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.
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