Today we climbed from camp 1 (6100m) to camp 2 (6480m)!
This is meant to be one of the “easier” days but honestly it was just a long boring slog! The zone of camp 1 to camp 2 is called the Western Cwm (pronounced coom) and it is known for being extremely hot during the day as the sun reflects off of all the snow. It is nicknamed the western barbecue.
To avoid getting hot and sunburnt we left at 7am. However it was EXTREMELY cold, like some of the coldest I have ever been. My hands especially. I wasn’t wearing as much as I would have if I knew how cold I would be, but I was still wearing: A thermal, a fleece, an insulated jacket, a Gore-tex jacket, and 2 neck buffs.
Anyways there was a pretty big ice wall we had to climb up, that I was not prepared for, but it was all ok. In times like these is when I am very glad to have experience on Ama Dablam (technical 6800m peak). Dad was still a bit sick from the other day so we were a bit slow moving, with a few breaks. During the walk we could see camp 2 for most of the way but it felt like we were never getting any closer. And of course our exped company’s camp is one of the last in camp 2 so we had to walk the furthest! After about 4-5hours we made it!
By then it did warm up a bit, and we had some tea and got ourselves set up in the tent. My favourite part of the days are in the afternoon when it gets sunny and the tent gets to appox 1000000° and we can take layers off and soak in the heat!
I’m so happy because here at camp 2 there is a toilet!! Well it’s just a small tent with a barrel in it, but at least there is privacy!
We had one of our dehydrated meals for dinner (butter chicken!!) which was hard to eat but we got it down. We are trying so hard to eat as many calories as possible up here because everything uses up so much energy and it’s so easy to be depleted. I found some peanut butter in the dining tent so I had a few spoons of that to get in some more calories. With every mouthful of food I eat up here I feel like I’m about to throw up 😆💅
Tomorrow we will rest here so hopefully dad feels a bit better. I can see camp 3 and almost camp 4 and omg the climb from camp 3 to 4 looks so hard! But I’ll worry about that when the day comes 🙂
Sorry if the grammar/writing is off, there is not a lot of oxygen going to my brain and I am quite tired. It’s very late (7pm) so I’m going to bed, as is the rest of the camp. See u tomorrow!