Mt Everest Blog

The start

24th March 2011

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It seems like a long time ago. It was 18 months since Hempie was sat in my front room, having visited the Red Arrows for the day.

“I’m off on an exped to Mt Everest next spring”

“Crikey, can I come?”

“Yeah sure if you can raise the money”

Heck. Flying to Katmandhu on Sunday. I needed to raise £28,500 for my ticket and as much for charity as possible. Nearly there, got a £10,000 ish personal contribution and £6,000 for charity and growing.

The next problem was getting the 2 months off work. Unfortunately the RAF can not support these types of expeditions officially (they only support full military team events) so I needed to use my annual leave entitlement. Luckily the Red Arrows don’t allow much time for holiday so I had a good amount stored up. Happy Days.

Then I was in a position where I was due to finish the Red Arrows in Oct 10 and not go to Everest until Apr 11. So I needed to be occupied in those 4 months without getting stuck into a new job. That gap fitted very nicely with a 4 month job in Afghanistan. My newly pregnant wife was very impressed.

I just got back from Kandahar last week in time to get all my kit sorted and attempt to reinvigorate the fund raising and now its all coming together. Meeting the team at 1830 in Heathrow on Sunday. I am starting to realize the scale of ‘just’ climbing Mt Everest. Crikey.

Entry 2

25th March 2011

I spent 5 years working with the RAF Mountain Rescue Teams in my RAF career to date. They had an expedition to Mt Everest going up the same route, The Northern Ridge. Two chaps summitted, Rusty and Dan.

I drove over to Anglesey to see Rusty and get any last tips he had. He gave me a fantastic brief with lots of worrying photographs. It actually looks quite steep! I’m not sure what I was expecting, but people talk about a tourist route. This isn’t that one, but isn’t wildly different. So that was a bit of a shock. Several vertical ice and snow sections.

Base camp also looks dismal, the sort of place the trainee astronauts practised before going to the moon. We’re going to be there for ages, months. So I’m definitely filling up my Kindle with lots of books.

Another surprising fact is not much time is spent above Advanced Base Camp either. Rusty only went above it twice. I think we’re planning 3 acclimatizing trips, then back down to Base Camp each time to recover fully. ABC is a little too high for the body to be healthy and it’s so important to stay as fit as possible.

On that I need to start my fitness training soon!

Entry 3

27th March 2011

I had one main bit of advice from Rusty, make sure your crampons fit. I’m sure they will, I’ll get round to that soon. Thats what I thought anyway. The problem is the fantastic 4 layered boots make your feet huge. They are so specialist you need to buy a pair just for climbing Everest. So I just presumed the crampons I got with them would fit. And Rusty didn’t really know what he was talking about…

See photo one, they didn’t! Massive problem. Fortunately my crampons from Mt McKinley that I didn’t know I had hidden in the loft fitted. But the strap was too short. These boots are massive. See photo 2, the strap from the small, new, crampons and the old crampons combined to a system that fits. Disaster diverted.

A couple of life lessons there. Listen to advice being one of them!

Entry 4

28th March 2011

I’m absolutely sure I have forgotten something. The main kit list is below, but as Laurie Clarke (the chap who climbed Mt Blanc and in Nepal with me) said “small bag, big wallet”. Basically you can buy anything in Kathmandu and I’m there for a few days, so should be able to get the inevitable “oh bugger…” item. It’ll be during the meeting while we’re waiting for our flight at Heathrow, the team will all be talking about how each one managed to get a certain bit of kit, all except me! The bits of kit that has caused me most thoughts are the middle altitude stuff, hot in the sun and while working and flippin cold at night, a bit like mixing skiing with camping. I couldn’t make my mind up between trekking in my mountain trainers or walking boots either, so I’ve taken both. I love the duvet suit (to be used above North Col), proper Michelin man cross space man gear. Makes you sweat just getting in. And its orange.

Qatar airlines have a maximum of 23 kg per passenger and 7 kg of hand luggage. My hand luggage is really heavy. I’m hoping for a nice lady at the check in desk who Hempie will be able to swoon and get my extra on for free.

Day of Departure

28th March 2011

My father phoned at 0830 and woke me up. ‘Why so Flippin early?’ I asked… I then discovered i have slept in and had forgotten about the clocks going forward. I took the dog (Lucy a very lively springer spaniel with control issues) for her last walk. She ran off. Typical Lucy… Even later than i ever needed to by and rather flustered.

I finally got organized, car packed and set off. 5 yards in the journey and still in driveway and i noticed a long oil stain from my crotch all the way down one leg. I had used the trousers for a spot of gardening, including a guilty chainsaw session. Panic spot treatment, washing, ironing, and hair dryer followed briefly. Didn’t work so i set off to ‘Next’ to buy a new pair. Rushed in, huffed and puffed in a very slow queue and got naked in the car park. Wacki races down the M1 to arrive at Heathrow just in time to get a message from my leader, Hempie, saying he was at the wrong terminal. An illustrious start.

A nice surprise was my good friend David Prole had come to the airport to see me off.

Entry 6

29th March 2011

I only spilt a little bit of food down my top on the Qatar Airways flights, which is useful as it is the team polo shirt. The one we are having to wear for all the photos.

Arrived at the hotel in Kathmandu, wasn’t sure it was the right one. See photo! www.icelandeverest.org.uk is the teams website. The summit hotel is the hotel of choice for Everest expeditions, one arrived yesterday too, and got similar treatment. Although they probably didn’t appreciate the Iceland banners.

Alan Hinkes is here, as is Graham Hoyland and his partner Gina. We are nearly a full team. One more to come. Doctor George from the states.

Hempie has also recruited a young man from Bath called Will. His job is to stay in Kathmandu and be our runner if needed. Nice work if you can get it.

I got flower petalled and am now sporting a red spot on my forehead.

Entry 7

29th March 2011

Up for breakfast and then a meeting with the famous Elizabeth Hawley, aged 80 odd. She has documented every Everest climb since the first, she duly took everyone’s details and promised to update the database on our hopefully successful return. She has stopped taking marital status, one chap has summited married, divorced and single!

Then my old friend Ted Atkins came along to explain the Oxygen system we’ll be using. I worked with Ted for a year on the RAF Mountain Rescue Team at RAF Leuchars in 1998. He now has the most successful company, Top Out Oxygen Systems and is supplying the majority of the Everest expeds this year (according to Ted).

Then it was a kit check, I failed and need a new harness, axe and another Ascending device….. Shopping trip for our trusty helper Will.

We had a tour booked for the afternoon around some sights in Kathmandu, including Monkey Temple. There is some amazing buildings and carvings to look at around the city. I took a photo of the only river running through the city. There is rubbish everywhere, piled up in the streets and the river is full. I’m going to do some more touring tomorrow, before we set off on our acclimatisation trek on Thursday.

Note on Delhi Belly. There are 2 views, one sterilize your hands at every opportunity, don’t eat salad, burn everything and absolutely stay as clean as possible. Then there is my view. Eat everything and wash hands once a day whether they need it or not. I think getting Delhi Belly out of the way early and building up a resistance to it before getting to Base Camp in about 2 weeks is part of the acclimatizing we’re doing.

Entry 8

30th March 2011

Met Ted last night in the Restaurant and had a good catch up about old times on Mountain Rescue at RAF Leuchars. Then randomly I saw a chap called Jez Milne, across the restaurant, he is an old friend who used to fly Jaguars and is now a Group Captain. I went over to say hello and he said “Graham could I introduce you to The UK Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans Andrew Robathan MP and this is the Defence Attache…” Crikey “Hello sirs”.

Quite productive, I left with the business card from the DA and a promise of help if I get into any trouble, I wasn’t sure he’d stretch to a helicopter, but you never know!

Today I went on a walking Graham Mystery Tour around Kathmandu, which basically means I didn’t know where I was most of the time and went places I shouldn’t. I found a place that looked like the Slumdog millionaire film set, an open air crematorium and a goat who wouldn’t get out of the way of my photo!

I had lunch with a friend from School who now works for the UN in their Kathmandu Human Rights office. She is keeping an eye on the recent elections and the Maoists integration into the government. All very interesting.

Lovely weather and it was great to soak up the sights and sounds of Kathmandu.

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Entry 9

31st March 2011

Day 1 of the trek

We planned to leave at 7 sharp. We left at 8 after a predictable kit faff. We all crammed into a minibus and bumped our way along to a beautiful oasis for lunch. The landside reminds me of tuscany, lots of steep hills all wooded and completely covered with man made terraces for crops.

We then drove onto the start of our trek at a suspension foot bridge, reportedly the highest bungee jump in the world. We all got kitted up and set off straight across the bridge where there was the first tee junction. Lots of different kit on view, alan’s stolen napkin for keeping his neck covered, my sandals as thats what the locals wear to the umbrella carried by our helper, Will.

