Nathaniel Merriam Wednesday, May 12 Everest Base Camp, Nepal

he adults are away today -- Scott, Chris, Ken, Jim Williams, and Rick all went up to camp one to acclimatize and to test the Vital Signs Monitors. We've gotten twice as much work done today as usual. Coincidence? I think not.

In honor of this solemn occasion, I've decided to do a little picture book for all the kids who want to look around base camp and see what life is really like on the icy side of the street.

The Base Camp Story by Nathaniel

This is Camp. Camp is rocky. At night I have trouble finding my tent because it is dark.

This is camp with laundry hanging. Hanging laundry looks like prayer flags. Hanging laundry doesn't bring good luck, though.

This is the bathroom. Nick is cold and waiting for the bathroom. When the sun gets hot in the day, the bathroom starts to smell because it's just a bucket with a seat on it. All human waste has to be carried off the mountain, so a sherpa has to empty the bucket into a bigger bucket every day. I'm afraid of the big bucket.

This is the view out of Nathaniel's tent. He likes the nice mountains.

These tents are for research and technology. We put a big blue tarp on one so that the computers wouldn't get wet.

This is base camp in the morning after snow. Everyone moves slowly because everything is slippery. Everything is white.

The sherpas make big meals for us every day, but this is what we really eat. Our moms would be very disappointed.

This is my work area. I sit on a crate and work on getting data back to Yale.

This is where the doctors work. This is the best medical care for many hundreds of miles.