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.

If you are a regular viewer of The Rest of Everest you probably heard Jon's announcement a few weeks back that he is returning to the North Side of Everest this year. In just a few days actually, as he departs on Sunday, April 1st. He has more details of the trip in this week's video podcast on what we fans can expect.

For starters, there is a whole new webpage you'll want to bookmark that will be updated throughout the trip, with blog entries, images, audio files and more. We'll hear from Jon while he meets up with some teams on the North Side and Ben, the lead climber on the Rest of Everest video podcasts, will be checking in from time to time as he goes for the summit of Shisha Pangma this year. It sounds like we should be treated to some great stuff.

Also, in this bonus podcast, we learn about climbers Brian Oestrike and Justin Hewitt who are taking on Everest this year for a good cause, namely to raise money and awareness for lung cancer. The charity they are climbing for is lungevity.org and you can follow their whole climbe at ClimbForCancer.Blogspot.com.

Good luck to Brian and Justin on the their climb for a cause, and have fun in Nepal and Tibet Jon. We can't wait to see what kind of new adventures you have and look forward to you sharing them with us. Be safe guys!

Over the weekend a new episode of the Rest of Everest was released, continuing this season's expedition which has left Broad Peak for the slopes of K2. As is typical on these big mountain expeditions, weather dictates when the team can move and that is certainly the case here. The team, confined to its tent, waits for an opportunity to move up. This is a good example of what life is like on an expedition to the Himalaya or Karakoram where sometimes all you can do is sit in the tent and hope that a weather window will eventually open.

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!

As a big fan of video podcast The Rest of Everest I mentioned several weeks ago, before I left for Africa, that Jon was heading back to Tibet as well. Had I not gone on hiatus for two weeks myself, I would have reported regularly on the Tibet 2007 updates, blog posts, and podcasts.

But, it's better late than not at all, right? To follow all of Jon, and his good friend Scott's, adventures head on over to the Tibet 2007 Webpage to find out what they were doing while they were there. The podcasts, as always, are fun and interesting, and the blog posts are a good read as well. It looks like Jon is going to have plenty of material to keep feeding our Everest addiction for some time to come.

Welcome home Jon. I hope your case of jet lag isn't as bad as mine! ;)

Earlier today the LUNGevity Team summited Everest, using O2 but without Sherpa support, and in tribute to them Jon, over at The Rest of Everest has released a Bonus Podcast with a brief Q & A with the team.

Jon met up with the guys while in base camp while he was in Tibet at the beginning of April. He talks with both Brian Oestrike and Justin Hewitt about what lay ahead for them on the climb and what their expectations were for going up above 8000m for the first time.

The latest new from their blog says that the guys are back in C2, exhausted, but happy and in good spirits. Brian and Justin were climbing to raise money and awareness for lung cancer, a noble cause for sure. Congratulations on a job well done guys!

If you're looking for a regular episode of The Rest of Everest, be patient. Jon promises us a new one tomorrow. But the news of LUNGevity topping out was too big not to share.