11-05-2012 – Penngboche - Lukla!!

 Altitude: 3950m to 2860m

Atmospheric Pressure: 560mbar

Trek: 31kms / 7 hrs

Feeling a little tender this morning, legs, back and blisters. For breafast, I’ve ordered 2 pancakes with 2 fried eggs. When you translate this in Nepalese, this means 2 fried eggs on each pancakes!! Hence 4 eggs for breakfast, which I ate, but I couldn’t quite manage the 2 pancakes, as Adrian and Sergey had predicted.

We’re off by 7:30..ish and the weather today is much kinder to us. We can see miles down the valley, the wind is down and it looks like it will be a hot day, just to say goodbye!!

Today is the long day, Adrian expects us to take around 8 to 9 hours to get back to Lukla.

Usually, only the guides get back from base camp in 2 days, as usually, the clients are not that much in a rush or don’t quite feel like pushing themselves after the summit day.

So we set off at a fast pace, Sergey and I have our light backpack, we both carrying our precious laptops, Gortex and water, whilst Adrian still has his huge pack on, with kindle, clothes, but also no doubt First Aid and satellite phone.

We make it to Tengboche monastery in less than 1 hour. Tengboche is at the top of a 150m steep hill, on the other side of the valley. Sergey and I can’t resist but race all the way up, under the warm sunshine which is not that clever, considering we still have a long way to go. Adrian, of course, is keeping up with us without breathing too hard.

We’re walking out going a different way to the way we came in, and both Sergey and I comment on how so much more beautiful this way is, we walked through woods and along the sides of the valley are much richer than what we had seen during the walk in (via Phortsee).

It’s getting warm and Adrian decides to switch from trousers to shorts!! Ha-ha, Sergey and I can’t help but notice his calves, as Sergey says “They look like my arms!!”, we laughed!!

We take a mini break to catch our breath and take a few pictures. Even Sergey who keep his camera in his backpack (a sure sign of never taking pictures!!!) takes the time to use his camera. This place is just fantastic, with mountain tops in all directions and the monastery is just beautiful. On a sunny day and blue sky like today, it’s a pleasure to be trekking in this area.

As we set off again, we leave Adrian behind as he’s making various phone calls. Sergey leads the way. It’s down for 500m which take us 30mins. Sergey is like a possessed man, taking porter shortcuts and sometime running down. I blame the music he’s listening to, courtesy of Adrian!! To be honest, it’s very enjoyable, the path is steep, but it reminds us of Chamonix, but at the back of my mind I’m wondering how Adrian will catch up with us if we’re moving so fast, and what if we take a wrong turn?

I shouldn’t worry really, 1 hour later, as we near Namche Bazar, I turn around and can see Adrian only 50m behind…. Unbelievable, we’ve been walking, almost running for 1 hour and half, even overtaking porters and he still managed to catch us up!! The man’s a machine!!

We arrive in Namche in very good time. Adrian had predicted 4 hours, but we’re there in less than 3, but very thirsty and hungry. Luckily, it’s lunchtime!!

I drink 1.5L of Fanta as it would appear my body is screaming for fluid and not so much for food, as I only eat half my pizza.

Sergey and Adrian jumped on the opportunity of the resting time to get on their computer to work.

We’re off again by 12:30, and my legs are already feeling very sore. Luckily, they warm up again after 10 minutes and we’re off at the same crazy speed, with Sergey and Adrian racing each other while I nurse my ankle, thank God I have my walking poles to help support my weight in those crazy down hills.

This 2 leg of the journey is taking its toll on all of us. Sergey’s stomach is trying to get some attention, probably because, just like mine, it’s tired of getting sugary drinks as source of energy.

I’m struggling too, with general tiredness, similar to during a hard marathon, or the ultra I did. The body just can’t seem to be able to find quick energy anywhere, so the pace as to slow down. Despite this, we’re still overtaking people, but eventually, I beg Adrian for another stop for drinks. I’m dehydrated, and can’t stop thinking about water, to the point that I’m hoping it could rain, just so that I could drink!!

So we eventually make another stop at Phakding, for another liter of Fanta!! Although we still had 2 hours to go , Sergey and I agree, that now, it was a question of getting there, rather than racing there.

He took a couple of Imodium as his stomach was getting bad now, and we set of for Lukla, having been warned that the last hill was long and steep.

As always after a stop, the blisters on my feet were screaming, and my body was getting use to the light pain again.

We won’t racing anymore and the last couple of hours to Lukla were testing. Sergey had to stop twice for urgent, unpredicted calls of nature, and getting up that final, never finishing hill kept me entertained!! Obviously, Adrian was waiting for me at the top!!

We got to the lodge on the other side of Lukla, just as it was starting to drizzle.

I crashed on the benches and started to feed my body other things than Fanta, sherpa milk tea, hmmmm.

Sergey arrived a few minutes behind us and we started to compare how tired we all were.

And that was it, the end of the last day of my Everest dream. We’d eventually pushed ourselves silly, even if this wasn’t to get to the summit, it still was a hard day’s work, a day to remember from this trip.

