Yo yo yo!! Surprise I did happen to find wifi in camp 2!!
HERE’S THE DAY!
I set my alarm for 11:46pm and had a little to-do list of prep before I set off. Things like braid my hair, put my climbing socks on, check I had all of the correct medicine…
At 12:30am I pulled all of my gear out of my beloved base camp tent, and headed to the dining tent with mum and dad. I had some black tea, and some porridge – as you can imagine I had a HUGE appetite at 12:45am.
We set off pretty soon, and of course it’s hard to say goodbye to my mum – probably harder since she was at base camp, and the goodbye wasn’t happening at Melbourne airport. I don’t feel like the mountain is that dangerous (it’s not, compared to other peaks), but I still have this idea that everyone has of Everest, being so big and so dangerous. Just because it’s Everest. So that thought always comes in when I have to say goodbye.
We set off from base camp at about 1:20am. The first part is quite easy walking, with a few easy roped sections. After about 30 minutes that brings us to crampon point – where we put our crampons on. From then on, the climbing becomes more technical and physically demanding. Nothing too hard though!
There were quite a lot of people in the icefall today, but we are taking a rest day in camp 2, which is less common, so I’m hoping that these people are aiming for the summit day before mine. We were held up a bit by the queues, but they were moving! Towards the end of the icefall is the 5-ladder crossing and that did hold us there for about 40 minutes. And at about 5am, the coldest time of day, it was a bit annoying! Once we crossed the ladder the climbing is not technical and we could pass some groups of people.
The icefall is such a beautiful place!
We finally arrived in camp 1 at around 6:30am. We met up with Regine and Jakob from Denmark and sat with them (they had stayed in c1) whilst we rested and had some warm tea. I did feel a little sick in my stomach so I took some medicine for that.
After a little bit of procrastination before leaving, we decided we had to, otherwise it would be wayyyy too hot. It was still cold, but we took our helmets off, and put our sunglasses and sunscreen on.
We started walking (along with everyone else in the icefall who had just had a rest at their respective camp 1 campsites) along the gentle uphill slope. After a while we had a rest and dad and I took our crampons off, refueled, and took some extra layers off. Having weight on your feet can really slow you down (people say 1kg on your feet is 4kg on your back) so when we took our crampons off we could move much faster for the same effort, and pass a lot of people. The terrain is easy!
The last part of the walk to camp 2 was SO SO SO HOT!! I was wearing just my light thermal and I was roasting! I would’ve worn shorts and a t shirt if I had them (and unlimited sunscreen). The heat in the western CWM really drains your energy and even though I was a little slower at parts in the icefall due to a stomach ache, Dad got pretty drained in the last 40 minutes or so before c2. I was so done with the heat that I had to walk ahead to get to camp quicker.
We arrived in camp 2 at about 10am and had some tea. I had time, as I walked ahead, so I set up dad and I’s sleeping mats and got all of the gear that we had left at c2 – like sleeping bags, mats, food, down suits…
I had some lunch with Jakob and Regine whilst dad napped. It was still sooo hot and I felt so tired just from the heat.
I chatted with Regine in the dining tent for agessss and by that time it had cooled down and I went back to my tent to nap. I slept for only about 2 hours as it was dinner time at 5:30pm. 2 hours sounds like a lot but I had been awake since 11:46pm the night before, with almost no sleep before that and climbing nonstop through the night and day.
We had one of the dehydrated meals from Australia that we brought, because we wanted something we knew we liked (we lose our appetites up here a bit), and that was nutritious.
We then went straight to bed at 7:30pm, and when I stepped out of the dining tent I could see soooo many head torches of people up on the lhotse face. They are most likely Sherpas carrying loads of oxygen to deposit at camp 4.
I had a pretty bad cough today from the cold dry air (at night) so I took some meds for that, along with some other vitamins.
