It’s 14:30 which means that was our lunch-‘bell’ – I use the word ‘bell’ loosely as it’s really one of the Tibetan kitchen boys throwing rocks against the half empty propane tank outside of the kitchen tent….. (is that safe?!)
Calls to dinner & time zone confusion
Dinner-bells are confusing - a thin string of prayer flags separates our camp from the neighbouring camp about 6 feet away …. In this case, the prayer flags do more than demarcate tent real estate (beyond their obvious religious significance). They also serve a very important strategic purpose – the string of flags denotes a 2-hour time difference between our camp and the neighbouring team camp.
We are on Nepal time (even though we’re in Tibet) and they’re on Tibet-time (which makes sense)... It’s not uncommon for me to wake up to their 8am breakfast bell (Tibet time) when it’s really only 6am ‘my-time’ (Nepal time)… A perfect opportunity to roll-over in my sleeping bag, empty my pee bottle strategically close to the other teams’ tents (and far away from mine) or enjoy a nice boiling-hot-plastic-blue mug of instant coffee topped off with sickly-sweet Carnation milk.
I summon up every ounce of energy I can muster left over from my oatmeal and bacon breakfast and drag myself out of the tent. I see Keith stumbling out of his tent still clad in his signature plaid pajama pants, careful to navigate around the heaps of yak dung between our tents and the Mess tent.
Eating
Our meals are a grand affair and break up the day – depending on where we are on the route we usually eat at 9ish (breakfast), 1ish (lunch) and then 7:30ish (dinner). Eating together in the mess-tent is an extremely social event. While it only takes 30 – 45 minutes for us to go through a meal, we generally stay in the Mess tents for 2+ hours exchanging theories about beard-lube, stories, jokes, doing people impersonations and laughing – a lot….At BC and ABC we eat in two giant blue Mess Tents. They stand side by side and provide a warm barrier from the howling wind and cold. The mess tents are heated by two small heaters which are located under the long dinner tables. With respect to keeping the tents warm in the evenings when the temperatures plummet, there is quite an unusual set up … Whilst the heaters work and generate enough heat to leave down-booties steaming and smoking, their location UNDER the table is a bit unusual because anything directly ON the table is within the range of their tremendous heat generating capacity. I’ve seen strange chemical reactions happen in mayonnaise, olives, and am pleasantly surprised that the bottom of my laptop has recovered from its ‘soft as putty’ phase. Having said that, as the boys have discovered, the heated table is perfect for drying sweaty, wet socks but is a secret-killer of down boots.
The top of the table is completely covered with the most random collection of ‘condiments’ (Tibetans must wonder at our diet?!) – 2 jars of brown sauce, 2 jars of HP sauce, 1 jar of fruit sauce, 4-tubs of chocolate spread, 2 bottles of ketchup, mayonnaise, jars of yellow bean paste, ginger, olives, salt, pepper, a GIANT tub of powder- milk, 3 nearly empty jars of instant coffee, carnation milk, two tubs of sugar, jar of Marmite, 3 boxes of corn flakes, 1 box of wheat-a-bix, lemon squash, a pineapple drink powder container, a berry drink powder container and 4 gigantic Chinese glass-insulated thermoses which are filled with boiling hot water (and sediment) and Tibetan tea (much to Nigel’s delight)….
The table, (protected by a yellow floral plastic table cloth), is littered with some additional treats – old used tea bags, used bits of toilet paper (doubling for Kleenex), used bits of napkin (doubling for Kleenex), a giant Risk board (Geordie’s attempt at world domination), 8 half empty blue plastic mugs used for tea, water, etc., three empty Budweiser beer cans, someone’s pee bottle (who remains nameless) clearly marked “PISS”, 3 empty Nalgene bottles, several pieces of egg and ketchup left from breakfast, a chicken bone from last nights dinner, a laptop, 5 dirty spoons and 2 forks, thee used ‘How Are You?’ Dettol-infused wet-wipes, a single glove, and the covers to the Top Gun and Forrest Gump dvds….Surrounding the table are 17 rather fragile plastic ‘patio’ chairs which seem to get increasingly brittle as the temperature drops and provide endless entertainment as Josh continues to fall through them….