We were so lucky Adrian was the guide who came with us, I’m not sure how many guides would have been willing (and able) to race like this all day, looking for pain.

This has been one of the nice things in this trip, meeting people (few) with similar attitude, rewarded by pushing themselves, enjoying the challenge. How refreshing!

Tomorrow, we’ll fly from Lukla to Kathmandu, and as I felt I was really starting my trip by arriving to Lukla, I’ll probably feel the door closing on my 2012 Everest attempt.

Maybe another time….

10-05-2012 – Base Camp – Getting out!!

Altitude: 5300m to 3950m

Trek: 21kms / 4 hrs

I slept fairly well, considering I knew we were going home, perhaps the pressure was off, now that the decisions were made, and there was nothing I could do, perhaps I was finally accepting the facts.

At breakfast, Adrian told Sergey and I he would be walking down with us!! Hourrey!!!!!

Having Adrian go down with us guarantied a steaming pace!! We will be having fun!!

We’d agreed with Sergey to go up to see the Patagonicas Brothers and Georgie before we left to apologies for not joining them and thank them for their welcome.

Adrian had also organized an early lunch for all 3 of us, just to make sure we get to the lodge in daylight.

As we got to the Patagonicas brothers, we were, yet again welcomed with snacks and a great friendly atmosphere……. meaning we stayed a little longer than planned!

The early lunch back at Himex almost turned into a late lunch, and we finally set off at 2pm, with 20+kms to go, keeping in mind we were still at 5300m, that could take us a while.

Sergey and I have always been fairly well match in fitness, pace and stubbornness, even at altitude, and I enjoyed having somebody to share the pain with.

Knowing that Adrian would be able to catch us up, we set off with our light day pack and Sergey set the quick pace on the way to Gorek Shep, every now and then, spending time on the phone to try and organize his flight back home.

We were pushing hard, overtaking trekkers, porters and yaks. What a pleasure to be acclimatised!

Sergey, listening to music, was, like me, still chewing about not being able to go back up the hill, letting out occasionally some Russian swear word.

Adrian caught us up at Lobuche Base Camp, 2 hours in. Although this was expected, as he is awesomely quick, despite us pushing hard, I wasn’t quite ready for the size of his backpack, my shoulders were aching, just looking at it!! He’s a beast!!

To add to the mood, it was slitting, the chilling wind in our face and visibility reduced to 50m ish. We stopped off at Pheriche for a short break, drink and energy food, before setting off again.

We finally arrived at Pengboche at 18:00 after 4hrs of fast walking, up and down the multiple hills thrown at us, and full of aches.

We set out to re-hydrate while waiting for our overnight bag, Sergey electing to go for beer while Adrian and I asked for tea.

Despite my trekking shoes being well broken in, as I’ve had them for years, I can feel blisters on my feet, probably from the slightly higher pace than usual…..

Our night bag arrives as we’re having dinner, so none of us stay up for very long, eager to get some rest, ready for tomorrow’s journey.

We’ve come down quite a bit on altitude and the extra oxygen should delight my body, but I’m still coughing a lot, probably from the cold and humidity and my ribs are hurting.

Eventually, I manage to go to sleep, lucky I have my own room so I didn’t keep the others awake too much.

09-05-2012 – Base Camp – Expedition Rescue plan

Altitude: 5300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 560mbar

Trek: 0kms

As agreed with Georgie yesterday, she came down to join us for lunch at Himex, and she also brought down the paperwork for us to read through and sign prior to joining their expedition.

There’s quite a bit to go through, so we agree that Sergey and I go through it and prioritise organising the payment. We can return the paperwork later on.

It was nice to have lunch outside, enjoying the sunshine and looking up at the Western Cwm, knowing we’ll be going back up soon.

After lunch, got back to my tent to start reading the paperwork, but decided to laydown and rest my eyes first……… Next thing I know, I was rudely awakened by Adrian’s voice shouting amongst the tent for Sergey and I, calling us for a meeting.

I’ll summarise what happen next as “we’ve run out of options to go back up the mountain”!

This was such a shock, we had it, we were going back up, but this was not to be, no more options were possible for us.

Sergey was fuming and I was boiling inside, but that was it, we were going home!

We both went back to our tents, for a couple of hours of “chewing on things”, then I decided to go and see Sergey.

We agreed to get out as soon as possible, and if feasible, to do it in 2 days to Lukla.This would no doubts help us to take our mind off our frustrations.

It’s taken us 10 days to walk up to base Camp, but this was to give us time to acclimatise.

The 50+kms back to Lukla are usually covered in 3 to 4 days for us clients.

This is more “civilized”, but also gives plenty of time to the porters with or bags to keep up with us.

I expressed our wish to Russell and Adrian who agreed to look into organising this, but highlighting that there will be no way to get porters to follow us with all our bags, and they will be at least a day behind. The best we could get was to share an overnight bag who will be at the lodge each night, carried by 1 porter.

Last dinner in Base Camp then!!!!!!!!!!!!

08-05-2012 – Base Camp – Expedition Rescue plan

Altitude: 5300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 560mbar

Trek: 0kms

Is today the day when we get back to thinking about climbing?

