I had the absolute best slumber ever!! Climbing in the night is safe, but it really messes with your sleep schedule!
It had snowed quite a bit last night, and it was pretty cold this morning. It’s a bit of a hit or miss whether we get sun here or not. I headed over to breakfast, and tried to eat as much as I could. I’m happy I still have a pretty good appetite up here!
I then did almost nothing until lunch. I’m still a bit tired from the rotation, so I just laid in my tent, listening to music, and attempting to clear out some phone storage. That brought me to lunch, where I had 2 vegemite and cheese chapatis (we brought the from home) and a lot of tea!
Then… my big event of the day! I showered!
It’s a bit of a task to do that up here! I went to the cook tent 20 minutes beforehand, and asked for a bucket of hot water. They put it in the shower tent, and I walked to and from my tent to get my stuff. It’s still like a 2 minute walk to the shower from my tent, and it’s an effort at 5400m in the snow!! The shower situation here is just a big bucket of water, with a small one to pour it on yourself. I bring my own shampoo, conditioner and soap from home.
It was snowing quite a lot still, and very cold, but I needed to shower so I had to suck it up! Even though the water was hot, the tent was freezing. I don’t know how my hair gets so messy when I leave it in the same hairstyle for 4 days, but it was an effort to untangle.
This is really embarrassing to admit… but so far, I’m averaging 1 shower every 11 days. 😭
It was sooooo cold with wet hair walking back to my tent, but when I got in I had some chocolate (as a reward for my hard efforts) and tried to warm up in my -30° sleeping bag. It wasn’t hard! I did some maths work from my sleeping bag, and then headed over to dinner.
Our dinner chats are always great, but very random. I think that for most of us, in our own worlds at home we don’t have too many people who can relate to the very specific situations and struggles we face in the mountains, or even in training for mountains. For example, today we were all talking about how annoying we all individually found a certain zipper of a certain brand tent that we had at camp 2. Or the horrible combination of not having a toilet seat + being at altitude, and it being a real physical task!
Being on a big mountain with some insanely strong people, it’s easy to find flaws in yourself and get in your head about your speed going from camp to camp, stress about preparation, or feel like you’re the only one doubting your abilities. But having these conversations with our amazing group, you realise how universal our thoughts and experiences are, whilst yes there are people who are WAY stronger and more experienced, overall it is relieving to hear about how we are not all facing these struggles alone.
I also find it very interesting learning about other people’s preparation or nutrition strategies. I was talking to my friend Fransisco from Brazil, who is an extremely strong climber and very knowledgeable too. I told him about how I always take around 1 hour of movement to warm up and stabilise my heart rate and muscles on a climbing day. He told me I should try taking a fast absorbing carbohydrate gel before I start the climbing day – something I would’ve never done. I usually only take a gel when I am a couple of hours into my activity, not before I even leave. So when I’m up next, I’ll give it a try!
Anyways, after dinner we chatted around the gas heater. Sheroze was trying to teach me some Nepali (yes, he is Pakistani teaching me Nepali). I learnt how to say “please give me a coke zero” and some other less important phrases. He’s going to Kathmandu with his client to recover for a few days, so I placed my order of normal food for him to bring back.
We are not going down to lower altitudes to recover. It’s pretty 50:50 on who goes down lower and who stays, but I feel strong and healthy. Also here at base camp, everyone is very conscious about not getting sick. Descending lower would mean more interactions with trekkers or other people who could be less careful with staying healthy. Returning from Kathmandu to here at base camp would be rough!! Going from the spa to freezing nights.
I went back to bed after dinner and I’m super tired, even though I did literally nothing all day.
