Well sometime in the not too distant future we’ll be heading up the hill on our next foray. It may well be our summit attempt but I’m afraid I won’t be able to divulge dates to you just yet.

Abi (our illustrious trip doctor) will be able to update Twitter and FBook and in turn J’thong (our illustrious UK comms man) will be able to keep the Blog updated.

We have one piece of unfortunate news – Chris had to leave the expedition early and is now back in the UK. I won’t go in to the medical details but suffice to say he is fine – he just had an episode that we felt warranted further investigation in Kathmandu and returning to altitude was not an option. He was a very strong climber and a valued member of the team and it has been very sad that he has had to depart. We’d have all put money on him summiting.

It’s just as well that we have had a few rest days as the longevity of the trip, and the time spent at altitude, has had it’s impact with virtually everyone being ill or run down in one way or another. Thanks to Abi, and her extensive medical knowledge, we have managed to get everyone back to pretty much full strength, albeit that some of the team are now rattling with the number of pills they are taking.

So … as I said it may well go quiet from these here parts for a few days so please be patient and don’t fret.

Exciting times!

Wish us luck….

Tim & Co

Kenton & Seb have just returned to Base Camp after summiting Everest yesterday. Both looking very well considering. Congrats well deserved.

Well we are back at Base Camp and so it’s time for an update.

We set off back up the hill 4 days ago and went straight to Camp 2. Our previous journey had been broken by a couple of nights at C1 but we decided to miss that out this time and go straight to C2. What a big day. We set off in the early(ish) hours to avoid being in the heat of the day too much. But even just getting to C1 is a reasonable outing. So we stopped for a while there and had a brew and then set off again for C2.

Thankfully later in the afternoon it clouded over somewhat and made the trip in to the Western Cwm a bit more tolerable. But even so it’s the best part of 5 to 8 hours of walking at altitudes in excess of 6,000m and so is inevitably quite tiring.

After a rest day we then made our way over to The Lhotse Face to gain some more altitude and touch Camp 3. It’s quite a way and it’s a lot of effort to go and sleep there so generally people touch C3 (7,100m to 7,300m depending on where your tents are pitched) and then drop down again to C2, and then on down to EBC.

The Lhotse Face … another of those names steeped in the history of Everest and the pioneers of old. It’s amazing. From C2 we could clearly see the line of little dots making their way up the slopes to C3 and then on to the beginning of the diagonal traverse over to The Geneva Spur which leads onto The South Col. It took around 2 hours to even get to the bottom of the Face from C2 and then suddenly the angle changed quite dramatically and it was time for the jumar (a device with teeth which grips the rope) to be called in to action. By now it was quite warm and we were all in the intense light and heat of the day but there’s not a lot you can do about it. So … move the jumar, step up, jumar, step, jumar, pant, pant, cough, pant, breathe, don’t look down, jumar, step, jumar, step …. and so it went on for the best part of 2 hours. Relentless but absolutely exhilarating.

And that’s about it – we’ve done our rotations at altitude and are now ready for the green light. Obviously there are all the logistics to make sure are in place, and that everyone is still fit and healthy, the Climbing Sherpas are rested, there’s enough tents and oxygen in the right places on the hill, and the winds are low, the temperature is acceptable etc etc. But intrinsically the next time we go to C3 will be to sleep there, and then make our way on towards the South Col and so on to the summit. How exciting.

Clearly Tim has gone off his rocker I hear you say. But this is just one of the aspects of high altitude mountaineering that I thought I’d share with you.

What generally happens on the hill is that we are all tucked up in our down sleeping bags by around 8 because it is just too cold to sit around in the mess tent. So after a few minutes wrestling out of clothes and in to sleeping bags it’s time for a quick read and then slumber. And when sleep comes it can be really really deep. I generally have a fantastic deep sleep and then wake up bursting for a wee. But it’s cold out there and I’m all toasty in my bag. And, hey, I can hang on for a while until it’s time to be getting up. Or can I? I generally doze on and off for ages trying to get back to sleep but the feeling of discomfort is soooo overwhelming that returning to sleep is nigh on impossible. Best check the time to make sure I can make it until breakfast, and it’s then that I discover it’s around 11.30p.m. Aaarrrggghhh.

So clearly I’m not going to make it until getting up time, in which case it’s pee time. Now I used to always get up and go outside and admire the view of the stars whilst having a tinkle. But that was on lower peaks where the temperature is generally a few degrees warmer. But since being introduced to the pee bottle I have been converted. I won’t go in to the gory details but basically you pee in to a bottle and do the top up. Depending on the time of night depends on whether you are advised to empty it straight away. If you empty it straight away then this tends to send a shower of frost crystals over your unfortunate tent partner as you open the tent zipper and discharge the contents outside. But if you decide not to empty it then the risk is that it freezes, thereby rendering it unusable again that night – which could be a BIG problem if you decided you desperately needed to go again. And when you sometimes have to go three, four or even five times a night this could suddenly become a BIG problem.

Anyway, enough of that, I’ve had a pee in a bottle and emptied it. Back to sleep? Er, no. What happens next can only be described at H.A.T.A.T. (High Altitude Tossing And Turning). You try for all your worth to sleep but it just doesn’t happen. Every time you turn over you get showered with ice crystals. Your tent partner does the pee bottle thing and showers ice over you. You get bouts of sleep apnoea and feel that you are suffocating. You breath freezes on to the inside of your sleeping bag and forms an icy crust around your head and shoulders. And so it goes on. All the way through the night. Until about 5 in the morning when you eventually doze off only to be woken up at soon after 5 when the tent starts getting very light as the sun come sup. So another hour or so of tossing and turning until it’s time to get up.

And that just about sums up the average night on the hill.

Thankfully we are now down at Base Camp for a well earned rest. When we first arrived here and this was our highest altitude then all of the above was part and parcel of being at altitude. But now that we have been sleeping far higher, in actual fact Base Camp produces really deep long sleeps.

I’d write some more but I’m off to bed.

Night night.

Well we are in the midst of a thoroughly good rest session. We’ve been practicing injections today just in case we have an issue on summit day and need to start administering some high altitude drugs. Also chatted through the drugs that we will be carrying on summit day as well as discussing our plans and contingencies for getting from Camp 3 to The South Col and The South Col to the summit and back.

This afternoon we then had a look at the masks and oxygen system so that everyone in the team is now thoroughly coherent with everything that we may / will encounter between now and the top.

We’re having another rest day tomorrow when we’ll be having a gentle jaunt to Pumori Base Camp (or C1) for a leg stretch and hopefully views across to The South and North Col.

We’ve been having a bit of snow here and there but this morning awoke to the best views yet – crystal clear blue skies and an awesome mountain vista.

We’re sharing our Base Camp and mess tent with Kenton Cool (and his friend Seb Rougegre – Seb’s first time on the hill) who has very kindly been sharing plenty of info with us – particularly with regards to summit day – which has been extremely useful for the team to be able to visualise what is coming up sometime in the next few weeks.

Hopefully we’ll be able to drop another update before we head for C2 on Tuesday.

Until then …