After sleeping on the cost of switching team, lots of thoughts cross my mind, am I going too far, should I just go home? Is it worth the money? Where can I find the extra money from? How about the risks? This whole thing is now costing me a huge amount of money, most of it borrowed. Bloody mid life crisis!!

Fact is, I’m here, healthy (ish) and acclimatised, it’s now or never. There won’t be another opportunity before a long time. As somebody I know says “If in doubt, push like F@@@!”.

So, let’s not give up so close to knowing whether I can make it to the top of the tallest mountain, not yet.

It’s funny how everybody else in the group has gone home (apart from the soldiers) didn’t those guys think it was worth continuing? How bizarre.

So it’s just Sergey and I (and the soldiers) left from the group.

I’d like to meet up with the new expedition to try to negotiate the cost and they’ve invited us for dinner tonight in their camp, should be interesting.

Until then, my mission for today is to wash my high altitude clothes, I’d put that on hold in case we had to go home, but now it’s looking likely we’ll go up, might as well make most of the sunshine.

Then, after lunch, I, decide to go down to Gorek Shep to update the blog. I haven’t done it since the last rotation, and since then, lots of stuff has happened, sorry about the delay with the updates.

I feel tired going to Gorek Shep, my legs not feeling as strong as I’d like, still, it’s a nice walk down, in a little less than 1 hour.

On the way there, I text my sister to see if she would agree to lend me the extra money at such short notice. A little later, she replies saying that she’s happy to let me have the money, but not so convinced about the level of risks………

Half way down, I overtake a long queue of yaks carrying Himex gear and on the way back I realize that most of the tents have been taking down….. We’re pulling off the mountain. By the 12^th, there’ll be nothing left of the Himex Base Camp…. Ouch.

After getting back, I just manage a quick nap before it’s time to get ready for dinner.

Monica, Adrian, Sergey and I head off for the Patagonicas Brother’s Camp. We set off at 6:30 and arrive at 7pm, just on time. The camp is at the complete opposite end of Base camp, right at the top, near crampon point.

We’re received by Georgie (Base Camp manager) and Damian (Owner, one of the twins) who has just come down from the mountain after having helped fixing the ropes above the Yellow Band (7400m) and up to the south Col, he is a little tired…..

Dinner if fantastic, great food and good atmosphere, those guys seems easy to get on with.

Adrian clarifies a few logistical things (sleeping bags requirements, stove, food, oxygen and masks, radios, shit bags). We then go onto the cost, but unfortunately, those guys are not open to negotiations, it’s that price or nothing, bummer!!

We leave, agreeing that Georgie would bring the paperwork down at lunch time, ready to be signed….. We’re climbing again!!!!!

On the long way back to our Base Camp, we get lost and it’s snowing, well, that the mountain.

It’s great to see Adrian as excited as us about going for a summit push. It’s really great to have him going up with us, there’s no way we would consider going without him, and I think he’s excited about going for yet another summit, he really loves the mountain!!

Also, Monica is trying to stay behind in Base Camp, to support us on the radio, and make sure we’re OK. It’d be great to know she’s around.

Those guys are amazing!!

07-05-2012 – Base Camp – Expedition Rescue plan

Altitude: 5300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 560mbar

Trek: 0kms

After having investigated 2 potential rescue plan for my expedition yesterday (Phurba and Adventure Consultant which turned out negative), we started the day with another option (PeakFreaks), which also turned out to be a dead end once we’d walked to the camp and spoke to Tim, the base camp manager.

Having walked back to our base camp, and fed back to Monica and Adrian, they, yet again, came up with another possibility, the Patagonicas Brothers, a small outfit,

led by 2 experienced twin brothers.

They are the first outfit to be able to take us on and it’s now a question of cost.

Because of Adrian with us, they’re happy for us to mix with them, or to do our own thing, which is great.

Adrian and Monica have been awesome in helping us in our quest, using their contact and experience and never giving up.

The atmosphere in the camp is poor, most of the soldier guys are gutted and want to get out of here, but need to wait till the 12^th a they have a big sponsor do on the 10^th.

The few others are leaving tomorrow, by heli or by foot to Lobuche or Island Peak.

Tonight, as I was settling in my tent at 21:30, I heard Monica, Adrian and Sergey shouting my name across base camp. They’d finally got the cost for switching team and wanted me to know and sleep on it to make a decision on whether it was sensible.

To be honest, it wasn’t, GULP!!!

Lets sleep on it!!

06-05-2012 – Base Camp – Expedition Rescue plan.

Altitude: 5300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 560mbar

Trek: 0kms

Good night sleep, it’s good to be back in base camp….. for now.

I’ve been doing some thinking, helped by Sergey, about ways to perhaps to still make it to the summit.

We’re fit, in Base Camp, and acclimatise….. so close!!

Very professionally, Russell is sitting down with every expedition members to get their opinions and how quickly they would like to get out.

Some are happy to walk back down casually, the Walking With The Wounded need to stay a further week as they have a group of trekkers coming up to base camp for the charity. They are also those who prefer to catch the helicopter to Lukla tomorrow, hence saving them 3 days of walking.

