Arrival at Camp 3
We woke up and had breakfast of porridge then left at 9:30. It was hot today all the time so I walked in climbing pants and as I walked stripped off to my pyjamas on the top. I have the red ones on now. I think they’re warmer and they stop at the knee which means less material stuffed inside my boots when I wear the big downsuit.
After two hours we made the fixed lines and again I took them steady. For a further two hours I counted to three over and over again. On one, push the jumar up the rope, on two make the step up and on three rest. As we approached Camp three I knew we weren’t far but a whiteout descended again and I couldn’t see the orange tents. It was quite demoralising. I thought we were over the second ridge coming up and sure enough as we got close, the tops of orange tents appeared through the fog. What a marvellous sight. It was like stepping onto the blue carpet at the end of an Ironman race. Magic!
As I sat down and rested and ate some snacks of peanuts and jelly babies the Sherpas fixed the tent. It’s so windy here that they didn’t want to put it up until we were so it wouldn’t be blown away or destroyed. The wind is extreme up here when it’s bad and I can see all the other tents are tied together in teams. They’re not just tethered by the guy ropes but also extra ropes tie them all to each other and the ground. I can also see the route out of Camp here. It goes straight up more of the Lhotse face for couple of hours and then it traverses across the yellow band and up to the South Col.These names frighten me a little as I’ve read so much about Everest and to reach these places will be pretty special.
We’ll be leaving about 5am and it will be freezing. I can’t eat much at stupid o’clock. It’s like ironman race morning, hard to get the food down but it’ll be a lot harder for me to eat on the move up here with big gloves and oxygen mask on than in a race where it’s handy on the bike.
I will sleep on oxygen tonight. A low setting and from Camp 3 pretty much almost everyone will have oxygen masks on. Only very few people try this mountain without oxygen and I think it’s crazy.
There are three of us in the tent tonight. Me, Ang Gelu and Neema. We are all rolling to the left lol. And finding anything is pretty difficult. Getting ready in the cold at 4am is going to be interesting. I’ll be putting my big downsuit on. I’ve already put my gloves, head torch and buff in my sleeping bag. I will add my phone and a bottle of water later. This is gonna be one tough day. Reaching here I feel I’ve reached a personal summit so whatever happens from here on in I’m pleased to get his far and if I don’t reach the top I won’t see it as a failure. But I’ll take it each day at a time and try my best. The mountain is very steep from here on up to the south summit on summit day and then flattens out towards the top. So I am under no illusion and I know how it can change in an instant.