It's Wednesday! Which means we're half-way through the week, Lost is on tonight, and of course we get a new episode of The Rest of Everest which has returned to regular shows again following the brief hiatus while Jon went back to Tibet.

This episode is entitled Episode 43: 20,000 Leagues Above The Sea. Jon spends much of the episode in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines camp and we get to see what life is like for other teams on Everest. As a military expedition, the team is well funded and equipped, not to mention well fed if the dinner scenes are to be believed. :)

However, their "military spec" computers failed at high altitude so Jon, and his trusty Mac Powerbook had to come to there rescue. Yeah, Apple stuff is just that good! I'm enjoying the return of the regular episodes and it's fun to continue to see what life is like in BC. Of course, we all want to get on to the maincourse, which is the climb, but we see those aspects of Everest all the time. I like seeing the teams interact in the down time, and watching what life is like on a day to day basis as well.

Never fear though, the climb is coming. Jon remarks in the video that we'll start to see more climbing in the coming weeks but for now, it's all about life at Base Camp. After all, this is an "Unabridged Expedition Experience".

In a clear sign that I'm still not back to my regular schedule, I completely missed this a few days ago. The Tibet 2007 Teaser Video is now available over at The Rest of Everest.

Fans of the video podcast know that Jon, the Director/Photographer/Producer/Jack-of-All-Trades of The Rest of Everest, returned to Nepal and Tibet to meet with some new teams and visit Everest Base Camp on the North side. The trip will provide future episodes of the show with new content and a fresh look at life on Everest and in Tibet as well. Judging from this great teaser, which runs more than 33 minutes in length, we're in for some excellent future episodes. Even better, if you've donated to the show you get an amazing HD version of the teaser that will really have your mouth watering. I need to go buy an AppleTV so I can watch it again on my HDTV.

By the way, if you missed all the great podcasts, dispatches, and updates from Jon while he was in Tibet, you can get caught up on the Tibet 2007 page. I'm looking forward to seeing the 2007 episodes eventually as well, but first we'll get a return to the current Rest of Everest podcasts.

If you're a fan of the Rest of Everest video podcast and have been following this season's climb on Broad Peak and K2, the moment you've no doubt been waiting for is here. In the latest episode, available below, the climbers leave Broad Peak behind at last and head to the "mountaineer's mountain." K2 is arguably the toughest climb in the world, and the show will now shift to that peak as we follow the climbers on the second phase of their expedition.

BackPackingLight.com is a great resource for ideas and tips on how to travel lightly in the backcountry, and I'd say that it's easier now then ever to "go light". New, higher quality equipment, focuses on taking the weight off our packs while still providing us with the true backpacking experience. This especially holds true in Spring, Summer, and Fall, the time when most of us get out and camp. But what about Winter?

Well, you can use many of the same techniques int he Winter as well, but obviously the need to stay warm and dry chaneges things dramatically. That's why Backpacking Light has put together this helpful article as well as an accompanying podcast with lots of great tips to for camping in the colder months.

The focus is on such topics as "Keep Warm Without Getting Wet" and "Keep Your Stuff Dry". But my personal favorite is "Eat, Eat, Eat, Drink, Drink, Drink." Words to live by throughout all four seasons I say. The podcast/mp3 file is found at the top of the page and can be downloaded or listened to directly on the page.

While teams move up Everest towards the summit, you can get a peak at what life has been like for them the past few days and weeks as they waited for their turn. Check out The Rest of Everest for just such an inside look. This week's epsidode is Episode 44: Predicting The Future.

In this week's episode you'll actually see the teams, still in Base Camp, reading the latest weather reports and waiting for that coveted weather window to open up. You can see the concentraion and worry on the faces of team leaders as they discuss strategy on when it would be safe to let their climbers go up. Watching this footage, you can get a sense that these same kinds of discussions were taking place not very many days ago on the mountain itself, as all the teams that have reached the top in the last day or two, or are still moving up now, waited for their window to open.

This is another episode that takes place in ABC and you can tell that the time spent there is starting to wear on the teams. They've gone through all the work to acclimatize, the camps up the mountain are established, and now they are ready to go, but the weather just hasn't cooperated yet. Soon though, that window will open, and it will be time to climb.

It's also interesting to hear Jon mention that the footage that we're watching today was shot on May 16th in 2003, and is being released today, May 16th 2007. It really is a great look into what is happen right now on Everest. Great work as always Jon, and thanks for the plug at the beginning of the episode. Always appreciated!

Episode: 0 of a new Everest video podcast has hit the web. It's the work of Phil Michael and Chris Stanko of SecretSpotEverest.com fame. The episode is entitled "The Launch" and details the future plans of the show which will be quite ambitious to say the least.

The plan is to use the show to follow Phil and Chris' climb of Everest, which is currently scheduled for the Spring 2008 season. They even hope to do live broadcasts from Kathmandu and have an exploratory expedition to basecamp on the North side scheduled for the near future.

The podcast comes in various flavors including a high quality H.264 version, as well as QuickTime and Windows Media versions as well. There is also a version pre-formatted for your iPod, PSP, or other handheld media device (Zune? Yeah, right! ;) ) or if you just want to listen to the audio, there is an MP3 file of that as well.

This episode is a teaser of things to come and will certainly give you a taste of what to expect. It should be interesting to see how future episodes unfold as the team prepares for the climb.