After having had a couple of discussions with Adrian and Russell, a first it look like there might be a couple of options to push for the summit with another expedition, and Russell was very supportive in helping us with that, using his contact around base camp.

However, by the end of the afternoon, it was clear that none of the other expeditions had spare sherpa for the summit push, and although we Sergey and I were described as “strong” clients, we’re certainly no match for sherpa power on summit day, to carry oxygen or if something was to go wrong. Adrian was also willing to go up with us, which would have been awesome, but the lack of available sherpa close the deal for us……….. we’re going home!!!

To take our mind of things, Sergey convinced me to make the trek back to Lukla in 2 days rather than 3 like the rest of the group. Yet again a logistical challenge for Russell, but he never says no to those!!

So we’re off to Namche first thing in the morning, with a daypack, with 45kms to carry up and down the hills at the altitude of Mont-Blanc!! Should be a good laugh, and it should help us sleep at night!!

Off packing now, keeping in mind that the kit we’ve left in Camp 2 will be coming down tomorrow morning and will need to be added to our bags (for the porters to carry down to Namche)!.

This is now a reality, we’re going home!! 6 days of climbing left after 35 days of expedition but  this was not to be!

I still respect Russell decision for pulling the plug, even (and let’s hope) if there is no accident after we’ve gone, the risks are too high for such a big group and our sherpa.

Unfinished business!!

05-05-2012 – Base Camp – Expedition cancelled!!

Altitude: 5300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 560mbar

Trek: 0kms

It’s snowing lightly this morning, and the clouds are not lifting as they usually do in time for breakfast, so I decide to delay my washing by a day.

After last night’s party, only a few of us make it to breakfast, either due to sensitive stomach, or just being tired.

Around 11:30, Monica thinks she betters checks on some of the English youngsters who still haven’t made it out of their tent, just to make sure they haven’t chocked on their own vomit. Turns out, it was a close call for some of them!!!

At lunch, Russell called a meeting in the WhitePod for straight after lunch.

So we all gathered in the WhitePod, climbers, guides, film crew and sherpas.

One look at Monica tells me this is not good news.

Indeed, Russell goes on to explain how scared the sherpas have been everytime they go through the icefall and how Phurba had raised concern about the activity in the icefall. Both the icefall doctors and the sherpa reckon the icefall is 50% more dangerous than the previous year.

We all know too that for our groups, out of 2 journeys through the icefall we both got scared by seracs fall, with the 1^st group having ice blocks tumbling between their legs and our group being swallowed by the snow cloud of another one.

Russell also reminds us that we were lucky when Amanda and Annie decided to stop at Camp 1 rather than push to Camp 2, hence avoiding being brought down by the avalanche from Nupsee.

He also mentioned the multiple meeting with the icefall doctors, trying to think of a different, safer way up.

Finally, he said that the sherpas, having gone through the icefall 10 times, needed a further 8 journeys to get all the kit required to support US to the summit push, making it more like a suicide mission!

Phurba then spoke, to apologies for not accepting to support the summit push, Harry, the guide involved with the injured soldiers, spoke to say that he’d seen the near misses and he knew we’d been close to disaster and he’d rather pull the plug on the expedition rather than call family members to tell them something went wrong.

So that was it, Russell explains that it was the end of the expedition, the first time he’s had to do this. He was very emotional and believed that there would be an accident very soon and it would be inconsiderate to ignore the signs.

The people around the room were displaying all sorts of emotions: shocked, crying, agreeing and even thankful for Russell to make such a tough decision. Better be safe than sorry.

I must admit, personally, of course I’m disappointed, but I’m also very aware that in the mountain, those who listen to their gut feelings are those who survive to tell the tale and try again.

So that’s it, the end of this year’s dream!! Official!!!

04-05-2012 – Everest Camp 2 – Base Camp

Altitude: 6500m to 5300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 480mbar to 560mbar

Trek: 9kms / 3hr15

Surprisingly I managed to sleep OK, although I was awake from 3am.

It’s very clear morning, no wind but coooold. By the time we’ve had breakfast, it’s bright daylight outside and no need for head torches. It snowed last night which hide the path down to camp 1, including the crevasses. Luckily, some of them are marked with small black flags where the path crosses them.

We set off a little behind with Sergey and catch up with  guide Harry who’s looking around, perhaps worried by the fresh snow, or looking at his next potential challenge on the Nupsee route.

Just before we reach Camp 1, we pass Wisey, crouched by the side of the path, answering a call of nature. He’s been hit by diarrhea this morning and caught out with no toilet paper, a chilly morning for him. We reach Camp 1 in 1 hour with no issues.

We all know that after Camp 1, the scary bit begins, with the top of the ice fall, and the high risk zone.

I’m not sure how I’ll react to seeing the monster in daylight rather than just guessing it’s shapes.

On top of this, it’s busy in the icefall today and there are queues to go up and down, but this is not a place to queue. After the experience on the way up, I use the “queuing” time to look for cover and think about “what if”, especially as we can clearly see the huge seracs above us, menacing to fall at anytime.

We also discover the area where we got caught in the “serac” fall on the way up, in the dark. It’s surprising to see what the area is like, and where we were compare to our surroundings.