We didn’t walk far before setting up camp. So lots of time to contemplate the impending challenge. I reckon if i arrived at base camp at 500kts i could fly the 27 km to advanced base camp in less than 2 minutes before pulling back on the stick to zoom past the north col and roll inverted over the summit 20 seconds later. I have a funny feeling i’ll be thinking about that 2.20secs quite frequently over the next 2 months…

Justin is teaching me the intricacies of the back gammon doubling dice, he has already suggested we play for money. This isn’t going to go well.

The porters packs are huge. About twice their own size i can’t even lift one. Dinner lovely, done on open fire. About to turn in early. Breakfast at 6.30.

Entry 10

1st April 2011

Day 2 of the trek

Blog trek day 2 I had exactly 2.23 seconds warning to get out of my tent at 1 o’clock this morning. I instantly regretted my lax attitude to food hygiene. I did a cracking impression of the wild coyote running out of my sleeping bag. I left my foot wear behind and got 2 yards before making my presence known to the whole camp. Violently! It completely emptied my stomach. Then the other end started. Not a fun night. 6.30 bed tea came way too early, the taste was appreciated but i couldn’t drink the cup. I abstained from breakfast too. A hearty looking porridge. We set off at 8, me very slowly with am empty belly. I dragged quite a bit and watched in awe as the porters sped past with loads at least 3 times their size. They are like ants. They get paid a massive £7 a day.

Today’s route was straight up for 3 and a half hours to the next village, lots of hens, goats, cows and grubby children. The weather was lovely, again very similar to Tuscany, hot, blue sky and dry. There was always a Sherpa nearby while i brought up the rear, we arrived nice and early and i went to bed for the afternoon. Now with a full dinner inside me, hopefully i am done with sickness.

There is a fire burning on the other side of the valley, it has spread all over, out of control, strings of bright orange. Looks like groups of static fireflies. Bed tea at 6.30am.

Entry 11

3rd April 2011

Day 4 of the trek

Felt much better today. Only a little rumbling in my stomach. Managed a full breakfast too.

The fire in the valley had gone out by the time we were awake. Not many people stayed in bed for their tea. I did out of principal, after all its not called ‘out of bed tea’.

It has become evident we are on a rarely used trekking route. I guess mainly because the route just goes uphill. Not much fun if you’re after a lovely experience. The fantastic advantage is that there is that there is no other ‘tourists’ and hasn’t been for a while. No shops selling coca cola, no rubbish, no begging kids, its just beautiful and unspoilt. We are quite a novelty too..

I stepped up my pace today, against advice. Nothing new…. I figure we’re still low enough for the altitude not to affect us and I need the training (8000’, we’re walking up to 16000’ where the trek ends at the friendship bridge).

At the end f the day we were greeted with a beautiful view of the snow covered Himalayas. Al has climbed one of the visible ones apparently. The village centre had some kids playing football. Graham (the other one)organized a 10 a side game. My heart sank when football was mentioned. Football is not my tipple, but it turned out to be great fun. Although pushing and barging aside 7 year old, 3 foot tall, skinny, Nepalese kids made me feel quite guilty. Initially. Crikey it was hard orf, I definitely need the training! Rikki came alive, as current chairman of Swindon Football club, football is his tipple. He even disallowed a penalty to the Nepalese! No prisoners and we won.

Entry 12

4th April

Slept really well. One wee excursion. Bed tea. Lovely breakfast, our first lockstons bag meal (sutra style, posh boil in the bag), a full english breakfast. Very nice, great big cumberland sausage in a sauce with potatoes, mushrooms, tomato and sauce.

I befriended a stray dog (still with us as i write this tonight) now named lockstons. I gave him some bread and he then got scraps from everyone else. No idea on his breed, spanial size, black, labrodor shape, huge hair and quite friendly. He followed us out of the village and up the trail. Today was the longest day (7 hours), no one really knew how far it was, ‘over the next hill,’ a frequent comment. We just kept going up a ridge like path. Started in fir trees, they gave way to smaller dry wood trees, before breaking out of the tree line and finishing in wet snow. 12500’ ish, everyone noticing the altitude. Charlie missed dinner, a little bit of delhi belly and a touch of hypothermia. He kept his shorts on the whole day.

Gina got a snowball down her neck, curtesy of graham (i’m now officially duffy again to avoid confusion). Al got told off by malcolm for wittering on, malcolm was right, Al does go on…. Hempie has the biggest duvet coat i’ve ever seen. Justin thrashed me at back gammon again. Another dinner from lockstons, although i think it confused the porters, they made dinner too! So i ate loads of soup, then the home made pasta, sauce and potatoes, followed by lockstons delicious irish lamb stew. Now full.

In bed at 1945, dead tired. Justin already snoring.

Entry 13

April 5th

Bad weather dominated the night. High winds and snow, with 2 huge claps of thunder right above the tent. The corrigated iron roof of the porters hut disintigrated at some point too, poor fellows got snowed on in their sleeping bags. Not much sleep all round. The weather changed the plan and we decided to camp here tomorrow with a forray higher up and back down.

Richard ordered Chis to move his tent further away as Chris had snored loudly all night. Charlie, Gina and Graham stayed at the camp and the rest of us set off for a hike further up the mountains.

Got to about 13,500’ before heading back down. Lockston the dog came with us and kept everyones spirits up nipping heels and prancing about in the snow having great fun. He has a habit of doing poses on rock outcrops. Al carried on and cicled back to the camp. On the way back i asked hempie if i could go climb up one of the hill tops, it had a pole sticking up and some prayer flags. Rod wanted to come, then Justin and Malcolm too. I led off and before long they’d ditched me and turned right as i headed straight up. Their route turned out to be better though, mine somewhat epic. Al saw us coming up so waited to guide malcolm the last bit. It was some really enjoyable scrambling and all appreciated the top. Got a great photo, although Malcolms face was shielded by his video camera videoing me taking a photo….

The afternoon was spent relaxing, drinking tea and playing back gammon. Charlie, Gina, Graham and Richard went for a walk too, Charlie much better.

Al exposed us to his comedian side at dinner. Joke after joke. Not the sort I’d tell my mum. Fantastic starry sky, bitterly cold bed time with chapped lips, beard and a dark tan

Entry 14

April 6th

Bloody cold. Which is a little worrying considering we’re not even at half the height of where we’re headed.

It was a lovely morning and we decided to give the porters a head start. The weather is pretty reliable at the mo - beautiful blue sky till about lunch, then cloud and snow for the afternoon. We have been arriving before the porters and then hanging round for our tents in the cold. So today we sunbathed and set off upwards for a short 3 hour hike to a stunning frozen lake (tarn like) with a very well made buuilding for the cooks and porters.

Justin and I walked at the back with Malcolm, we were last in, only because we stopped and had frequent chats. Malcolm started “Iceland Foods” with £30 and made a profit in the first week, he now has 750 stores and is going strong.

Lockston was there when we arrived, he even ventured into our tent to watch Justin cream me at back gammon, coming from behind with 2 double 6s! I’ll win soon.

Hot tea was ready on arrival, then the race was on to find the best camping spot. A relaxing afternoon at 13,500’. I’m starting to feel the altitude with a little headacheyness and breathlessness. My O2 level is at 80% when resting too. Most others late 80’s.

Another Lockston dinner, beef and Boddingtons beer stew. Clouds cleared, very cold and stunning sky.

Entry 15

April 7th

Great night sleep. Justin up at 0530 doing flippin yoga, again. Graham and Hempie had organized a late start 0800 bed tea and 9 for breakfast. We were planning to stay put for another night and climb one of the nearby hills. The weather was so nice i thought we should set off as soon as poss, so Justin and I decided to set off at 8. The weather comes in around lunch and I could see the tops being clouded over. Everyone else wanted to wait for breakfast. I predicted a faff.

We managed to persuade Hempie to let us have 2 mars bars each, Justin procured a bowl of porridge to gulp down too. He’d already had his gopping green powder health food protein thing. We set off with 2 sherpas, Tenzing and Pemba (Tenzing? Hmmm maybe elevenzing could be a possible name for little duffy, due on 26 Jun). Pemba dragged and we left him, he later happily turned back. Our pace was quicker than previous, Justin is fitter than me and Tenzing is a mountain goat. We saw some cat tracks, snow leopard apparently (Tenzng said), i was skeptical and thought it was lockston out for a stroll. We saw lockstons paws later, much bigger, so it wasn’t him. Lots of rabbit tracks too.

At the top we had the best view, not a cloud anywhere, himalayas and hundreds of miles. A perfect weather day, snow hard and crispy under foot, no wind, blue sky, very rare. From the summit, we watched the others set off from the camp late. We bagged another peak as we felt good, deeper snow on that one. Then ran back in time to watch the others summit in cloud… Rikki slipped on the way down and lost his iPhone from his ripped back pocket. Justin and i drank 6 buckets of tea waiting for the others to come back.

Normal chilling afternoon. Although J and I had a chilly stripped wash. And yes mum I have a photo of naked Justin specially for you!

Entry 16

8th April

Downhill. Lots and lots of downhill. Everyone has sore knees. We started above the snow line fully kitted and finished in the warm valley bottom sweating in teeshirts. About 7000’ descent. Red hot and more steps than you’d care to count. We saw our first westerners today, a French group climbing an 8000m mountain called Cho Oyu and using this route as acclimatization. They were on the way to the lake we’d just left not quite as serene as we’d found it, 2 days earlier. We also met some Finnish guys on a normal trek.

