The three of us woke up at around 7, as our tent became very hot! Pemba opened the tent zipper, and even though it was hot, it was a complete white out!
We could see at least 7 climbers climbing up the last 10m to the summit, but nothing else.
We had some instant coffee then a late breakfast of muesli with water (I added a protein shake into mine). We relaxed in the tent, I listened to podcasts and music, napping on and off.
That was until, the tent became a 60°C sauna and we had to immediately open everything door up. It was very cloudy but VERY sunny at the same time, and I guess the cloud locked all of the heat in. I was sleeping in the middle of Kristen and Pemba and it was harder for me to put my hands in the snow.
Before I experienced high altitude hot tents I thought it was actually cold, but since the climbers were “so used to the cold” that any slightly warmer temp felt hot. But no!! It is boiling!! My phone got a “hot temperature warning” and stopped charging off my battery. I went to put my sunglasses on (that had been sitting in a tent pocket) and they were too hot to put on my face!
Even though it was soooo hot, we needed to get out and get our heart rates up. Mostly for altitude acclimatisation benefits, but also we would go insane otherwise.
We put our shell pants, light jackets, boots, harnesses, and crampons on and stepped outside. We had to rope up to get back onto the normal climbing track (we were only 20m off or so) because there are crevasses that we can’t see very well.
We went onto the track, unclipped from the rope, and clipped back on to the fixed ropes that follow the length of the mountain. We very slowly climbed to the summit, took some photos, and tried very hard to see if there was phone reception, but nothing. The three of us climbed down, slowly, back to our tent. Whilst yes, being at higher altitudes does help with acclimatisation, but the most benefits come from physically working at those high altitudes. So this 40 minute climb, plus yesterday’s 3.5 hours, at around 6000m will help a lot.
It was still very hot.
I crawled back into the tent, and stripped into a t-shirt and we all took our socks off. I would’ve done ANYTHING for a frozen Maccas coke.
We had lunch, which was 2 min noodles (rara noodles as they call them here) and we shared some sardines and an apple. I was also trying to drink as much water as I could.
Kristen and I napped a little bit more and Pemba played games on his phone. We each went out to our makeshift toilet 🤟✌️
I rewatched the Manosphere againnnn (I of course have nothing else downloaded because it’s ragebait). Kristen and I chatted some more, until dinner time came. Pemba made us some water, and I had freeze dried butter chicken which was DELISH! Making water takes a while, so we listened to some music while we waited and ate.
This is the last night of our little side quest trip out of Everest :(( I loved the change of scenery, but I’m VERY excited for schnitzel tomorrow for lunch in Lobuche village and a shower soon in base camp. And to see Dad and all of our other friends.