At some stage, through the “small popcorn”, I hear the chilling noise of ice moving under the blocks I’m stepping on and decide to run for my life till the next big block, looking for something more “stable” and another reminder of the activity of the icefall.

We get down to crampon point in good time, I’m struggling with my left shoe digging into my ankle and also my breathing with my ribs still sore.

We also feel the heat as we arrive to crampon point, I take my helmet, hat and down jacket off.

Russell has organized for a couple of Sherpas to be there with hot tea.

After a short break, it’s off to base camp, 30mins walk away, my left ankle still in agony from the boots.

We reach the dining tents from base camp just in time for breakfast, in fact, the 1^st group is already there and they welcome us cheerfully, knowing how we feel, as they went through the same ordeal yesterday.

It’s a nice sunny morning and it’s great to have breakfast “en terrasse” again.

After dinner, the guides announce there is a party organize in the Whitepod, with other teams from base camp also invited. Evil Monica manage to convince me to join, “just for one”.

I'd slept all afternoon, and I desperately need more sleep (looking forward to the comfort of base camp), but agree to be sociable………..

As it turns midnight, and after a few, I finally make it to my cold sleeping bag, by a bright night, almost full moon. This was a great party….. what a way to come down from the mountain!!

03-05-2012 – Everest Camp 2 – Rest Day

Altitude: 6500m

Atmospheric Pressure: 480mbar

Trek: 0kms

A very still but cold night disturbed by the noise of the first group setting off to base camp.

I can’t sleep very well from 6am on and after tossing and turning till 7am, I finally decide to switch on the radio to see how the first group is getting on.

The first comment I hear is from Monica saying “anybody involve with the rescue, please switch frequency to 148.00”!!!

What is going on?!?! This must be the worst time to join a radio communication!

Adrian and Brian are at Camp 1, talking to Russell and Monica to organise an helicopter rescue. They also talk about a person vomiting.

The heli arrives very quickly to Camp 1, picks up the rescued person and heads off to Kathmandu.

At breakfast, the guides explain that one of our sherpa, 45 years old, suffered from a stroke just above Camp 1, and fell down a slope, but luckily was clipped into the fixed rope.

Adrian was on site and started to diagnose the health of the sherpa, helped by Monica.

The rescue was all organized, and the sherpa evacuated within 1hr30, but the news at lunch time was that all his right side was paralised.

Yet again, a reminder that the human body is stretched at this altitude, but also that the Himex crew are the king of rescues.

As the sun raises, I look up at the Lhotsee face, to find that the 50 or more climbers that I had seen the previous days were replaced by just a couple. What a contrast!!

Perhaps the injured sherpa from yesterday (from a small company) had finally got the message across that the current route up to Camp 3 was not safe.

For us, and the other big commercial expedition, the route had been banned a few days back for that reason. Thanks Russell for putting our safety first!!

The atmosphere today is quite happy, as we know we’re off in the morning.

On one hand, there is the luxury of base camp awaiting us, but in order to get there, we will have to cross the mighty ice fall, although this time in day light, so we might get a chance to see what’s coming at us!!!

We also need to decide what we’re taking down and what kit we’re leaving here, the next time we’re at Camp 2 will be on our summit push, so down suit, sleeping mat, food and other high altitude kit are all staying here, which gives us a light pack to go down. The predicted time to get back to base camp is less than 3 hours, just in time for breakfast.

02-05-2012 – Everest Camp 2 – Short walk again

Altitude: 6500m 6750m

Atmospheric Pressure: 480mbar

Trek: 5.6kms / 3Hrs

For the whole night, the wind was back, even worst than before it seems. At breakfast, everybody was talking about how surprising it was that the tents didn’t fly off.

I slept well, my throat is a little sore, but I’m taking Strepsil to see if that helps.

As were not going up to Camp 3 in this rotation, the team of guides are keen to keep us moving, so today again, we’re going up to the bottom of the Lhotsee face.

I like the advice of Harry, one of the guides, there’s no point saving energy to climb the Lhotsee face, so might as well push hard in those short walks, in an attempt to stimulate the body to working at this altitude. As long as we still have enough energy to come down through the ice fall…….quick in a couple of days.

This should be in semi daylight, so we’ll see the whole monstrosity of the Khumbu Icefall. Jaco is already stressing abut going back through it and it’s affecting his sleep.

There’s lots of politics around going up to Camp 3, new routes, how safe the ice fall is to cross again, and Sergey seems to be thinking about all this quite a bit, so I leave him to do that. I’m focusing on looking after myself and staying healthy.

So in the morning, the guides wanted most of us (the healthy ones), to go up to the bottom of the Lhotsee face again. It was nice to get moving although the freezing wind made it that we had to wear our down suit.

We got back down for lunch without problems.

After lunch, giving enough tie for digestion, I decided to go back up to the same point, hoping to trigger my body into more acclimatization.

It was about 3:30pm, and very few people were out, on the flat, or on the Lhotsee face. Most people prefer to move early in the morning to avoid the most active time of the day in the afternoon, when the ice melts under the sun.

