Puja in the morning, the local Lama comes from Phu village with his assistant. After setting up the offerings around the altar, the lama starts singing the prayers. We are all gathered around, surrounded by 6-7000m mountains. It is surreal. The clouds and sun mix together in an atmosphere far from our own worlds. We listen patiently and take in all the foreign gestures and incantations of the Tibetan Buddhism. We have brought all our climbing gear to the altar, they are blessed one by one by an ointment, Purba, our head Sherpa and sirdar touches each and every piece of gear with this special ointment. The crampons, ice axes, helmets key to our safety and survival in the high altitude mountains are treated with this balm. It is fascinating to watch.

Ong Shu Sherpa ties a number of prayer flags to existing ones that are already hanging from the altar to the ground around us.

The assistant lama throws in the air the alcohol mixed with rice and tsampa while reciting some prayers. A few repeats of this gesture and we proceed to the closing of the ceremony. It is now time to share the offerings between all of us. Some alcohol, some cookies are past around, everybody shares the joy the Sherpas are loud and lough with us while sharing.

It is starting to snow again slightly. Chris, our climbing leader, has prepared a training session of Jumaring & abseiling (going down) practice before lunch. He fixed a rope on a slope next to the camp and we gather with our equipment and check our harnesses, jumar and figure 8 as well as safety slings. Then we get going up and down, switching from jumar to go up to figure 8 to go down until lunch time.