Having lost 3 members of our team over the past few weeks, today we gained 4 new ones! They arrived this morning, and once we had taken them out of their protective cellophane and read the instructions, we integrated them into the team! Having just come away from Broad Peak, they are all well acclimatised, having slept above 7000m there, but K2 is going to present some very different challenges for them. We're already making plans for later on in the week, for various people to go up the mountain, in the hope that a potential weather window will materialise by the weekend.

We've also been rather lucky with food today... Yesterday, when the helo came to take out the departing team member it brought in a polystyrene insulated case of frozen chickens! Today for lunch we had deep-fried chicken drumsticks - yummy!

Other than that, it's been a relatively slow day. I walked up to the base of the route this morning with another team member to collect some equipment. It was a round trip of around one and a half hours and it was a good excuse to stretch the legs (my calves are still a little stiff from the weekend). The sun was out, and the glacier acts like a reflective bowl, creating a serious heat trap. We'd only been walking for a few minutes before we had to stop and strip down to our T-shirts! It was so nice to have a leisurely stroll in light boots and short sleeves in the warmth, rather than the usual dawn trudge in full mountain battle-kit.

In case you were wondering, I had a lovely night's sleep last night in the new and improved tent! It was so nice to be able to close the doors to my bedroom - it certainly minimises the old draft.

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