Base Camp

We’re now in the tail end of our final day at Base Camp before heading back up to ABC tomorrow. We’ve spent 5 days here recovering from our first venture up to 7000m and are now feeling sufficiently ‘rested, fed and watered’ to attempt yet another Everest milestone - 2 nights at the North Col and a trek up to 7800m before returning back down to the luxuries of Base Camp in about 6 days time.

The journey back up will be a tough one - a return to the ‘Moraine Super Highway’, the 20km stretch separating BC from ABC. The last time we made the journey it was split into 2-days on account of the 1000m altitude gain. Tomorrow we will attempt it in one day, the entire journey expected to take between 8 - 10 hours ( a conservative estimate). I hope that the efforts I’ve made to spending these past 5 days as utterly relaxed as possible, eating as much as I can to regain lost weight will pay off. This morning we heard that the route up to the North Col has been reset because of the ice-fall earlier this week - it’s now shorter but steeper.

It’s a cloudy but breezy day and everyone is fitting in final preparations before an early departure tomorrow - laundry, showering, and fitting in those last few DvD’s in the movie tent. The next time we are back down at BC the official ‘waiting game’ will begin and the next push up the mountain will be for the summit.

The Lakpari group left early yesterday morning on a 15-hour bus ride to Lhasa from where they will travel to Kathmandu. Noel, Barry, Torsten, Tim, Rob and Helen - an absolutely fantastic group of mountaineers and now friends who added significantly to the dynamics of the overall team. It’s hard to imagine that by the time they return to their homes, families and pets and have enjoyed the luxuries of ‘western life’, we will just be up the North Col and spending what I can imagine will be an absolutely freezing and uncomfortable two nights high up on the mountain.

Noel, Barry, Torsten, Tim, Rob and Helen, if you’re reading this, then ENJOY and know you’re missed! Not much has changed - toast and little boys for breakfast, plenty of toilet jokes and the usual circular debates… and yes, we did talk about Everest a little..! God speed and god bless. Safe travels to you.