Dispatch 15: Rest Day in Dhaulagiri Base Camp

Nick in Dhaulagiri Base Camp
The view of Dhaulagiri from Base Camp at dawn

Today, I woke up at 6am to a clear, cold, beautiful morning in base camp. I took some photos of our camp in fresh snow, then spent the next few hours setting up my solar power system. We had breakfast at 8:30am, which again was impressive. Wendy and Simon decided to remain a day in base camp to rest and will descend tomorrow. The remainder of the morning was spent organizing equipment. I began preparing meals for the mountain and put some of the gear I intend to bring up to Camp I and II together. We had a delicious lunch as the weather worsened outside. Snow fell, and the temperature dropped as the light dwindled. We enjoyed our last dinner with the trekkers and returned to our respective tents. The base camp dog, who we named Dhaula looked cold, so I spent some time preparing the vestibule of my base camp tent with a mattress pad and an emergency blanket so that she could come inside and get warm. Surprisingly, she did and spent half of the night with me and half of the night with Eva.