The winds at Everest base camp finally died down on Tuesday, the original date for our puja, the religious ceremony performed for all Himalayan expeditions and without which the sherpas will not set foot on the mountain.
Expedition leader Russell Brice is fully sympathetic to his sherpas' religious beliefs and will hold a puja only when it has been decreed by the Tibetan prayer book, not when it is most convenient for his plans.
The most auspicious date was April 17th, with the 12th as the next-best, so the 12th was agreed upon as the sherpas would have been too high up the mountain by the later date. But the 12th also had to be abandoned, this time in favour of the following day when it was discovered that the lama at the Rongbuk monastery had misread the prayer book, possibly due to a wrinkle in the page, according to Brice.
The original date dawned bright and sunny and, to the relief of everyone, the wind had dropped. For the first time since our arrival, I awoke to the sound of birdsong.
But the idyllic moment was shattered by the roar of a motorbike and, as that died out into the distance, the coughing started. And then the hawking. And the spitting.
Suddenly I'd been transported to an al fresco emphysema ward. And this was only base camp. What was advanced base camp (ABC) going to be like, where - at 6,400 metres - the strain on the lungs would be far more severe?
But the noise level has been gradually increasing over the past few days. The valley floor is beginning to fill up, as more of the 17 teams that have permits to climb the mountain's north side arrive at base camp.
Russell Brice's Himalayan Experience team of sherpas are in charge of putting in the fixed lines from the North Col upwards and 10 kilometres of 7mm rope has been sent up the mountain.
Brice asks for a $100 donation from every climber, but a couple of teams have refused to pay, even though they, like everyone else, will be using the fixed lines to assist them in their search for the summit.
But Brice is determined to give his team of climbers the best chance to make it to the top of the world. He provides the fixed lines and the best sherpas and, if keeping those sherpas happy increases the chances of success, he will do everything possible to provide spiritual balm to his Nepalese and Tibetan team of workers.
So, while the sherpas had their own puja at ABC on Wednesday, we had ours down at base camp, with two lamas coming up from the Rongbuk monastery to perform the blessing.
A stone chorten (Buddhist shrine) was the centre point, with an altar groaning with offerings to the gods. Yak butter is smeared over everything to smooth the passage to the deities, but its powerful stench was soon overtaken by the burning juniper and incense as the cross-legged, maroon-garbed lamas intoned the prayers in low, chanting voices.
Uncooked rice was handed round to everyone and, following the lamas' example, we threw it into the air towards the heavens.
The chanting went on for well over an hour before the flagpole, topped by white and cream prayer scarves, was erected on the chorten. Rising winds made conditions difficult, but finally the flagpole was in place, with vast lines of prayer flags streaming out from its pinnacle.
The other ends of the prayer flags were tethered to our farthermost tents to flutter in the increasing winds, sending our prayers and those of the lamas up to the heavens.
Beer and minerals were passed around, and then Lacchu, the Himex head cook, came round with a bottle of whiskey. The amber liquid was poured into our cupped left hands and we drank it quickly before it disappeared between our fingers.
But we didn't have time to notice the searing feeling as the liquor vanished down our throats, as cook boy Gasang was giving us handfuls of tsampa, the barley flour used so widely in Tibet.
The chanting increased to fever pitch as we all raised our right arms aloft and then, in the final climax, threw the tsampa into the air. And, suddenly, the puja was over and all the expedition members were hugging and kissing each other, passing on good luck messages and wishing their fellow team members a safe passage up and, most importantly, down the mountain.
It was an emotionally charged moment.
But it was back to business as usual after that, with increasingly higher acclimatisation hikes to prepare us for the move up to ABC over the next couple of days.