One main noticeable addition was insects. The low hum started about half way down. I already have 3 lumps where some little beastie had his dinner on my hip. The path at the end of the day zig zagged 1000’ down a vertical cliff, breathtaking and quite worrying. Certainly made you concentrate.

Lockston followed us down and is now guarding the camp. By barking loudly. Charlie has run out of shoes to throw and resorted to expletives. Some kids have come up and are taunting the dog with cat cries. Malcolm can be heard saying ‘Alan get rid of them, you’re the mountain guide!’ more expletives.

Hempie and Justin had an argument, at dinner, over which side of the sword you use to slice the top off a champagne bottle. Justin won with the ‘blunt side along the seam of the bottle, 10 years in the guards old boy’ however Al trumped them both by adding ‘why don’t you just take the cork out?’

We are camped near a fort, looks napoleonic in age, we’ve all tried to sound authoratative, but no one knows why its here or when it was built.

Feeling slightly sun burnt, a little squiffy, we’ve run out of toilet roll so a porter was dispatched to buy some and came back with 2 rolls and 2 crates of beer. Clever chap. Its going to be a warm fidgety night, covered in ants and whatever else is lurking in the shadows.

Entry 17

April 9th

Today was all about Loxton. The dog.

We woke up to see Hempie high above. He couldn’t sleep so decided he’d go for a walk, up hill back to where we came from. I got out of my tent to a fantastic view down the steep valley and up the vertical wall was a red tee shirt slowly making his way down after what must have been a fantastic sunrise. After brekkie we set off to finish the trek. I got down first in my sandals, there was some a-level sandal work too. Very steep.

Anyway we all made it down to the bottom, took 2 hours. I sat reading my kindle near a deep pond full of tadpoles. There was a child crying up the cliff, on an outcrop. All by himself, 2 year old max - sitting with the goats. Earlier there had been another young child had a shovel who was digging near an edge of the terrace.

Anyway today was emotional. Goodbye Loxton, heck, he was my mate.

At the bottom of the valley where we finished for the day, I bathed my sandaled feet in the river. Eventually everyone arrived and we got into a bus to go to some nearby hot springs. With an emotional goodbye we left Loxton (the littlest hobo) on the roadside with the team of porters and sherpas.

A faff ensued. We went to the hot springs. Terrible. Very smelly and ‘local’. Didnt stop Al taking some voyeuristic photos of the bathers.

We then drove back past the proters being paid, saw Loxton with a collar, a new addition. Wekept going south for an hour and arrived at the oasis we’d had lunch at on our first day. We are staying here to clean and wash clothes ready for base camp. Got sorted, had a beer, we’d been there an hour or so and unbelievably Loxton wondered in. He’d been taken by the porters to Kathmandu and poor Loxton had thrown up in the bus, so they’d kicked him out. Randomly right where we were! Hello buddy!

They serve alcohol here all day.

Entry 18

+April 10th

Disaster. We left Loxton behind and one of our two trucks with all our kit in slipped off a cliff and was destroyed down a ravine in the night. Two severley injured, one sherpa walking wounded.

Today was and always was going to be a faff day. Many expedition companies have stopped climbing Everest from the north side as the chinese can be so unpredictable.

I said goodbye to Loxton. Tearfully at our oasis and hoped he’d have a good life. I also saw a Loxton puppy. Hempie and Graham hitched a lift to the crash site, further up the road leaving us leaderless. Two hours later two 4x4s turned up to ferry 12 Menbers and 12 cooks/sherpas.

Faff 1. I was in the first batch, we drove towards the border and stopped at the crash site. Faff 2. Kit everywhere.

We arrived at a hotel restaurant to wait for the Menbers left behind. Faff 3. While there Al pointed out the current ‘best climber in the world’ a Swiss guy who has scaled the Eiger in some astonishing time, is off to acclimatize on an 8000m peak before attempting the fastest ever climb of everest in a month or so.

When everyone had finally arrived we watched our kit being ferried in individual loads by local women, heavy loads. Carried uphill for about 500m, our lorries cant go through the border, everything is hand tranfered to waiting chinese trucks.

We queued up in order at the several custom/immigration points. Faff 4. Rod thought he could take a photo and got caught by the undercover gestapo. He had to show them he deleted everything before they would let him through. Quite intimidating.

We’re staying in the border town as today could have taken 2 hours or 3 days. Our hotel is just up from the crossing. With releif we all got through unscathed. Hopefully all our kit did too.

Interesting fact: They still smoke inside chinese night clubs….

Entry 19

April 11th

Today has been a bad day. I am sorry to admit I was fed up. The day started reasonably, a nice breakfast in Xangmu, the town just accross from the border. I went on an unsuccessful shopping trip (shops closed) for a chinese sim card for Rikki, the Walkers, Justin and Hempie. I already have one and Charlie got one the day before. It lets you phone it from the UK for 1p/min. I got a wet foot, puddle, I should have seen the sign.

We all piled into three 4x4s for the epic drive, zig zagging up a cliff edge to Nylam our night stop. Reasonable so far. The hotel booking was a faff, half the party (me included) had to go to a different hotel - double booking, or possibly not at all. Hotel proper rubbish, cockroach, rats, fleas. Normal. Looking forward to my nice clean tent again, I’ve bought some lilo for the floor and an extra duvet and blanket for frills this morning.

After lunch we were all to check our Base Camp stuff, to see what was missing. At this stage, we were promised all the barrels had been recovered from the crash. I had already checked the broken barrels, not mine, so I needed to find my Base Camp bag. Quite quickly it was found and that put me at ease, as my barrel, with all my high altitude kit wasn’t a damaged one so must be in the other lorry. Happy days.

The lorries got emptied progressively, broken food everywhere, especially cornflakes and chocolate powder, Loxton food packets about 5% split. An overpowering smell of diesel. Poor Rod had all his down kit and most of his clothes covered in the stuff. My barrel was no where to be seen. At this stage, 36 hours after the crash, Al pipes up with “Duffy I saw a pair of boxer shorts in the river under the loory with ‘Duffy’ written on the label, would they have been yours?” Are you f***ing kidding? WHO ELSE?

Still no barrel, but Graham insisted they had all been recovered. Malcolm seemed to fare worst, but he has so many barrels, one damaged, was no snags. Every other bit of personal kit was accounted for. Eventually Hempie, said “Duffy did you have a big green stuff sack?” Yes “I put it with my kit, I didn’t think it was mine…” And then the gates opened, a Sherpa came over and said there was a barrell destroyed and they had to run down the ravine, picking bits out of the river. A hession sack was located with those rescued items. My items. Hecky thump. That was my secure storage for all my really important climbing kit above Advanced Base Camp. Destroyed.

I had a sulk and went off on my own with my wet kit back to the hotel, I took my undamaged Base Camp bag too, to figure out what was missing. I couldn’t remember what I’d packed in what exactly. It was like a berevement. Everyone asking if I was OK and if there was anything they could do. I just wanted alone. Malcolm was very generous, he offered to phone back to the UK and get all the items DHL’d out sharpish.

I calmed down, spoke to my wife Katie and set about making the above list and doing some shopping. Will was needed in Kathmandu for the more specialist stuff, he’ll send it on soon, and 4 hours later everything doesn’t seem so bad. Most will be replaced (fingers crossed for my insurance). Only the quality of life items will be missing.

So we have had dinner, very similar to lunch, Chinese. Now I have found an internet cafe to send back some pictures and write this blog. Much better than tapping away on my nokia phone in the dark before I go to sleep, where all the previous blogs have come from. I am about ready to sample the kareokee delights of the Tibetan town of Nylam.

Apparently the crash made the front page of the Telegraph business section….

Entry 20

12th April

Last night I lay awake trying to figure out why I was so fed up, I think its because I have lost my independance. I was ready, with all the right plasters, foot tape, Lemsips, Strepsils and kit that fitted. Now I have to beg and borrow and rely on the other members good will. There is lots of good will though, I was just happy I had it all sorted. Hopefully our shopping chap, Will, will pull it out of the bag and get all the right sizes etc.

The plan today was another acclimatization trek out of Nyalam. I rushed Charlie’s breakfast (he is now my room mate and therefore climbing partner, Hempie split everyone up in the interests of team bonding) so we could get on the hill before the clouds came over. We set off a good hour ahead of everyone else, with Charlie faffing a little to start with. We were immediately follwed by 2 dogs out of the town. I later christened them Hempie and Justine. The idea came to me when Hempie tried to mount Justine and got bitten, then Justine pooed on the path and confirmed the names. Another lovely pair of dogs, whenever we stopped they just curled up and went to sleep between us. They did a lot of frolicking in the snow too. they looked well fed, had no owner, and refused bread, sniffed and looked away. Loxton would have wolfed it.

