After breakfast we packed our bags and I had my downsuit on as I didn’t want to carry it. The weather wasn’t great so it would be colder on this journey than the last time.
We were leaving at 11am so I was in my tent reading my Kindle with gloves on. I’ve discovered when you have gloves on and you want to turn the page you can swipe with the tip of your nose.
We left on time and the weather was getting worse. At the start I was boiling in the downsuit but very quickly a freezing cold wind picked up and was blowing straight into our faces. It was quite difficult to breathe. My bag felt so heavy I started to wonder how I’d get it up the Lhotse face.
There were three people, all Korean, the middle guy was client with the two guides. making their way towards me. The guy in the middle was being supported by the two at each side and they had him by a rope as well. He fell down and they picked him back up again. As I passed him he was like the walking dead. There was zero recognition or focus in his eyes, his mouth was wide open and he looked like a zombie. I asked Ang Gelu who’d had a brief conversation with them what had happened. He told me that the middle guy had left to go up to Camp 3 at 11am. He ended up with frostbite on 6 of his fingers and was hanging attached to the fixed lines all through the night. His guide was with him all night trying to persuade him to go down with him but he refused.
The other Korean guide went to help rescue him and were bringing him down. Even with losing 6 fingers he still wanted to go up again but they were bringing him down. He said to cut the fingers off and he’ll go back up. Such is the mentality here too often. He was really out of it. It was quite shocking to see. His guide said he’s not going up with him again. If he wants to go back up then he has to find another guide. Fair enough. I’d have left him on the ropes if he refused to come come down in that state. Sherpas are here to help us achieve our big dream, not to put their lives on the line. That is our choice how far we go. They have families of their own and parents too.
After a while a total whiteout surrounded us and it was difficult to see the foot tracks to follow. The wind was blowing spindrift and was really fierce and piercing. I had to keep stopping and my pace now was really slow. It took 3 and half hours to get to the fixed lines whereas last time it took 2 hours but I had hardly anything in my bag as we weren’t moving Camp. The weather now was dreadful, I had been secretly crying behind my glacier glasses as it was so horrible, I couldn’t breathe, I was knackered, my bag was so heavy and I doubted I was going to get up the face. We looked up and a whole group of people had come back down off the lines. You couldn’t even see farther up. They said the weather was so bad higher up they were turning back. An Indian lady also had frostbite, people on the fixed lines were moving really slowly.
So we made the decision to turn back. Or rather I did, Ang Gelu wanted to go up and even he conceded in the end the weather was atrocious. Also I was not moving well. I’m really not sure I would have made it had I started. I wish Bob was here as someone else going through the same misery helps each other out. I miss the camaraderie.
So we made our way back to Camp Two again. Tomorrow we will leave 5 am. I feel really despondent and a bit of a failure now. This could mean the end of the road for me if I don’t make better progress tomorrow. I empty my bag of virtually everything. I thought I just packed the bare minimum but when you’re staring down the barrel of the failure Gun you reconsider what’s really essential. I will leave my inflatable pillow, my toothpaste. I will just clean my teeth with the brush. I take out a spare pair of socks leaving one instead of two. I take out all snacks. There will be snacks at Camp 3, it’s more important I make it up there. It’s all small items but it adds up. I have to say apart from my Dad passing, this rates as one of the worst days of my life.