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.