Nathaniel Merriam Wednesday, May 19 Everest Base Camp, Nepal

I think the weather is trying to tell us to go home. It snowed all last night, leaving a think layer of the powdery stuff on everything. Today the sun has been turned on full blast and large pools of water are everywhere. Fortunately we packed a lot up yesterday, and we're running on a skeleton crew of equipment, mainly so that we can keep in communications until the last minute.

Jim Williams was kind enough to take Javier and Jen and me out into the Khumbu Icefall today. We didn't travel far into it, just enough for all of us to be awed by it. My initial impression of the ice formations when I came into EBC stays the same -- it reminds me of Superman's Fortress of Solitude (the one from the movies, not the "real" one). Obligatory comic reference out of the way. But really, it's pretty neat.

In other news, my boots are dry. Robert gave me the tip to put the liners behind my bent knees in the sleeping bag and it worked like a charm -- I guess I just can't generate enough heat at the end of the bag to keep things down there.

The educational videoconferences went really well from what we could see on our end. Hopefully we'll be able to get a videotape of the conferences, as my parents will probably want a copy. On that note, let me say how disappointed I was that no one asked me a single question. I mean, I travel all this way and work hard every day, and the thanks I get is to sit during the whole conference listening to "The Best of U2 1980-1990" (which by the way isn't at all an accurate title). You're all off of my Christmas list -- so there!

Hypoxic tantrums aside, I have to confess to looking forward to getting out of here. The chill of porcelain on skin at 2 am will never feel better than for the next few weeks. Don't get me wrong -- this trip has been a lot of fun, as well as a lot of work. But all good things must come to an end, especially when they involve a lot of shivering and coughing up strangely colored material. The funny thing about being on a science expedition is that when you cough up strange things, people don't get grossed out, they grab a slide and put it under the microscope. And I have to eat meals with these people.

We want to thank all the kids (both young and old) who have sent email to us about the educational conferences, and we were glad that broadcast.com was able to make them available around the world.

Well, it looks like it's time to take the tinsel off the tree. When next we meet I'll probably be a lot further down the road to Katmandu. Wish us all luck -- we've been very fortunate so far in avoiding most troubles on the road to Everest. If you want to drop a line I'm here at NMerriam@ArtBoy.org.

Nathaniel