I over took a first group of climbers who must have been acclimatizing, as we had done a few days back. The guide leading them was setting a very easy pace, to look after their head probably.

As I carried on up, I crossed path with a rescue party coming down with a sherpa on oxygen, there were 6 people in total.

I pushed on to the bottom of the face, then turned around and made it back down in 18mins (59mins up).

Once back in camp, it turns out one of the injured soldiers from our group, who is a doctor, is being involved into trying to diagnose the state of health of this injured sherpa from another team.

As all of us feared, he was hit by a stone while on the fixed rope above Camp 3 at 12:30 today. The stone hit him on the left hand side of his jaw, fracturing it. He then fell down (the Lhotsee face is very steep) and hurt the back of his head (braking his helmet).

After being unconscious for 45mins, his colleagues sherpa manage to get him down the face, into camp 2 by 4pm, an awesome achievement, considering the difficulty of the terrain.

By the time our “Doc” got involve, the sherpa had lost all motion on his right side, sign of brain damage, the only possible action is to fly him out of here, to Kathmandu hospital as soon as possible.

The next problem is that the company employing this sherpa is only insured for $5000, and getting the helicopter up to Camp 2 would cost $15000.

Luckily, the rescue is organized (by Himex) before the financial aspect is resolved, allowing the helicopter to land at Camp 2 one hour after the sherpa arrived.

I must admit that, as a climber, it is very reassuring to know that rescue can be arranged so quickly, even for this altitude. Woody, one of the guides with many Everest summits under his belt, most from the North side highlights that because of the political climate on the North side, there is no helicopter rescue available, in any case of emergency, the individual needs to be brought down to base camp then driven down to a hospital!!!

After dinner, the 1^st group comes around to our dinning tent to say goodbye. They’re off at 5am to return to base camp.

01-05-2012 – Everest Camp 2 – Short walk

Altitude: 6500m to 6750m

Atmospheric Pressure: 480mbar

Trek:3.5km / 1hr50min

There were much less wind last night, so everybody slept much better.

I’m still peeing a lot, but not feeling so dehydrated in the night, so my body is definitely getting use to the altitude.

To be fair, I also feel good here, apart from getting out of breath very quickly, and randomly it feels, I have no headache and good appetite.

This morning, my rest heart rate also came down to 57 which I also a good sign. All in all, I’m ready to go to Camp 3.

There are still lots of discussions about the route to Camp 3 and it’s lethal rock fall.

Yesterday, a Russian dislocated his shoulder when he was hit by a rock tumbling down the face.

This morning, lots of us walked to the base of the Lhotsee face, less than 2hrs away.

This first section is quite flat, 250m ascent in 3.5kms, but people were already feeling the strain of altitude.

Once (if) we get onto the Lhotsee face itself, it will be brutal, 50Deg of ice, for 500m of ascent, tough on the calves.

The guides spend most of the afternoon discussing options to get us to Camp 3 safely.

Adrian is coordinating the meeting with the other big operations here, whilst Russell has weather info and contact with the same companies at base camp.

Multiple meetings are held, followed by radio conversations to discuss further.

Russell is adamant that the current route to Camp 3 is not safe and nobody from Himex will go up using it.

This means we need a new route to Camp 3, but Adrian and Phurba went up yesterday in 100kph winds but couldn’t find a safe way to make it to Camp 3.

IMG, the other big company on the mountain think there night be a way round and will be checking it tomorrow.

In any case, by the time a new route is fixed, it will be time for us to go down, especially with snow forecasted from the 7^th onwards.

Although this means we won’t get to acclimatise our bodies at 7400m (and also use the night there as a selecting factor for people who are fit to make it to the summit), the snow might (should) help make a safer way to Cap 3 for when we return for our summit push, fingers crossed.

30-04-2012 – Everest Camp 2 – Rest day

Altitude: 6500m

Atmospheric Pressure: 480mbar

Trek:0km

The wind has been shaking the tents endlessly last night. God knows how the tents stay on the ground and I did find myself thinking about what I would do if the tent was to take off.

Most of the guys arrive at breakfast having had very little sleep and a little short tempered. I always sleep with my ear plugs in, so I only woke up when it was getting bad..

Today is not a planned rest day, but the mixture of the high winds and safety issue with the route to camp 3 means we’re all staying in camp today too.

Adrian and Phurba went up this morning to try find an alterative route to the current one but it was not possible as it was going under active serac.

It’s good to know that Adrian is pushing for our safety, other teams have reported rock fall and near misses.

Lunch time, was told that might not be able to go to Camp 3 for this rotation. Spend the time at Camp 2, then come down and wait for the weather. Hopefully, if it’s snows, the Lhotsee face would be safer…… if no snow, no expedition, going home time.

It’s a weird situation, as going down, through the icefall, is risky and we can’t go up yet, so we’re stuck here, waiting for an opening,

It’s fair to say nobody is keen to go back through the ice fall, and we’re even asking how long we can stay at 6500m without suffering from deteriorating health and strength.

We can only stay 2 weeks before loosing muscles and health, and Russell is not keen on getting his sherpas to go up through the ice fall to ring supplies up for a long period than planned.

