So yesterday at the Oxygen Altitude Tea house I managed to get 3 photos posted before the whole Everest Link WiFi system went down. How frustrating. In the Tea house a group of 25 trekkers from London were there. They were just heading down after doing base camp and Kala Phatar. I was chatting to them and they said when they arrived at the Tea house Victoria Pendleton and Ben Fogle were there. They were on their way to base camp and looked fresh and clean like they’d just stepped out of a helicopter and not trekked for 10 days. I know they’re here to climb Everest on the hybrid programme which means an intensive month of specific training with hypoxic masks and sleeping at certain altitudes every night for a month before arriving in Kathmandu. This is to acclimatise them but it means they must then get up here quite quickly before they lose their acclimatisation. I also spent nights sleeping in my Altitude tent but I was away in Lanzarote for a week right before flying out here so I lost a week there. And anyway I am here doing it the leg work way, acclimatising slowly and steadily and pushing the body higher a little bit more each ascent.
But I do look forward to seeing them at some point on the big hill and following their progress to see how they fare on their special ‘quickie’ program. They are with Kenton Cool, one of the best high altitude climbers/guide in the whole world. I think they will have everything at their disposal and probably will have WiFi that works. Maybe I need to find where their tents are, make friends and casually drop it into conversation that my WiFi doesn’t work.
I saw them on the ‘This Morning’ tv programme the day before I flew out to Kathmandu. They said they were flying out in 3 weeks. I flew on 27th. Which means they then flew on 16th April, arriving Kathmandu 17th and making it to base camp in 3 days. Hhmmmm. I definitely look forward to having a chat with them at some point about their progress program and what they’ve done at home for acclimatisation.
Today is just resting, we take showers (or rather standing in a bucket of warm water pouring it from a jug over your head and body) and I wash my hair and pants.
I decide to drink one of my beers. I have accumulated a cheeky stash of 3. I’m quite sad when it comes to the end but the other two are to be kept until after the first rotation and then after the second rotation.
Our Lead climbing Sherpa Ang Galou is not yet back. We are waiting for him before moving up. We have kinda been at a standstill with key players in the game missing through sickness. Our camp two cook Chongba had to go back down again as he was not fully better when he came back the first time. And we are still missing our base camp cook Dawa. But Ang Galou is our main man for planning our progress and moving with us and the other Sherpas are still carrying supplies up to camps one and two before we can move. It’s a little frustrating to wait but I know the day we move will be a massive effort and push me and Bob to our limits. We hope that this will happen in the next couple of days and maybe Ang Galou will be back tomorrow.