At some point I noticed Charlie had only one lens in his sunglasses and I pointed this out to him. He looked quizzical at first then said “Oh, bugger!” He’d been walking like that for half an hour at least, as far as we could determine, and not noticed one side slightly brighter than the other…

It turned out to be a long slog, straight up, we saw others begin to follow us, far behind so that spurred us on. 4 hours the ascent took. To the highest point so far, just above Mt Blanc. we got there just in time for the sun, the clouds came over as we left. fantastic views all round again. Tibetan Himalayas. Everyone else seemed to turn back, so we were on our own all day, wondering what had happened to the human Justin and Hempie.

the weather came in quickly on the descent, it was already baltic, dry and incredibly cold. We finished in a blizzard. 2 and a half hours down. It doesn’t sound too long, but we were both shattered when we got back with Justine and Hempie. We downed a bowl of noodles, the size of bowl you’d cut your hair with. Then a snooze, but not before bumping into Justin “Hi guys! we watched you from the other side, looked like we climbed higher than you, got to 4600m on my altimeter, and watched you through binoculars.” You could feel all the air go out of our acheivment bubble. It was like one of those long, multicoloured, Christmas balloons you blow up and let go for it to do raspberries all round the room…. We didn’t know how high we’d climbed as neither of us had an altimeter. First stop, internet cafe, google maps, terrain button. 4750m! Next stop Justin. Smoke that one!

Just heard the Chinese kicked a climber out of base camp for no particular reason. Pack your bags and get lost, no listening to reason. So we’re all worried and are planning to keep our heads down.

Dinner at 8, then early bed for me and Charlie at least.

Entry 21

April 13th

It was raining wet slush and windy. But i had a mission. To find Hempie and Justine and give them a good feed for being lovely companions up a mountain. I discovered dog food is not for sale in tibet. Anywhere. I eventually found some tinned corned beef. Then i had the emotional search for the dogs, getting wetter and colder. Eventually i found Hempie, it had become such an important thing to me, i felt desperately sad that i couldn’t find justine in the miserable cold black street.

As soon as i’d turned the can opening key she appeared. Phew. Two very briefly, happy dogs. I get the feeling they dont get much TLC. Charlie and i stopped 2 kids laughing and throwing hefty rocks at them earlier while their parents looked on in amusement. Many dogs have limps, evidence of previous rock throwing experiences.

George, the expedition doctor arrived at breakfast, he is an expert in high altitude medicine. Hence malcolm employing him to come along. We are now complete, all 10 summiteers. There are still a few others to arrive, going just to the north col or doctors doing research.

The drive from Nyalam to Tingri was again spectacular, we passed many settlements. All of which had ruined castle structures nearby from a bygone era. We finished the drive on the tibetan plateau, 4200m. A cold, arid, dusty and off my holiday list kind of place. Sort of lunar, plantless, a town called Tingri.

After dinner, not only did i beat Justin at backgammon i whopped him. He still had pieces left in my home when I’d finished, a ‘backgammon’. He left quietly.

The conversation turned to george who is full of useful acclimatization gen. Drugs to take and everything. Mixed feelings, some want all drug help, as much as possible, others like me are going to decline unless neccessary. Interestingly you wee a lot at altitude, hence need a higher than normal water intake. The reason being the body tries to make the blood more acidic, to help oxygen asorbtion by increasing breathing rate, and needs to get rid of the base bicarbonate. Or something similar.

George also let out he’d recently got a grant to test the benefits of the famous vaso dilator, viagra, at altitude. Al chipped in with “at least you won’t roll off a ledge”. Later as we were walking out i saw Al take the doc aside and whisper, “seriously have you got any viagra, only i’ve never tried it”. Good luck doing up that harness Al….

We’re staying here 2 nights then base camp. Finally.

Entry 21

April 14th

Interesting point number 7b It is possible for a dog to bark all night. Without break. From 8pm to 7am. And his mate proved he could do it too.

What didn’t help was the barking dogs were right outside most of our rooms, Tibetan double glazing not being up to much, it disturbed our sleep somewhat. I have changed from a dog lover to the other end of the scale. The worst bit was, this morning the flippin dogs were curled up sleeping, and did for the whole day. So guess what is going to happen tonight? Rod has ammunition lined up on his window sill.

Malcolm admitted at breakfast, while I was wolfing down everything in sight, it might have been a good idea getting ill early on. Porridge / rice pudding thing with nuts and onions, boiled egg, odd bread, dumpling thing and some unidentified chewy. I left brekkie full, not many others did, ‘not wanting to risk it’.

George downloaded to the group his thoughts on high altitude medicine during an informal brief to the team, rather than everyone asking him the same question. Viagra featured again. Rod asked a good question about retinal haemorrhage. Apparently we will all get it to varying degress and blindness is rare(!). Diamox is a reccomended drug to speed up the blood acid process. I’m still drug free. Asprin is also recommended, the extra platelets your blood makes thickens it. Asprin helps keep it thin (Seek medical advice from your own Doctor before following Dr Duff’s advice).

I was itching to get off on an acclimatizing climb, the weather was perfect and George spoke until 10:30. Crikey. Rod managed to get his bag together fast enough to come with me. Today was the most magnificent day, blue sky, no wind, also special because we could see Mt Everest for the first time. It was unbeleivably 50 miles away and still dominated the sky line. The plateau is arid, desert like, lots of sand and brittle volcanic rock, I saw a gecko briefly, before it ran off under a rock.

We set off for the obvious hill next to the town of Thingri. Rod and I well ahead, but about half way up a bloke in a red top was coming up fast, legs going ten to a penny. It turned out to be Rich, ‘on a time trial,’ trying to get to the top before the end of his Led Zepplin album on his iPod. Even though Rich is a surprising 4’11” (he says 5’) he could cover the ground quickly and went straight past me, while I was huffing and puffing. We got to the top 4850m ish (now officially bigger than the 4808m Mt Blanc) and spent an hour and a half, absorbing the magnificent view and trying to spend as much time high up as possible. Base camp, tomorrow, is around 5200m. Al followed, then Justin and Rikki. The weather was warm and the plateau simply stunning.

I played with the zoom on the Mt Everest shot, so it looks cloudy, actually I’m miles from the camera and the clouds were wy in the distance. Back for a relaxing afternoon, catching up on sleep before the dogs kick off.

Entry 23

April 15 – The Long Drive to Base Camp

The dogs were surprisingly quiet tonight, so Charlie and I actually got a full night’s sleep.. Breakfast at 0830 was late, the service terrible. We are bound to the Tibetan Mountain Association, Chinese Climbing Mafia, they get paid their amount, then they control everything. Permits, food, accommodation, transport and general jobs, they control it all until Base Camp. Just another reason more and more people are opting for the south side instead.

Tibet has apparently improved massively since the members on our expedition had been through previously, the roads are immaculate, there’s working electricity, plumbing… although still the rubbish to sort out… A marked difference from the Nepalese side however. It is no coincidence the Chinese are in control, and the infrastructure is on the up as a result.

We set off slightly late in what was similar to a Jeep safari I once did in Dubai. Off road, sandy tracks, again the sky a stunning blue. Mountains, gold and beautiful views everywhere. This is where adjectives fail me. Massive, enormous, huge? Basically we drove straight at Mt Everest for fifty miles. It was big on the horizon when we started, now the black rock fills the sky. What have we let ourselves in for? Exciting times.

Base camp is barren. Looking at the other expeditions, we are a bit embarrassing. But its worth it, our base is awesome! Thank you Malcolm! We have tents galore, the best mess tent going, spacious, well-lit, lampshades, plastic flowers, carpet and even carpet liner! We have a shower tent (not sure how that will work), a communications tent, two hard shed toilets (with fibre glass throne), kitchen, accommodation for Sherpas and porters, 12x12s for Hempie, Malcolm, Richard and visitors. It’s brilliant. Most others have a mess tent and a crappy toilet tent (hole in the ground) and that’s it. The rest of us have our own tents too, normally you’d share. Happy days.

Looks like life will be good here. We have acclimatized so slowly that everyone is fine, light headaches at worst. 5370m / 17700’ ish. I’m planning a clothes washing day tomorrow, washing my two pairs of underpants whether they need it or not.

Acclimatizing is great fun, read books, relax and play Backgammon. Win.

The sun has just gone behind the mountains and the temperature plummeted.

Curses.

Entry 24

April 16th

I felt a little nauseous at dinner, hot, heady and not hungry. I ate as much as I could, listened to some more rules and plans for the next few days from Graham and Hempie and retired. It was a cold night I was pleased of the blanky I’d bought in Nyalam , it just kept me warm enough to sleep.

I had my first pee bottle experience, it was so cold I opted to stay in the tent, rather than freeze on the way to the toilet. The crescendo noise the bottle makes as it gets near the top is most unnerving! I then put the bottle in my boot to stop it freezing until morning.

The view with bed tea out of the tent was amazing, blue sky and Everest filling the door. My first job today was washing, Graham suggested we all go on a small walk to clear the head too. I felt much better. I had a naked shower and shave, brrrr, with a bowl and soap and then washed my clothes in the bowl before wandering down to the river to rinse them off.

