the day was to take it easy, I struggled. Accepting this as part of the bigger picture helped me settle down, but I would still much rather be slogging up the slopes.

Time, Location (Altitude), SPO2, HR
09:05, Plaza Argentina (13,800 ft), 88%, 88 bpm
21:00, Plaza Argentina (13,800 ft), 90%, 60 bpm

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