I went down to breakfast, ate the same food that we do most days, and waited for our big event of the day: oxygen training!
Some other climbers came into our dining tent and we listened to a sherpa (I forgot his name) giving us a briefing about the oxygen. He went over the calculations for how long each flow rate lasts, with various amounts of pressure left in the bottle. It’s extremely important because up at over 8000m, for the “average” Everest climber (who is still extremely fit) if there is a malfunction or miscalculation and the bottle runs out, it can be extremely dangerous. It is very hard to even just sit at 8500m+ for a period of time, let alone climbing down which would be impossible due to the lack of oxygen.
The oxygen does not make the climbing easy at all, and does not remove the effects of altitude. When we are on oxygen, we are breathing in the outside air, mixed with some bottled oxygen. It is not like scuba diving where we are only breathing in the air in the cylinder.
Then Kristen did a little talk about the route, mainly from camp 4 (South Col) to the summit. We’re climbing in the night, and it is a very long day so it’s nice to feel a sense of knowing where I am on the mountain, and to know how far I’ve come/got left.
She made it very clear how many of the accidents happen when climbers unclip to overtake others. So DO NOT UNCLIP ALL POINTS OF SAFETY!!!
I did some work in the coffee tent with Mum and Dad. We had lunch then I went to the coffee tent with Kristen and Mikel to warm up with a hot chocolate as it was snowing hard outside.
Then I somehow got invited to the Chinese team’s dinner which was a new experience! The food was amazing, but I think for now it’s important that I eat food that my stomach is more familiar to.
I went back to our dining tent, put my battery on charge and chatted with our teammates about… the weather again!
I was super tired and went straight to sleep!
