That night after dinner Rene and Vicq along with Toby, Jakob, and Da-wa collected themselves in the far corner of the teahouse’s dimly lit dining room. Like the other teahouses, Tengboche’s dining area was arranged with long wooden tables skirting the perimeter of the room with bench seating against the wall. Simple wooden chairs were scattered about, many of them having seen too many years.
As expected there was a lot of discussion among the men about their upcoming assault on Everest, not to mention John Patterson, whom they all decided they didn’t like. But overall, the mood was lively as the Frenchmen battled the Austrians in a game of cards Da-wa was teaching them, and which the Sherpa excelled at. Off to the side, Sully and Sangye plotted against each other in a game of chess as Car
