Advanced Base Camp

I shifted regularly in my sleeping bag trying desperately not to wake my ‘tent buddy’ Helen who has been suffering from what is known as “Khumbu cough” - a dry hacking cough caused by breathing in cold, dry air.

Every move seemed to require a huge expenditure of energy and left me breathless in my sleeping bag. Even trying to manipulate my wool-socked feet into a pair of down booties felt like a 30-minute session at the gym.

A cacophony of coughing - wet and dry, shallow and deep - the release of phlegm into make-shift tissues, the occasional fart, unscrewing of pee-bottles, zipping and unzipping of tents, irregular snoring, groans of frustration, turning of pages, restless shifting of down sleeping bags, can be heard over the wind which seems to be racing like a freight train down into the valley from the North Col. You can practically ‘hear’ 26 people staring at the ceilings of their tents wondering when sleep will come…

It’s 8:30pm and the temperature in the tent is about -15 degrees.