I only imagine the picture it paints to those living outside of our ‘Everest bubble’… Strangely however, the chaos in the BC / ABC Mess tent is somewhat comforting – if it was clean there would be something wrong. The good thing is that whenever you’ve lost something, chances are, you can likely find it on the Mess tent table, generally behind a box of corn flakes.
The Luxury Barrel
The Luxury Barrel is to BC what oxygen is to the summit – absolutely essential and fundamental to life / morale at Base Camp… a barrel full to the brim with the treats one longed for as a child but was always rationed by parents for fear of having an obese 5-year old high on sugar needing 3 root-canals. These treats are now ‘fair game’ as the barrel stands in the corner of the Mess Tent and is ‘dipped into’ on a regular basis (every 5 – 10 minutes) to supplement our SPAM lunches. I suspect that by the end of the trip all of the Pringles, Ritter Sport bars, chocolate covered raisins, Mars bars, Snickers bars, flapjacks, fondant fancies, gummy-bears etc. will be gone… only the low-calorie raspberry granola bars will remain as a non-perishable, rock-hard reminder of the treats there once were….
Pete (who we are convinced has a tape-worm) has been credited with single-handedly eating about 70% of the luxury barrel. Yesterday morning he was found in his tent cradling the luxury barrel in his arms whilst dining on a pre-breakfast Bounty bar, laying in a bed of Snickers and Mars bar wrappers, and using a package of all-butter flapjacks as a pillow….
Food
We have two fantastic cooks – Raj at Basecamp and Ganu at Advanced Base Camp. Given the extremely high importance of food for such an undertaking their jobs are absolutely fundamental to the success of the expedition. While I relish the prospect of returning to ‘civilisation’ feeling thin and svelt, I realise that taking in all-vital calories is absolutely essential to having enough energy to get through the days and in helping to put one foot in front of the other… especially when it matters most!! Even when I’m exhausted and can’t bear to even look at food I have to force myself to eat.
Great care is taken at both BC and ABC in the proper preparation of food and also with regards to providing the team with a well balanced diet. I empathise with the cooks as can’t imagine that providing us with a constant supply of protein (especially fresh meat!) is an easy task but an extremely vital one. Fortunately none of us are fussy eaters and generally devour what is put in front of us without complaint.
This is what an ‘average’ day at BC / ABC ‘tastes’ like (bearing in mind that you lose your sense of taste at altitude!!):
Breakfast:
brown beans, bacon, little sausages, eggs / omelette, Tibetan bread, oatmeal / rice porridge, cereal, coffee / tea
Lunch:
Main: combination of : cabbage salad, spam, onion & cheese pasty, Sherpa stew, potato rosti, garlic soup.
Dessert: fruit cocktail
Dinner:
Starter: Soup with popcorn, unnaturally-pink prawn-crackers or poppadoms; Dinner:
Main: Yak / chicken ‘sizzler’ with spaghetti, mushrooms, cheese and ‘tomato’ sauce with some steamed broccoli OR one of Josh and Jonathan’s creative feasts which have even included chutney on Tibetan bread and fajitas! OR the local favourite, Dhal-baht (rice and lentils) OR a spicy chicken stir-fry
Dessert: fruit cocktail, tinned lychees / pears / pineapple / peaches OR cake with custard, custard with nutella-pie…
Maximuscle Energy Bars and Gels
Josh and Keith have very kindly also provided the team, through their sponsors, Maximuscle, with a fantastic supply of high-protein bars, energy gels, multi-vitamins and protein powders (which taste great in oatmeal). The gels especially have proven to be a grand success as they don’t freeze and are fairly easy to transport between camps – and are extremely effective. Highly recommended and a HUGE thank you to Maximuscle for their generous provisions..!! The gels have definitely given me a huge boost of energy during the mundane 21km walk between BC and ABC over the endless moraines.
