Altitude: 5300m
Atmospheric Pressure: 558mbar
Trek:0km
Another rest day for us, but it’s interesting to see the
other group getting ready for their next rotation.
Adrian who is leading the 1st group did a great
brief, showing exactly what he was taking up, and justifying it all. It was
very useful, and luckily I don’t think I am far off in term of clothing and
layering system
I guess where we will differ is that I’m still intending to
take my netbook up to Camp 2 (6400m) at least, to be able to download my Garmin
watch, watch movie and blog. Who
knows, I might even take it up to Camp 3 at 7400m?? We’ll
see, that would be crazy……
In his brief, he also covered the route we will be taking,
highlighting the points for radio check in with Russell so he can keep track of
where we are and our pace.
Obviously, the high risk area was also discussed, with the
goal of going through as fast as possible, but without stopping.
The expected time from base camp to camp 2 is anything
between 4 and 10 hours!!
For those of us who completely “blow up”, they will have to
stop at Camp 1 and spend the day there to recover. As soon as the sun gets into
the Western Cwm valley, we will be surrounded by huge snow and ice mirrors and
the temperature will go from -15DegC to + 40 DegC and the whole thing become a
sauna, which is why they prefer to stop the slower members early and wait for
the heat to drop later on in the afternoon, or even go again at night.
Adrian also said
that his worst cold experience was when he arrived at Camp 2 very early and had
to wait for ever for the sun to appear and warm him up. Because we’re leaving
at 1am, for those who make it in 4 hours, it leaves them with 3 hours of
waiting for the sun to rise…… that downsuit might become very useful!!
At 10 O’clock, we all got together to chose what food we
wanted to take up to Camp 3, most of us also took some “comfort” food for the
week at Camp 2.
I also included some food I’d brought from England
(Chai tea, Asparagus soup, jumbo nuts and peppermint tea) which should make
keeping hydrated and taking energy in easier at altitude.
I too have also started to pack for the next rotation,
trying to keep the backpack as light as possible.
In the afternoon, I went on the “practice” course which has
been setup with rappels, ladders, steep sections and traverse to give us a
“refresher” of what it will be like.
For me, the main learning was crossing the ladder, using the
2 safety ropes either sides to balance. Not that difficult I thought, but then
again that was only a 2m single ladder, as suppose to the 6m, 3 ladders long
crossing to come!
On the health side of things, I’m still in trouble ………..
I’ve been coughing so much due to the bronchitis that it would appear that I
have bruised a rib on my right side. When I breath deeply, laugh, cough or even
sit up in the tent, it hurts like hell. I’ve been refraining from taking pain
killers to make sure I don’t do anymore damage and for now, I hope it’s not
broken. Monica and Bruce (a Kiwi guide) had warned me a week or so back that in
some cases, too much coughing can brake ribs……….. Let’s hope it doesn’t
happen!!
This trip has been such a pain on the health side of things
but I’m keeping positive and I’ve already checked with Monica that she has some
strong pain killers at Camp 2, in case I’m really in trouble!! Ohh, and my right ankle is giving me grief
too, but I can cope with that.
Hoping to make it to Gorek Shep tomorrow morning to post
some pictures on the blog, I’ve spend some time selecting some of them this
afternoon, what a trip it’s been! This part of the world is awesome!!!
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