Tom Waits croons out a barroom tune as I try to power up the laptop. A strange sound comes from its electronic insides and I have to take the battery out. The battery goes into a ziplock bag for Chyangba to boil for a few minutes in a pot in the kitchen tent. Minutes later, I reinsert the battery in the laptop and fire it up. If that power system fails, we have a small Honda generator that will, unfortunately, wake up our Russian and Canadian neighbors sleeping in tents nearby.
Satellite phones are sensitive to power requirements and weather.
We've been told that there is a solar shower taking place in the atmosphere that may cause problems in satellite communications. Even though our communications technology may seem high-tech, particularly in such a remote place, communicating is no simple matter. We feel lucky every time we're able to successfully send a file, e-mail, or photographic image. Well we had a beautiful morning through the Icefall. It normally takes about three hours to get through the Icefall with a moderate load.