Charlie was keen to go for a walk before the inevitable clouds came in. So together we set off with Graham’s directions to the glacial lakes. No faffing from Charlie this time, he is great company and has a farmers outlook of ‘no complaining, get on with it’ we make a good team. We’d decided we’d turn back after an hour. Graham said the route took an hour back to the tents…

After an hour and a quarter we’d still not seen any lakes. Conflab. We’d walked up the right side of the valley, the middle filled with glacial debris, moraine. We decided to turn left and walk over the moraine to the other side. Big mistake. The rocks were all unstable, we found ourselves on house sized boulders, running off them, as they fell over, kung fu style. Quite exhilarating and worrying too. The slopes were gravel and it was 3 steps up 2 steps back. We did find the lakes though, emerald blue. Beautiful. We got back to the tents 3 hours later and shattered, now at 18000’ ish where the atmosphere is half the normal ground level. We were supposed to do an hour max. Everyone else had done an hours route, I’d just led us astray slightly. Ooops.

My clothes had frozen solid, odd since the sun was hot and burning, I suppose the air was cold. A nice bird had pooed right on the middle of one of my boxer shorts, a very suspicious splatter… An afternoon sorting kit out for Advanced Base Camp, the barrels go on yaks tomorrow night. Base Camp is better than I expected.

Charlie discovered his missing lens from the other day still in his battery bag, he must have been walking with one lens for most of the day, which means neither of us noticed for about 3 hours!

Entry 25

April 17th

Last night, we had dinner Piccolino style. Unbelievable, Parma ham off the leg on the side table (I want one for my house), special cheese, olives, gerkin things, balsamic and olive oil and that was just for starters. Fine dining at 18000’. Did I mention the three types of wine? Fantastic, thank you Malcolm once more.

Today was Phuja day, a religious (Buddhist) ceremony carried out by hired in Lamas. It started with Muslim type chanting at 6am, woke up and thought I was in Afghanistan. Our three Lamas pitched up on three motorbikes, individually customised, Tassels, the works.

The ceremony consisted of everyone (Sherpas, Menbers and porters) around a purpose built shrine. Lots of chanting, rice throwing and whiskey drinking. The ceremony was briefly put on hold when the chief Lama’s mobile went and he answered it! Probably the next gig…. More chanting and three hours later they unfurled a totem pole and spread out loads of prayer flags, bit like a may pole. Then the Sherpas decided to do a Sherpa dance. Eventually we were invited to join in, lots of chanting and foot stamping. I’m crap at aerobics and so was the only one in time with the stepping.

All our technology is breaking. Three laptops gone, altitude and temperature. Two Kindles broken. And worse the valley is so deep the sat comms don’t work, so the only data out is my Nokia. Our projector wont get power by the generators, they aren’t putting out enough power… again the altitude.

We have packed all our kit to go to ABC on yaks. 55 of them, a proper herd. I have a new barrel.

Ridge walk tomorrow, more acclimatizing. Back to base camp.

Entry 26

April 18 Ridge Walk Day

It turned out to be wildlife day. The plan was to load our yaks for them to go to ABC and for us to set off up one of the steep valley sides to get some height for acclimatization. I’m still partnered with Charlie (Hempie is changing all the partners again tonight) and this time it was me who faffed. I am the only person who can get emails with photos sent from here, sat comms blocked by the mountains, my nokia phone will connect to the computers easily (everyone else has blackberrys or iPhones) so I was needed to send Malcolms blog. The yaks didn’t turn up in enough numbers so the menbers kit will go tomorrow to ABC. Chalrie was chomping at my heels to get going, I was faffing…

We were the first pair to set off again, straight up the side. Three steps up, two steps down. We quite quickly bumped into some very fat and huge ptamigan lookalikes. Then we stumbled on a herd of Ibrex, they were upwind and blended into the rock very effectively, we didn’t see them until we were almost on top of them. We then had an enjoyable time trying to stalk the herd, I wanted a photo with them against Mt Everest. It took a while. After that excitement, we set continued up the hill, only to be followed by the herd, or maybe we were just going were they were. I’d had enough about half way up, Charlie pushed me and we carried on. I’m glad he did, the view was worth the wait.

I took a photo of the whole of the base camp area too. I counted about 14 teams. The left of the photo is our camp with 2 other teams, then far left is the chinese/tibetan mountain association outpost. On the far right, towards Mt Everest is the first of the lakes formed in the glacial morraine, past that, off the photo are many more lakes and the moraine, piles of loose rock (the ones Charlie and I went over 2 days ago) and then finally the Rhumbu glacier. We seem to be furthest from the ‘doing’ end and have a long walk through base camp to get to or from our tents each time. We’re assured its the best spot though.

We topped out on a ridge, the others had headed else where. On the way down I traversed a good bit to get to the top of a scree slope and found what I’m convinced was a snow leopard cave. There were different ages of poo outside, neatly piled, new to old, lozzenge shaped, 1-2 inches long. I put my hand in the cave as far as I dared to get a flash photo, no leopard though. The scree run was fast and I waited for Charlie at the bottom, by now it had started snowing and we finished looking like snowmen. Hot soup and an afternoon snooze.

Entry 27

April 19 Walking towards Interim Camp

I forgot to mention, each night after dinner one of the team does a mini presentation. Hempie kicked off with the seven summits and some history behind the North Pole Exploration before concentrating on his hero a Swedish chap called Andre. I did my experiences in Afghanistan and then Rod did bee keeping last night. Very interesting. They go bzzzz.

There was a bit of commotion at 6am, the yak herders were lighting some juniper for luck. I initially thought one of the tents was burning down.

The weather started off blue sky, but we’ve obviously been spoilt as it soon changed and was windy, cloudy, cold and snowing.

Today’s plan was to walk a little way (2 and a half hours) to the interim camp, which is half way to ABC. Hempie is my new partner and we set off last. The route goes up the left side of the moraine, the route Charlie and I had walked down a few days ago. Before turning left and steeply rising to the East. The route was filled with yaks, very timid animals, huge heads. They didn’t like walking past people coming the other way and would go a long way off path to avoid it. There were over 200 making their way up to ABC, none of ours, all other expeditions. Not much to say today, the weather stopped all views and conversation. We were back, cold, for lunch at 2. I’ve got a headache now and the plan is to go all the way to Interim tomorrow, then back again to sleep here. I may give it a miss.

Entry 28

April 20 Interim camp and back

One of the new big generators arrived last night, so we could rig up the projector. We watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom until the fuel ran out half way through. We’ve noticed Graham can sport a good Indie impression, he asserts he had the hat before the film icon. The whip? Gina wasn’t talking.

It was very windy all day and night, hard to sleep when you’re tent is about to lift off. Bob Wilson and John Whitely arrived this morning, they’re attempting to get to the North Col, good to see fresh faces. I felt better today, the headache had gone. Todays plan was to walk up to Interim Camp and back. It turned out to be a hell of a long way!

Rod, Charlie, Hempie and I got to within an hour of the camp before coming back shattered, as we were late one of the cooks walked up to meet us, about an hour, with a flask (like a thermos only its daddy) full of hot orange. Life saver. Some of the route was on sheet ice, Hempie masterful at walking over it, the rest of us slipping all over the place. Hepie has spent a total of 2 years on Polar ice. Day off tomorrow, then we camp up at Interim. Going one way shouldn’t be so bad, coming back too was hard work. Glad I have walking boots, the stones are very lose and going over on an ankle is easy, the ankle support is needed.

I’ve been noticing a couple of things:

  1. Everyone with a face mask (Japan high street style) is coughing badly.
  2. I’m not losing weight, flippin nice Loxton meals…
  3. The Chinese mobile reception is definitely solar powered, crappy day and the signal goes off early, sunny day and it stays on past 9pm.
  4. Al Hinks is a comedy genius.
  5. Trekking poles get in the way.
  6. Windy night stops the condensation freezing to the inside of your tent and dropping down your neck when you get up.
  7. Itchy bottom means I need a shower. Tomorrows job.
  8. Appear to be going through a new pair of lips every day . . .

Entry 29

April 21st Day off

Bob admitted he’d had and still got the remnants of some terrible Gastro Enteritus he’d picked up from a recent trek in India. No one sat near him. We watched the end of Indie and retired nice and early, but the wind kept blowing. Al said something interesting, the wind will be 100 mph on the north ridge, but being so high up, and the air so thin, the effect won’t be as great on the body. I should have known that.

The plan today was a much needed shower (see yesterday), shave and to wash my shreddies. The wind was still blowing strong, kept most of us awake all night. The biggest event was the arrival of Barbara, Stacy and Angie. Barbara is off to the North Col and Stacy is doing a medical experiment, looking at the effects of the Leucine on the body at high altitude with help from Angie.

I washed my clothes in the freezing river and had the first shower with the gas powered shower. The original one was damaged in the crash, so this new one arrived with the visitors. The shower dribbled, but if you bent right down you could get a little flow. Either way it turned out to be very timely, as I was fairly naked during my preliminary fat measurements. I’d even put on deoderant. Phew.

