Today we had a rest day at camp 2, to help Dad recover a bit more.
Normally if you feel sick in the high mountains it is best to go down (where there is more oxygen) because usually our bodies only deteriorate at high altitudes. However dad is feeling better and better despite us moving up, because he was suffering from a stomach bug.
We woke up, had oatmeal for breakfast and I walked around camp a little bit, talking to some people. Then a bunch of climbers, friends from our exped company arrived and it was so great to see them again finally! (we hadn’t seen them in 2 days 😖)
We then napped some more. Our bodies get very exhausted just living at high altitudes, let alone climbing! On this rest day where I did less than 1000 steps, my watch said I burnt over 3000 calories! And 5000-6000 calories when I am climbing! who knows how accurate these numbers are. The altitude also makes it very very hard to eat (as I may have mentioned) so we are not replenishing the energy we lose, no matter how hard we try.
At base camp we have to shovel food down like there’s no tomorrow 💅
It’s also very very important to drink lots up here. There are many reasons, but one is to help thin out our blood, which helps us minimise our chances of frostbite*
*our hands, toes, and nose can get very cold and sometimes turn grey or black and die off. In the worst of cases they need to be amputated.