In the day, the sky is clear and it gets very hot in the tents which forces us to open the tents fully, but the temperature soon drops when a gust of freezing wind finds its way in.

Eventually we find the best compromise in controlling temperature is to attached a sleeping bag on top of the tent and then close the back door.

We all go to bed with the dark thoughts of the expedition being cancel, having to go back down through the ice fall, and being stuck here for another 5 days. Ahhh, you’ve got to love mountaineering!!

Luckily, it’s good to know that Russell, Adrian and everybody on the mountain is trying to find answers to all those problems, so much experience to combine, and also, we have another 5 weeks before going home, surely if somebody can find a way to get us to the top, our guys can. We just need to stay healthy and keep positive.

29-04-2012 – Everest Camp 2 – Rest day

Altitude: 6500m

Atmospheric Pressure: 480mbar

Trek:0km

I slept OK, considering the new altitude and the exhausting day.

The new hight means I’m back into peeing a lot, so I need to be careful not to get dehydrated.

I’m still coughing, and my rib is still killing, but the next few days of rest should help.

I had decided to sleep in my down suit, but soon realize that I was way too hot in both the down suit and the new sleeping bag…. Not good for dehydration.

There’s lots of wind all day, coming in gusts which you can hear coming down the valley like an avalanche, I wouldn’t fancy being up there today.

Although we’re only 500m above Lobuche, the signs of altitude starts to show amongst the group, with Karl down to 51% oxygen saturation, which is very low.

I start the day on 68% but recover to 72 by the end of the day, I’m lucky to have a body which adapts well to altitude.

28-04-2012 – Everest Base Camp – Camp 2

Altitude: 5300m to 6500m

Atmospheric Pressure: 558mbar to 480mbar

Trek:11km / 6hr30

Fter the normal dinner at 18:30, followed by some short chit chat, the whole group headed to bed, hoping to get some sleep before heading off at 1am.

I managed to get 2 hours sleep, just managing to stay awake till 10pm to hear a big avalanche, not great for nerves.

I get dressed in the -13DegC tent, and head for a small bowl of porridge. My stomah can’t really take much more.

Monica and Russ are up to wish us good luck, they know the risk, we just imagine them….

Russell check that our avalanche transceivers are switched on as we walk out of camp.

The 1^st 30mins to crampons point is a very steady pace, ideal to help with digestion.

As we arrive to crampon point, Sergey and I are ready first and eager to get going, and we push a sherpa to lead the way.

Russ has organized personal sherpas for Jaco and Martin as they only have 1 working arm / hand and they will need help with all the un-clipping / clipping on the fix rope, and it’s Jaco’s sherpa who lead the way.

But when Jaco’s crampon becomes loose, Sergey and I are forced to push on ahead by ourselves, in pitch dark, at 2am, through the unknown, maze ice fall, with Bruce, the first guide, 5mins behind, we feel quite alone.

At first, this is actually quite good fun, Sergey is leading the way, spotting the single set of foot prints zigzagging through the ice blocks and following the fixed rope threading its way through the chaos of ice.

We go up, down, around and sometimes parts below the ice blocks. I find myself thinking “don’t move, please don’t move now” or it would have crushed my legs.

It’s very dark, but the head torch uncovers huge blocks (house size at least) and massive crevasses. This area is what is called the “big popcorn”.

Eventually, we arrive in a flat area, surrounded by walls of ice, and split with crevasses every 10m or so. Sergey looks at me and we both say “we must be at the football field!”.

This is good sign, we making good progress. I radio Russ our position and his warm voice makes me feel we’re doing good, as well as leading the group.

Half way through the football field, the sherpas have put 2 blue barrels, indicating a safe resting place. We feel good and decide to push on rather than stop and get cold, much to the disappointment of Bruce who things we’re pushing too hard.

We pass the prayer flags and enter the risky area. Sergey is still leading, but we reach a point where the ropes go in 2 different direction. This happens because this area is active everyday and the ropes get buried often and a new route has to be set every night, hence the single set of foot prints.

Sergey goes one way and I go the other way, which turns out to be the route for today and I start leading the way.

It’s very similar to what we’ve been through so far, with occasional ladders, but suddenly, a loud noise comes from our left and we both hide behind the biggest ice block close to us. I keep my head out and shine my torch towards the noise. We all thought this wouldn’t happen to us, but we’ve just witness the first serac fall, quite close to us.

I look at Sergey and he has the same look of fear in his eyes, we’re both scared!

We push on, and suddenly, 10 minutes later, a louder “crack”, closer and bigger, followed by massive roar coming towards us. I hide behind a block and feel the rope getting tighter as Sergey plunge behind another block. Again, I keep my torch toward the noise, but this time, I stare at a huge cloud of snow coming our way, precursor of the bigger debris.

Luckily, the debris don’t make it to us, and the block behind which we’re hiding don’t move and crush us. We are both shit scared and panicking “Lets get out of here quick, keep moving”,  We know we have to get our of here quick. To our right is a massive block of ice, toppled over, offering a 15m high, 70Deg slope with the fixed rope going up it. I turn around to see the Jaco and his sherpa have rushed towards us as well.