As I was in Afghanistan for the time leading up to this exped I’d missed all 4 of my wife pregnancy scans, she had the last one last week, due on 26 June. Today though I was there in smypathy as I was covered in Ultra Sound gel for my fat measurements. I bet my gel was colder than Katie’s…. Brrr. Apparently I’m 88kg, I left home 93kg, I’m eating well and still have a belly, so I think the machine at one end is broken. It has convinced me to tuck into a Mars bar though.

The wind hasn’t stopped, still battering the tents.

Entry 30

April 22 - The walk to interim camp

We all got issued our power chocolate bars this morming. One a placebo the other drenched in leucin. I got issued B. Stacy didn’t appreciate me trying to give Justin one so I could see what his tasted like! They’re heavy too. Three a day, one with each meal. And two thick booklets to record our diet and health in.

We messed up with our kit. We packed the high altitude stuff for abc three days ago. This goes on yaks, leaving us to carry all the rest through interim camp. Sleeping bag, duvet, sandels, toiletries, water, clothes, solar panel, chargers, first aid, torches, batteries, food, basically everything. When I packed my bag this morning it was flippin heavy. 20 kg plus. Bottom line arrived at interim after 6 hours barely able to function. Shattered. Supposed to be abc tomorrow i need a day off.

Sharing with justin again, Rikki went bck to abc with sore throat and I had one too many bouts of flatulance just in from of Hempie on the way here. Relegated. Its gone now. Quite pleased, to save weight Hempie said he woukd share my pee bottle!

Entry 31

April 23 Flexible day of rest at interim camp

We arrived in a shambles last night, varying degrees of exhaustion, Malcolm declaring he couldn’t have gone another fifty yards, Gina feeling like death, everyone freezing and tired. Thank God the tents had been sorted and food made ready by the sherpas and cooks. Most menbers had lost their appetite too. A warm sleeping bag was very welcome.

Instead of progressing to abc today, Hempie and his advisors decided best have a rest day here to acclimatize a bit more. The trip to abc is similar length, more height gain and obviously higher in altitude, so will be harder. Hopefully the yaks will carry some of the kit we lugged up yesterday. Although the Tibetan Mountain Associatin are very strict and jobs worth so we’re not sure on that outcome. Hempie told everyone off at breakfast for carrying too much yesterday. A bit of a cheek when he used my therma rest, my nokia to text bc (in theory my charger and solar panel included) and was planning to use my pee bottle!

Today has been a lazy, windy, cold, snowy and uncomfortable day. The mess tent has no furniture, just a tarpaulin on the floor, so meals are shivvery cross legged. Most time has been spent in personal tents, unfortunately with no entertainment as it is all on the yaks going to abc. I seem to be the only one keen to eat my three B bars a day. Everyone else saying they are too much or dont taste very nice, I did forget last nights and had to eat it before I dropped off in my sleeping bag after I’d cleaned my teeth. It’d be just my luck to eat all 90, three a day for 30 days and find out I was the placebo….. Richard has bet me i can’t do all 90. A liquid lunch in london the bet. Challenge on.

Entry 32

25th April

The day started with our Sirdar N’temba saying we need to get going to abc as soon as possible to benefit from the blue sky.

We set off rather smartly at 0820. The sun was intense. 19-21,000’ dosen’t have much in the way of atmosphere to stop the UV.

This was the most stunning part of the expedition yet. The moraine split 2 glaciers that had been smashed together until they formed these fantastic Penitente (appearance of pilgrims praying) shapes 20m high, that the path weaved in and out of. The only descriptor i could think of was the Kingdom of Narnia, slightly gay i know, but utterly breath taking.

Then the day got difficult, it was a ‘around the next corner’ day. 5 hours later i stumbled into abc and found the ‘iceland’ banner. A bowl of soup and straight to bed. Altitute didn’t help, but the sun damage took over. Head ache, hot and cold and uncomfortable. Sun cream probaly would have helped.

N’temba is 65 and summited in 93 with hempie. He puts us all to shame by carrying much more and being fresh at each destination.

Entry 33

26th April - Day at abc

My sleeping bag (high altitude, first use) smells of kerosene from the crash, so i had to sleep in the tent ‘porch’ with my head outside. Not the best night. We’re higher now than i’ve ever been before (on foot). 6,500m. 21,500ish.

The plan today was to do nothing, which i did quite happily. Suffering a bit with headache and cold. Peeing an awful lot, 3 times in the night. A good sign, the body changing the ph of the blood. Also my heart rate is a constant 105, which must be burning calories.

Day spent in my tent or in the mess tent eating (feel nauseous but forcing food in), backgammon and trying to catch the fluid intake. Still snowing, getting quite deep now, will have to wait for north col to avalanche before attempting.

Rod now at interim, Richard, Rikki, Malcolm and all at bc. The rest here. The north col guys are now at interim too, they have some time pressure to get up and away.

I ran out of the chocolate lucien bars 2 days ago and tried filling in the survey booklet today of what i’d been eating over the last 3 days, no idea. Ooops, not a very good guinea pig…..

Entry 34

27th April - my dad’s 65 birthday and another day at abc acclimatising

The sun had burnt off all the kerosene from my sleeping bag yesterday, after i left it on my tent and so the bag was just smelly. Old feet and BO. Lovely. I forgot to mention charlie did an awesome talk on his farm at interim the other night. Last night was graham and gina on a holiday in cuba.

I woke to the golden nectar of bed tea. Today we are walking up to the base of the north col. About an hour and a half slog, up to 6770m, 22300-ish. Dramatic views again, you can see the summit, it looks so close, 7000’ away.

Back for lunch and to meet the north col only team, Bob, John and Babs with Rod too. They have done exceptionally well, only been here a few days and abc already. Guessing they’ll start to suffer tomorrow. Malcolm and Richard are still being kept at bc by al. They are frustrated and will probably start for interim tomorrow. Al keeping them low as the weather is still snowy, a good 6 inches last night. Hot sun today, my face feels like its lizard skin, all crackly and dry. Another new pair of lips.

Apparently some newspapers picked up the viagra story too. ‘everest the hard way’ Malcolm not pleased….

At dinner someone commented it was like a cancer ward, everyone coughing, no appetite, pushing food around the plate.

‘Hocking’ clearing ones throat of flegm followed by a spectacularly loud spit. Tibetans are masters, south african Rod is quite good too. At dinner. He apologises afterwards, which is nice.

Just listened to chris talk about the town of Ashbourne, it has a game of football every year on shrove tuesday and ash wednesday, 2000 odd participants, carnage. Started 800 years ago with a human head in a sack. Very interesting. Bed now, big news caved in on the no drugs policy. Doc George has given me 250 mg of diamox. Wll report in the morning. High altitude miserable.

Entry 35

ROYAL WEDDING CELEBRATED ON EVEREST

As street parties get underway throughout sunny Britain today, a very different kind of Royal celebration is taking place 21,500 feet high on Mount Everest.

The Iceland Everest Expedition 2011 is at Advanced Base Camp on Everest’s North side, on their way to reach the summit early next month. Expedition leader David Hempleman-Adams says “We’re an all-British team with one American Anglophile, so we were determined not to miss out on the party. Instead, we brought the bunting, flags and bubbly so we could literally take the wedding celebrations to new heights. Our team wish William and Kate all the very best on their special day.”

The team plan to celebrate with gourmet food and wine supplied by Iceland Partner Loxton Foods. The expedition aims to raise £1 million for Alzheimer’s Research UK. For more information please visit www.icelandeverest.org.uk

Entry 36

April 28

No apetite at lunch, hungry at dinner. Half tablet tonight. I’m always suspicious the symptons cleared up at the same time by coincidence. Drives my nurse wife Katie insane!

A ladder and fixed rope has been set up near the tents so we’ll play on that tomorrow, rehearsing with our ascending devices, crampons etc.

John did a chat on his business of weaving, after dinner, from raw cotton and wool to finished product, from his great grandfather until he sold up just in time, 10 years ago. Hopefully the others are now at interim and will be up here at abc tomorrow. Reunited after 5 or so days. The medical team seem to have left BC and gone elsewhere. Sketchy details at mo. More observations:

  1. doc says I have second degree burns on my face (blisters), Babs to rescue with some expensive cream.

  2. iIs cold here, hypoxic bodies dont handle cold well, so shivering is normal.

  3. expert cold Hempie preaches less clothes in sleeping bag = warmer, particularly no socks. He’s right too. If more warmth needed put duvet coat on top of bag.

  4. Sandals work fine in snow

  5. A pudding bowl of water is ample for a good shower

  6. Drinking from a bottle is very hard, you need to breathe constantly, even a gulp from the bottle sets off fits of hyperventilating.

Entry 37

April 29 Royal wedding day

Couldn’t be a more different place, 6500m on Everest versus Westminster abbey. My toothpaste froze, eventually came out like plasticine. We did a morning of ladder and rope training. Lots of chiefs, not many Indians. My royal air force, mountain rescue experience all came back to me and I am happy with anything we’re planning on the mountain.

