" We were now receiving daily very accurate weather reports from the Bracknell Weather Centre in the UK. These gave us the most advanced precision forecast available anywhere in the world. The meteorologists were able to determine wind strengths to within five knots accuracy at every thousand feet of altitude.
Our lives would depend on these forecasts back up the mountain.
Each morning, the entire team would crowd eagerly around the laptop to see what the skies were bringing--but it did not look good.
Those early signs of the monsoon arriving in the Himalayas, the time when the strong winds over Everest’s summit begin to rise, didn’t seem to be coming.
All we could do was wait.
Our tents were very much now home to us at base camp. We had all our letters and little reminders from our families.
I had a seashell I had taken from a beach on the Isle of Wight, in which Shara had written my favorite verse--one I had depended on so much through the military.
“Be sure of this, that I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth.” Matthew 28:20.
I reread it every night at base camp before I went to sleep.
There was no shame in needing any help up here. "

― Bear Grylls , Mud, Sweat and Tears