On to the next one
I’m feeling a lot better today, both physically and mentally. Today we dropped down from Pokalde Base Camp to Chukhung (4,730m) for lunch then began the climb up towards Island Peak. We’re now at Island Peak Base Camp (4,960m), which is at about the same altitude as Pokalde Base Camp where we were this morning. The camp didn’t feel nearly as cold today as it did two days ago - there was still a layer of frozen condensation on the inside of the tent, but there was no snow outside, just a little frost.
The group was in great spirits this morning, and Thomas and I spent most of the walk down to Chukhung making plans for a Take That cover band. We soon branched out into other groups and had covered everything from U2 to Motorhead by the time we stopped for lunch. Andy wasn’t hugely impressed by the singing, and kept muttering that it was always the 16th day that people started losing the plot.
The experience of climbing up to Pokalde high camp had been enough for Martin. He felt so rough on the way up to the camp that he’d given the summit a miss, then decided that he wasn’t in any state to tackle the two higher summits, so left this morning to walk back down to Lukla with one of the porters. From there he’s heading home to the UK.
The rest of us reached Chukhung at about 10:30 and lay in the sun for an hour and a half, admiring Lhotse’s south face while we ate lunch. Although we’re all feeling a bit more comfortable with the altitude, and the climb was only about 200m, we took the climb up to Island Peak Base Camp very slowly. On the way we passed the Island Peak/EBC team’s base camp about 15 minutes before we reached our site, then found another Jagged Globe team’s tents when we arrived – apparently they’re doing Mera and Island Peak.
Base Camp is by a stream, so I braved the water and washed myself and a few clothes, but the clothes have since frozen on the drying line. We’re not planning on leaving too early tomorrow though, so hopefully they’ll have a chance to thaw and dry out.
Apart from washing, one of the first things we did on arrival was to sort the kit for High Camp and prepare the “attack bag” which the porters will take. This only contains sleeping bags and Thermarests – everything else is either carried in rucksacks (minimal hygiene kit, clothes, climbing gear) or left behind at Base Camp. Normally I’d have left this until the last minute (i.e. tomorrow morning) but Rich is rather more efficient so we sorted the kit out while it was still warm and sunny.
I was struck the other night by the humility of our Sherpas: one of them (Nima Temba) has summitted Everest, and another (Tam Ding) has climbed to over 8,000m on K2, yet they’re happy to bring our meals, clear away plates and fill our water bottles.
I mentioned the continual comparison with the HRP a few days ago, and have since been thinking how luxurious this trip is relative to the HRP. The fact that we have yaks carrying the gear has meant we can throw in the odd spare T-shirt and bottle of deodorant that I left behind when I was carrying everything myself. I’m not sure I’d be super-keen on doing this trip if I had to carry everything myself!
When we were up at Pokalde High Camp the other day, Mark, Rich and I were considering why anyone in their right mind would spend their money on a trip where you end up freezing cold, battling constant headaches and occasional nausea, sleeping on the ground and eating the same thing day after day. At the time we were laughing about it, but I have been wondering why we’re doing this to ourselves! Hopefully the additional time at altitude will show some benefits when we climb Island Peak and Lobouje - if I feel as ill as I did on Pokalde then I don’t think I’ll be doing this again. It wasn’t so much the headache or the nausea, but being annoyed with everyone – I was feeling extremely intolerant. We’re not quite as high as Pokalde Base Camp here, but it’s encouraging to feel so much better.
It was also some comfort to discover that everyone else was destroyed by Pokalde too. On the mountain I felt like I was in a worse state than most people, but by the time we’d got down to Base Camp everyone was in a mess, and the whole team spent the afternoon sleeping. Martin was obviously in a pretty bad way, but last night there were several people coughing, suffering from headaches, etc.