My face has healed nicely, must have been expensive cream. All the team is back together now. Richard bounced into camp first, healthy and fit, Rikki next looking much better than he did, then in a quick time also a very trim Malcolm and Al. They’d both had a bit of a nightmare. The porter walking with them offered to carry their bags, and took off with all their food and water before they’d realized the problem. Thirsty and hungry (slightly unhappy in the porters direction) they still arrived in fine fettle.

We took a group photo celebrating the wedding with union jack and sent it onto the BBC, you never know. Chris had even smuggled in some whiskey for a loyal toast to the future king. Good luck Wills and Kate. Justin did the speech after dinner. www.deroemer.com All about his high end fashion company. Personally I think he just likes hanging around attractive models!

Entry 38

April 30

Abc to north col (also called camp 1). today, I coughed up blood from my lungs at 7000m or 23,100’ ish. I also got very cold feet, but that was my fault. The vertical north col has been visible ever since we arrived at abc. A very steep challenge waiting patiently. We were to leave at 8 am sharp. Justin and I were the only ones ready, military training.

We set off to crampon point and got there 40 mins faster than the other day. It took us a reasonable amount of time to crampon and harness, Charlie nearly caught us up. Another hour to the base of the slope and Charlie appeared, no kit on. He’d kept his speed up and caught us up.

The sun was unbearable, we were at the end of the valley, with it stifling straight at us. So hot. There were 21 fixed rope sections, including a rickety ladder over a huge crevasse and many vertical ice bits. We left Charlie with a sherpa, his request, he hated the thought of holding us up (very nice man), it was our friendliest sherpa xangmu.

The two of us tried to keep going at a steady pace. The hardest thing to describe is the lack of oxygen. On the steep bits its possible to run up about 10 steps, but then you collapse on knees, wrists, elbows and forehead, as if you’ve just sprinted a marathon. And stay there for 5 minutes hyperventilating, before doing it all over again. The option to move slow isn’t there either, its so much effort to raise one leg, the hyperventilation break usually follows. we got to the camp after 5 and a half hours, incredibly tired. I got half way through camp looking for our tents, before I insisted Justin carry on ahead. He is fitter than me so goes behind pushing all the way.

While I was worshipping the snow I heard a ‘whoopie’. Justin had discovered our tents, the last ones in the camp… Charlie arrived an hour later, Hempie, Rod and George an hour after that. Around about then I got an incredible coughing fit and thought I was just about to vomit. I got my head out of the tent and spat a load of blood phlegm on the snow. ‘oh bollocks, pulmonary oedema, I’m done for, and will have to go down’

‘George!’

‘I’ve got some bad news for you Graham’

“Sh@# I knew it”

‘spitting blood at this altitude is fairly normal let me know if it gets worse’ happy days!!!!

It did get worse, but I didn’t tell him, normal for this altitude… we’re so lucky to have such a well qualified high altitude doc on the team. Very nice chap too. Now I decided to go poo. Problem was what to wear on my feet. The snow was deep and I didn’t want to put back on my 4 layered summit boots only to take all the layers off straight afterwards. Bare feet the answer. Pooing in a deep snow drift took longer than I thought. As I was finishing I saw the most fantastic view, so fumbling with pocket and camera added more time. By the time I got to the communal tent, first stage frost nip, lesson learned. We’re supposed to sleep on cannula oxygen here. The cannula’s were forgotten. At 1710 a sherpa was radioed to bring them up. By 2000 I am tucked up on half a litre of oxygen per minute. Awesome less than 3 hours, in the dark too, these sherpas are so fit.

We’re still to go all the way back to bc to get strong and wait for a weather window, but Justin and I are within 1800m of the summit and its looking likey. Exciting times. May 1, summit month didnt sleep that well. Had a play with the oxygen masks before we got out of bed. Justin said, ‘awesome we look like fighter pilots!’ ‘no Justin we don’t’ this mornings plan was to walk up to camp 2 on oxygen, in our summit gear, which we hadn’t worn altogether so far. Oxygen is unbelievable. It is fantastic. I even had a mini run. Very few expeds have start oxygen this low, no doubt as we go higher the effect will begin to wear off and it will be back to hyperventilating slog. The O2 has been purchased from a good friend of mine, Ted Atkins, I worked with him in the RAF Mountain Rescue. He has designed this new system (called Top Out) and it seems to work out really well.

We only went a 50 meters or so before heading back to camp. All good. Then we had lunch and descended back to abc. A lot quicker than the way up. The O2 made me feel quite chipper. The lungs had stopped their spewing and we arrived back in fine fettle for hot tea. Tomorrow we’re off to BC and I’ll be able to use the telephone again, so really looking forward to chatting to home (Expect an early wake up call Katie!). Quiet night ahead now, I’m going to do a debrief on the O2 system for everyone, its very similar to my work masks, I’ve now played with the system properly and it was obvious quite a lot had been forgotten since Teds brief, way back in the Summit Hotel.

Entry 39

May 1st - Summit Month

Didn’t sleep that well. Had a play with the oxygen masks before we got out of bed.

Justin said, ‘awesome we look like fighter pilots!’ ‘no justin we don’t’

This mornings plan was to walk up to camp 2 on oxygen, in our summit gear, which we hadn’t worn altogether so far.

Oxygen is unbelievable. It is fantastic. I even had a mini run. Very few expeds have to start oxygen this low, no doubt as we go higher the effect will begin to wear off and it will be back to a hyperventilating slog. The O2 has been purchased from a good friend of mine, Ted Atkins, I worked with him in the RAF Mountain Rescue. He has designed this new system (called Top Out) and it seems to work out really well.

We only went a 50 meters or so before heading back to camp. All good.

Then we had lunch and descended back to abc. A lot quicker than the way up. The O2 made me feel quite chipper. The lungs had stopped their spewing and we arrived back in fine fettle for hot tea. Tomorrow we’re off to BC and I’ll be able to use the telephone again, so really looking forward to chatting to home (Expect an early wake up call Katie!).

Quiet night ahead now, I’m going to do a rebrief on the O2 system for everyone, its very similar to my work masks, I’ve now played with the system properly and it was obvious quite a lot had been forgotten since Teds brief, way back in the Summit Hotel.

Entry 40

May 3rd bc, fattening up

There isn’t much to do a bc. You can’t exactly play i spy. Yesterday was a shower day, today washing clothes, tomorrow polishing my boots.

We happen to be at the tourist point of base camp. Just above our mess tent is a small viewing levelled rock area. Full of loud excitable chinese tourists and the odd western one, that arrive in buses from lharsa. All day, they start at sunrise, 6am, and are still there in force now 3pm. The brave ones wonder through our camp and poke their cameras in the tents. I got accosted by someones mother in law yesterday for a posed photograph next to our plastic flowers, then her friend, complete with IRA all-over-balaclava, teeth and glasses visible, wanted one too. Looking forward to abc.

We’re ‘acclimatised’ now and are getting our strength back ready for the weather window. About 7 days bc - summit.

To show how much weight i’ve lost, my belt has gone in 3 holes! We expect to be here for a good few days yet.

The medical team departed early. Babs is off tomorrow, John and Bob went yesterday. Soon just the original team. Graham and Gina arrived at lunch from interim, leaving the fate of Al, Malcolm, Richard and Rikki unknown. Hopefully they got to the north col yesterday and will be here tomorrow. We don’t have any comms between camps apart from sat phones and Malcolms is turned off…

Entry 41

May 4 and 5th Morning bc fattening

The shepras had a day off yesterday, before they head back up the mountain to get the higher camps ready. Lots of raucus noise came from their tent till quite late, way past 9 anyway. The music was curry house mixed with teen pop, quite unique.

Today is our first sunny day back at bc and its lovely. I’ve got queen playing out of my nokia, while I tap this blog out on its miniture keyboard, in the sun, looking at magnificent Everest. Ive even put stones under the front of my camping chair legs, reclined in bliss.

We’re all recovering from very sore tounges. George says they were sunburnt going up the north col. Its affected the tip of my tounge and about a cm back. Very painful with fizzy drink (ie beer) for a while at least. I’m not convinced. My theory is we have been subjected to some bizarre medical experiment in our sleep. George claims to have burnt the roof of his mouth previously on snow reflection. Hmmmm.

Clothes washing was a success, soap in a bowl then rinse in freezing river. Although the river I’ve realized has its source above abc, so everything from abc, interim and the mountain comes down that way. Its our drinking water too…..

I’ve befriended a kitchen boy, Tashy, from Tigri. I stood next to him in our first puja, during the sherpa dance. He was a bit confused by the red arrows video i sadly have on my little nokia phone. I’m trying to decide what stuff i can leave him, i.e. what the nice men at army stores, biscester, might not want back.

On the subject of Nokia, we are now back at base camp so any blogs with photos are going through my phone. The other guys either haven’t got the software or its too complicated for their blackberries and iPhones to connect to our computers. Hopefully we’ll see the rest of the team back at bc this afternoon. Together again for the final push.

Entry 42

May 5 - Its the waiting I cant stand….