I just find the time to get on the radio to clear that Sergey and I are safe. We must have been very close to the “action”.

The sherpa is shouting, “safety first, go up, safety first” and we found all 4 of us jumaring as quickly as our lungs and legs would allow, hoping to find safety at the top of this ice block.

At the top is a flat path, with enough room for all of us to catch our breaths and keep moving.

The fix rope carries on and I follow it as quickly as I can, until we eventually reach “blood and guts” ladder which marks the end of the high risk area, from then on, the terrain is much easier with a few ladder crossing to keep us on our toes.

We eventually reach Camp 1, I’ve pulled a small gap on Sergey, and find myself on my own.

As I reach the first tents, I radio Russell to let him know my position. It’s still dark and I can’t find our 6 green tents, so I decide to stop to get some energy back.

I take a gel and drink some water, but after 5 minutes, even though I’ve put on my down jacket, I feel very cold and decide to get going rather than wait for the others.

Bruce, the guide, stopped at our tents, where Amanda, Annie and Jamie have stopped yesterday to spend the night and recover. They have hot drinks ready for the guys.

I have no physical energy left, physically or emotionally. Nothing could have prepared us for the huge scale of the icefall and for the near miss with the serac fall. No words can describe it’s size and it’s wilderness, and it was too dark for pictures.

Not an experience I will forget soon,

As I set off to Camp 2, I realize day light is coming up, and I find myself surrounded by the huge shadows of the mountains around the Western Cwm. The valley feels much narrower than I would have expected.

Luckily, the slope between Camp 1 and Camp 2 is fairly gentle, we’re on top of the glacier, with more ladders set up to get across the bigger crevasses.

I have another 400m of ascent to walk, but this will take me 2 hours to make it to Camp 2 as every step becomes a mental strain.

Eventually, the wind becomes much too cold in my face and I stop to put on my balaclava and big mitaines.

Sergey decided to push on, I have no idea how he can cope with this cold.

Eventually, we can see Camp 2, problem is, the guides have warned us that from seeing the “bottom” of Camp 2, our camp is actually a further 30 mins up at least.

Sergey, 20m ahead now, turns around every 10 mins and shakes both his arms, to say “where is that f@@@ing camp!!”.

Russell has placed our camp as high as possible to avoid water contamination, which can be a problem here, if you don’t know what people above you do with human waste!!

We’re both exhausted when we reach camp, still with this freezing cold cutting straight through us. It’s 7:30am, and Adrian and Brian are up to welcome us as we slip into the warm kitchen tent where milk tea is handed to us. Heaven!!

30mins later, Jaco and Francis arrive and they too are exhausted, cold and emotionally spent. They arrive on border of hypothermia. They’ve done awesome considering Jaco has only 1 arm and Francis right hand does not work….. what an achievement to have made it through the ice fall, using the fixed ropes and having to swap the clip very, very often.

Jaco recalls that the last time he had been that scared was in Afghan, when he got hit by the rocket, the same noise and the same ignorance of where death will come from.

Till the end of the day, I can’t stop crying every time we mention the episode though the

ice fall, and how close we were to trouble, a mixture of exhaustion and emotional first!!

I mention to Jaco that I kept hearing voices behind me through the ice fall, seems unsual to have people chatting through there, but it turns out it was Jaco’s sherpa praying all the way up through the ice fall, and they all do it, every time! Thank you for the prayers!

As the day passes, with the different account of the day, it turns out all of us arrived in  camp exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally, some of the grown up man even admitting to crying when arriving into Camp 2. What a day!!

27-04-2012 – Everest Base Camp – Rest Day Packing

Altitude: 5300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 558mbar

Trek:0km

I got back from Gorek Shep just in time for lunch. The atmosphere was not as I had expected, some nervousness in the air.

As lunch ended, Russell walked in the tent and straight away, the guys were asking for “an update”.

It turns out there had been a huge avalanche this morning, coming from the Nuptsee side, and going straight between Camp 1 and Camp 2.

Not everybody from this morning’s group had made it to Camp 2, and Annie and Amanda had decided to stay and rest at Camp 1, which caused some worries with regards to how close they were to the avalanche. In fact, apparently they’d tried to go up to Camp 2 but felt too tired and turned around to return to Camp 1. This probably saved their lives as the avalanche path crossed the path up to Camp 2…..

Russell had the latest info, and only 1 Sherpa had been injured, either by being pushed into a crevasse by the avalanche, breaking 3 ribs, hurting his head and suffering from hypothermia as it took a while to rescue him. He’s left by helicopter to Kathmandu hospital by 15:00.

There was also the rumor that in order to escape from the avalanche, he’d ran and fell in the crevasse, or, he had decided to jump in to protect himself (we’ve been told to do the same thing!!!).

Apart from that huge reminder that the mountain is “alive”, this morning’s group made it to Camp 2 in good time ( apart from Annie and Amanda then). Brian, the guide, had a close call with “head size” blocks of ice zooming past him in the “risky” area.

It’s fair to say we’re all thinking about tonight, and hoping we’ll make it to Camp 2 in good time AND in good shape.