Rappelling down the Lhotse face
Climbing the Lhotse wall
Thumbs up Ang Gelu, im doing alright lol
Me and Ang Gelu
Woo Hoo I made it to Camp 3. Look how steep the background is where we are camped
I wake early, it was a cold night. Rather uncomfortable. I go through the process of trying to eat as much porridge as I can and a boiled egg with hot tea. Then the rigmarole of getting big boots on and harnessed up. I hate this bit. I can’t do anything with big gloves so I wear my liners and in the process my fingers get really numb. I don’t know how to fix this and it’ll get worse higher up when it’s even colder than it is here. Although that’s pretty hard to imagine right now.
We start out and with each step I shake my arms to get the blood flowing.
Eventually we reach the fixed lines and my fingers are better now. I look up. It’s bloody steep and quite a few areas of blue ice. These will be difficult and burn a few matches. There’s supposed to be steps cut into the snow and ice from the Sherpas going up and down establishing Camp but there has been quite a bit of snow and not many steps remain visible. It’s going to be a long weary climb. I take it steady and I’m doing alright. I’m staying ahead of all the guys behind me. Getting nearer the top I get into a rhythm; one step and three breaths, I heave myself up on the count of one, slide the jumar up on two, rest on three, heave on one etc. It’s steady progress. And after about every ten steps I bend forward and rest my head on my knee for 30 seconds. I’m still progressing at the same speed as the guys, they’re not catching me. Every time I look back I see them in the same state. The wind really picks up now and it’s blowing spindrift forcefully into my face. I have to get another pair gloves on and put on my hard shell jacket. The last half hour is really tough and I just have to dig deep. I see some people really far ahead and I shout to Ang Gelu, “do we have to go up there?”, he replies,” No they’re coming down from south col, that’s on the way to Camp 4”. Well thank the Lord for that. I’m not sure I could have made it that far. Camp three is hidden until you’re virtually at it. It’s over a big snow rise. I would be so happy to have reached it only I’m bloody freezing. Everything is cold and my legs are trembling. The wind is fierce and Baltic. I set down my rucksack and ask Ang Gelu where our tent is. I really want to get out of this wind and message on my Garmin. He gestures to a an empty plot and says, “our tent will be somewhere here”. Oh God, here we go again. I accept that we just have to rest in this ferocious wind and cold. I defo won’t be messaging on my Garmin as I have to put on my summit mitts now and my big puffy down jacket to get some warmth back into me. I drink some water and me and Ang Gelu share one of my duo chocolate bars. They have 60g of carbs in them so they’re really good and cos they’ve got Rice Krispies in them they don’t appear to ever freeze. A very good find at the triathlon show lol. We stand for a little while resting. The slope is not conducive to sitting, even with crampons on. You can go a long way on your arse at this degree of slope on snow. It took us four hours to reach here from Camp Two.
After not that long we decide to go down. There is only one rope for ascending and descending at the beginning and we just arm wrap our way down the first few pitches (rope lengths) with the safety attached so we can clip around people still coming up. We get to the spot where there is a separate rope for those descending but it’s really tight and on sheer blue ice which is really steep. We decide to keep on going down the one we’re on. We reach parts where it’s too steep for just a safety so we attach the belay device. At this point there’s only few climbers still coming up. We are almost at the bottom. The people are fine with us going around then as they’re really quite exhausted and happy to stand still while we reattach after them. Then we get down to only two pitches left. There is one guy attached to a sling resting at the rope junction. If he’s resting after only going up two pitches I think he’s not going to make it. Anyway we get to the exchange place to reattach on the next rope and he won’t move. He points to the other rope which is about 4m away and away and says “go down that one”, well there’s no way we can make the move over here without being attached. Ang Gelu tells him that rope was too tight and if he can just move up few feet then we can go past him and attach onto the penultimate pitch. He refuses. I think Ang Gelu is getting angry with him. It’s apparent he’s not going to budge so I just say, “it’s alright, we can wait, we’re all friends here on the mountain. No problem”. This calms the situation. The stubborn mule asks where I’m from and I tell him Northern Ireland. He rests a little bit as the smoke pours out of Ang Gelu’s ears lol. Then eventually he moves up a little and we pass him. Down the last two pitches thank God. I also have warmed up on the way down as the wind was not as bad once you get down a bit lower.
We then walk back to Camp 2. As I sit half in my tent to remove my boots Chongba comes over with hot tea. God bless Chongba. He is fed up being here at camp 2, it’s very barren and desolate and his friends are all at base camp. But this is his job, he is Camp 2 cook but he’s doing a sterling job. He asks me if I would like noodle soup and I say,”yes please”. I have one boot off when he arrives with the noodle soup. Wow. I will remember this service when it’s tipping time at the end.
I unpack my rucksack and repack it with what is to go down tomorrow to base camp. Not much. I think I have a cold as I can’t stop sneezing and blowing my nose. But tomorrow we will descend to base camp and same day take a chopper all the way down to Lukla. For rest and relaxation in good oxygenated air, sleep in a bed and eat good food. And have good WiFi lol. We were going to go to Namche but flights are cheaper to Lukla and there’s more of them. It’s normal to fly between base camp and Lukla and many helicopters make this journey. Namche is a little under half way up and a more awkward stop. So I hope the good air will heal my cold.
It’s sunny and warm down here now and I relish lying in my tent recovering. Civilisation here we come. The second and last rotation is now compete. I have pushed my body to the last stop before dropping down low to recover before the summit push. Now we start to check for the weather window.