15-04-2012 – Lobuche base camp – High camp Lobuche

Altitude: 4850m to 5260m

Atmospheric Pressure: 558mbar to 590mbar

Trek: 2.3kms / 1:30Hrs

I didn’t sleep very well, with the blocked up nose still causing me trouble to sleep.

The plan for today is to leave for Lobuche “high camp” after lunch.

This gives us the morning to get ready for what will be our first night on the mountain, packing warm clothe, food and mountaineering gear (harness, jumar, big 8000m boots, etc…).

After a nice lunch then, we set of for high camp, which we can just about see form the base camp.

We’re all dressed up for the mountain, with our big boots on which we’ll fit crampons higher up, and our harness.

We make it to high camp in the snow in 1Hr30, which is a sensible time.

This will also be the first time we share a tent. I’m lucky to share with Sergey the crazy Russian, who enjoys skiing down any kind of scary slope. He skied down from the summit of Manaslu last year, and was pushing hard to ski down from the suit of Everest, but so far, Russell is holding strong against it.

I’m looking forward to share with Sergey, he speaks great French, since he spends lots of time in Chamonix, and also has a very friendly character.

As soon as we arrive in camp, we all retreat to our tents to get settle.

For this year, Russell has negotiated a sponsorship deal with Toread for clothing and tents, but everybody seem to agree that the tents are not anywhere as good and roomy as last year.

We squeeze in all our gear, still wet from the snow, and set off to get some to water boiling. This is a very “dirty” camp, and Monica has advised to boil the water for at least 3 minutes.

When we finished eating, the activity outside seem to pint out that the snow has stopped.

Indeed, as we look out of the tent, the snow has stopped, leaving a 5Cm thick layer, and also, the clouds have sunk into the valley below, leaving us with the spectacle of the sun setting on Everest and Lhotsee. Fantastic!!

I cough a lot as the cold has gone down to my chest, and Sergey is already readying himself for a noisy night.

5am leave tomorrow!