Water is always ‘on the boil’ in the Kitchen Tent, adjacent to the Mess Tents. Water is generally collected from the glacier or river at BC or via snow or the ice from one of the giant seracs surrounding ABC. It is then boiled in the kitchen tent and then poured into giant glass-lined Chinese thermoses. These are then kept in the Mess tents and generally replenished on a regular basis to ensure that we’re continuously taking in liquids. It is a good system and seems to work well.
At night there is an increased demand for boiling water when the temperatures plummet. We fill our plastic Nalgene bottles with boiling water and take them into the dark, cold depths of our tents and into our sleeping bags for additional warmth and to sip from throughout the night.Funnily enough, something that we all crave (but isn’t really available!) is cold water!! Powder milk mixed with boiling hot water and then poured over corn-flakes just doesn’t taste right no matter how hungry you are.
The only stipulation in drinking the water is NOT to look at the sediment or ‘floaties’ in the water… in the process of hacking away at an ice-serac, additional ‘treats’ frozen in the ice and snow often make the journey to the kitchen… This includes random bits of rock and sand and the other day at ABC I had what looked like were the remnants of a chopped up plastic bag floating in my Nalgene bottle… Yellow snow is also a big no-no when looking to collect snow for melting. I’ve learned not to be too fussy about things like that these days. A little rock, sand or yellow snow definitely won’t kill you before anything else on this mountain does..!!
Both appetite and the sense of taste is reduced at altitude. Strangely however this does not diminish random food cravings which seem to strike at the most bizarre times. While going up the North Col I had an overwhelming urge to maul and devour a Big Mac. This craving was shared by Matt D and was discussed in great length and detail while killing time during our 4-days at the North Col. Here we also found out that Matt S was craving (and continues to crave) (of all things) Ribena…!?!; I am also longing for any fresh tomato-based gastronomic pleasures such as lasagne… a cold Mojito would also not go amiss.
Boil in a Bag
The very last thing that you want to do at altitude is eat. Greater planning goes into eating at altitude than D-Day.
It is with great energy that snow is collected and melted and boiled (for 45+ minutes as it takes AGES to boil) at 7000+ metres over a small gas-fired camping stove in the vestibule of the tent. While you sit in the comfort of your sleeping bag armed with a headlamp waiting for the water to boil, great care is taken to decide on what that evenings’ freeze-dried gastronomic feast will be – I sort through the bright orange ‘Expedition Foods’ bags -- Chilli Con Carne, Spaghetti Bolognese, Savoury Mince with Rice, Chicken Korma with Rice, Potato Casserole, Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta….
It sounds rather delicious but nothing (and I mean NOTHING) is more unappetising than sticking your entire down-clad arm (complete with glove) into a steaming bag of mush, putting the strong-smelling bright orange mush-mixture in your mouth, chewing something with the texture of mushy-cardboard that is supposed to be chicken korma and then realising that you didn’t ‘shake’ the mixture correctly or add the correct amount of water. What’s worse, I think that some of the freeze-dried packages have artificial ‘smell’ that attaches itself to your clothing so that at night you can still ‘smell’ chicken korma all over the arms of your down jacket and mitts… It is enough to send my gag reflex into overdrive. The last few bites are the worst as by this time the mush is completely cold and rather than ‘taste’ all you get is texture…
The frustrating thing is that you MUST force yourself to eat or you will not make it up (or down!) the mountain. Calories are absolutely essential to success and without them you can’t survive.... Everest teaches you to be creative - with some effort, suddenly your tent is a Michelin-Star restaurant with astonishing, breathtaking views of Everest and the mushy-cardboard that you’re eating out of a bag is “Beef and Potato Hot Pot” (pronounced with a posh French accent) followed by a delicious, mouthwatering 'to-die-for' dessert of, “Custard with Mixed Berries”… (or custard soup because I added too much water to the bag...… but I'm learning.....)
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