It was definitely great to sleep in normal altitude (close to 18K feet) without the freezing temperatures from Camp 2 and beyond. But my cold affecting my nose didn’t seem to care on the lower altitude. If anything it seemed to get worst. A prompt morning appointment with Dr. K, and he presented me with...
Category: Summit
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Day 30 – Our 2nd Rotation Completed
The 4:30am wake up call was not even needed. Both Mark (my tentmate) and I had been up since 4am packing our bags. At least we wouldn’t have to bring all of our belongings down to base camp but instead just leave the right amount of gear we’d be using during our next passing through...
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Day 29 – Camp 3
I had a tough evening. Though the NyQuil was a nice way of forcing my sleep, waking up at odd hours to keep hydrating wasn’t too much fun. By 5am we got our wake up call. There had been little winds and no snow during the night. Breakfast at 5:30am and we were ready to...
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Day 28 – Camp 3 False Alarm
We got up by 5:30am and breakfast by 6am. The weather hadn’t improved and if anything it was windier than originally expected. By 6:15am our Sherpa’s working on the ropes at Camp 3 radio’s us and told us it had snowed so heavily the night before that all the ropes were covered by snow and...
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Day 27 – A real rest day at Camp 2 and its freezing
A short day for me, as it was extremely cold overnight. The cramping gone but my state of mind was too exhausted. Though a little bit of sneezing and symptoms associated with a cold started popping for me. I fully embraced the meaning of this rest day. A little walking around to other camps, but...
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Day 26 – Camp 2 and a personal embracing
Our day started at Midnight. The plan was to start at 1am and go through the Khumbu icefall with a brief stop through Camp 1 and then our ultimate destination Camp 2. As usual, 4hrs of sleep wasn’t a lot for me, though the calm weather was a great incentive. It wasn’t windy which was...
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Day 24 and 25 – Speedy Medicine, Prep for next rotation and a humble surprise
Day 24 The morning started with some great updates, my B12 medicine had speedily arrived from Kathmandu. In addition, we were originally going to depart tonight for Camp 3 on our 2nd rotation but our date got pushed as the weather seemed to be cooperating further the following day. Lydia and Roy (another team member)...
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Day 23 – A Dr. Checkup and a bummed goodbye
I dreaded today. My dearest teammate Paul had made the brave decision of departing from our expedition as he had a family urgency. Paul has been this incredible magnetic gentleman with a heart of gold. He’s originally Brit but splits his time between HK, SF, London and Provence. We got along incredibly well, sharing our...
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Day 22 – Life at Base Camp and honoring Prince
It actually was a really cold night. I left my -40 sleeping degree bag up in Camp 2 along with my summit gear, and the sleeping bag at Base is only for 0 degrees. Last night it felt as if it was -15 degree night, though toe warmers, 2 hot bottle waters and my 3...
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Day 21 – A good day to descend and a somber remembrance
A wake up call of 4am was in order with a departure time of 5:30am. Today we’ll be descending from Camp 2 back into Base Camp. An early start was a must as we wanted to be by the icefalls at 7:30am and avoid the crowds plus the sun. It was freezing cold! Learning from...