Another sunny day at base camp watching the tendrils of snow whisp off the north ridge like solar flares. There is a lot of snow on the mountain at the moment, so lots of dusty snow is being blown off.

Big news this afternoon, Malcolm is going home on sunday, but not Richard. Malcolm has achieved his original goal of going to the north col and doesn’t want to hang around for a summit push. That leaves Hempie with a predicament. He has 6 summitteers rested at bc, ready to go tomorrow or the day after and 3 summitteers (4 inc Malcolm) coming down from abc, needing a rest. If there is a weather window soon, the 6 rested would be churlish to miss it. The sirdar, n’temba, is also at abc and on his way back. When he gets here Hempie will be able to formulate a new plan as it depends heavily on N’temba’s high altitude sherpa support too. The plan could be all wait together until everyone is rested and go up en-masse. Or 2 distinct groups. Or any other permutation.

During the evening we invited the sherpas and cook boys into the mess tent to watch only our second film on the projector. The good, the bad and the ugly, english extended version. Not many stayed to the end, lots of snoring! Crikey its a long film. I think they think we’re very strange…..

Hoping to have some news for the plan tomorrow.

My health is back to normal, no cough, 86kg (normally 93kg), appetitie good, finger cuts healed, burnt tounge better and no lung blood. Basically let me at it!

Entry 43

May 6 - Medical day

Another lovely day at bc. We nearly gave up on the guys at abc, but around 6ish, very late, the rest of the team rolled in from abc. All looking rather shattered. Apart from perhaps Richard, still dsplaying tigger tendancies.

To treat the new arrivals we ordered ham, fried egg and chips. Which would have been lovely had we not had it two days previous to treat Graham and Gina when they arrived back. And indeed one day before that when my group got back…..

Graham did a quick talk after dinner on how they went looking for and found Mallory. The real target was Mallory’s camera (Graham’s uncle was on the expedition and it was his camera he loaned mallory as mallory’s was broken), which is now assumed to be carried by Irving and still lost. The camera will have proof or not of them reaching the summit.

The main attraction was doc Goerge’s speech on high altitude medicine. Points i picked out:

  1. George (actually proffessor) is in at least top ten of knowledgeable on subject in world.

  2. if you climb without oxygen, you can not work hard enough to keep warm (your lungs can not absorb enough oxygen for your muscles to function quickly ad generate heat) and frost bite is a major worry.

  3. deep hyperventilation is the bodies best defence, those who adjust best and can breathe quickest and deepest acclimatize better.

  4. he showed a video of red blood cells zipping around cappilliaries on a person at sea level, then on a person who had spent time at 6000m. Crikey, thin fast blood, like an electronic circut, compared to sludge moving one hundreth of the speed, many more red blood cells but moving so slowly. Thrombosis and clotting is a big concern with height.

  5. those early pioneers were nutters, 3 french geezers went, in 1862, from sea level to 8000m in one and a half hours in a balloon and 2 died!

  6. In the 60s an experiment had several people living at 5800m for 6 months and demonstrated the human body dies off progressively at this altitude, same as base camp. Heck.

  7. boyle, as in boyle’s pressure law, used to create glass bowls of vacuum (high altitude research) and put animals in them to see how they coped!

  8. The German air ministry sponsored the pre-second world war German Himalayan expeditions to research high altitude flying physiology.

  9. The hairs on the back of the throat malfunction up here, which is what causes the majority of phlegmy coughs.

  10. i am very priviledged to have george on my exped!

Then we watched, with the shepras again, ratatoullie. What must they think? Looks like we’re heading up on monday…..

Entry 44

May 7 - The team splits

Headlines:

  1. Richard declared he has had enough too (having completed his challenge of the North Col) and will leave tomorrow with his dad and Al. Al was only here to guide the Walkers and has summited before, so job complete he is going too.

  2. Summit teams nominated. Team 1 - Hempie, Charlie and Me Team 2 - Justin, George and Rod Team Rikki

  3. Rikki has probable Bronchitis and needs to go down lower, to the border, for 4-5 days to fully recover.

  4. Some Americans have annoyed the Chinese by protesting at the Rhumbuk Monastery, for a free Tibet, the Chinese subsequently have closed the border to tourists till further notice.

  5. Four of Hempie’s guests, have not been allowed access to base camp (point 4), for several days now, so have gone back to Kathmandu and have had a wasted trip. Fingers crossed for my sponsor, Skev, who is due out in a few days, hopefully the border will be back open by then. There have been no annoying loud morning tourists taking photos of our camp for 4 days now.

  6. We had a pseudo Grand National night, and watched a recorded version of the race. Much fun, Rod won. I showed some Red Arrows vids too, very successful.

It’s a real shame Richard is going home, I’m gutted for him, he stood probably the best chance of getting to the top of any of us. A very brave decision, I think he was missing his family too much. He is a top chap and will be missed in the team.

We are all routing for Rikki, Hempie is sorting out a separate climb for him, with lots of sherpa support, I really hope he comes back fit and well, he has fantastic strength, so fingers crossed. If he gets fit quickly enough he will join Team 2.

The teams will be split by a day, Team 1 going on Monday and Team 2, Tuesday. I’m also gutted I won’t be with Justin, we have come to be good friends and climb well together. We will be paired up with individual high altitude sherpas at ABC and then they will climb as our partner, carrying our spare oxygen and some of our kit, enabling us to concentrate on getting to the top. We now have spare Sherpas, as 3 members have gone, and spare oxygen. So i am running out of excuses not to get to the top! Heck.

Entry 45

May 8 - Then there were 6 and a half.

Everyone got up to see off the walkers, al and wish Rikki a speedy recovery. The 2 cars left at 7. The walkers are getting a helicopter from the border, straight to the hyatt. massages already booked.

Rikki is going as low as possible and hopes to recover in time for a summit push. He is also hoping the chinese will let him back. The chinese are still stopping tourists coming up to bc.

My main sponsor, skev antinnou, arrives to Katmandhu on friday. I met him through the red arrows, he is from Cyprus and has several franchises over there, including whitthards teas and the early learning centre, 2 badges i had made and am sporting them down my arm on summit day. He was going to be coming to bc for the 20th, but we should all be finished by then. He has been reorganised and is now arriving at bc a week on wednesday, hopefully just before we come down from our summit push. I’m looking forward to seeing him, i wouldn’t have been able to commit to this trip had it not been for his, and his lovely wife meriel’s generosity.

We had a couple of meetings to decide where the oxygen would be stowed. Although we now have 12 each, we’re planning to use 7. Picking up new ones as we progress through each camp. 7 should be ample. Hempie and graham did it on one in 1993….

Today is the last day of rest. Tomorrow its only up. Hopefully my bag will be nice and light, as most of my stuff is in place already. A short day to interim camp 3-4 hours. Here we go, finally. Nervous? Not really, a week of hard work, summit and home. Thats the plan, simple. Into the unknown of 8000m+. Some flippin journalist coined ‘the death zone’. Cant be that bad……

Entry 46

May 9 bc to interim

I have no idea who or how many people are reading this blog, i you like it please send me an email and i might be able to pick the messages up from camp 2 and above, definitely when i get back to bc. Cheers.

Team 1 set off at 9. Only a short day planned, normally acclimatised members go straight to abc. We’re taking it easy because we can.

We passed heather and steve from adventure peaks. They were on the way down after completing a second acclimatising run up to north col. They had some worrying news:

1 CTMA (Chinese Tibetan Mountain Association) aren’t planning to fix the ropes high up the mountain till after 16 May at earliest. We’re planning to summit before then.

2 a storm at north col has wiped out many tents. The jet stream touched down apparently. Steve was sure our big marmot tent has gone. We also had 5 little tents, one which we left all our summit gear in (down suits, O2 masks etc), so potentially catastrophic.

The only comms we have on mountain are abc and up. So no news passes down from abc. We’ll find out tomorrow the extent of the damage and whether we are ‘peaking’ too early when we get to abc.

I’m lying in mine and justins tent. It ain’t the same without my buddy. I still cant decide which is the head end, both ends seem to be downhill!

The walk up to interim was a lot easier for breathing, no panting just normal breath, however legs feel like walking through Pea soup, no energy. Which agrees with George’s videos on blood cell movement at altitude. Sludge.

Hempie coughing lots in the tent next door and charlie having his afternoon kip.

Latest News

Just to keep everyone who is following Graham on his latest adventure here’s a news up-date…,

They’re stuck..

Thanks to the weather and the Tibetan Mountaineering Association having not managed to get the ropes fixed above 8,300 metres (camp 3) team 1 are held up at ABC, no mans land for communications.

Not wanting to risk being held up in inhospitable conditions and risk the trek to camp3, they sit and wait.

Bored and all missing home twiddling their thumbs.

Fingers crossed team2 will join team 1 tomorrow and the menbers will once again be reunited. Weather window and summit day is set for around the 16th…fingers and toes crossed.

Entry 47

May 10 Interim to abc

Felt rubbish. No energy whatsoever. Legs like jelly all the way. Tried to figure out what it was, lack of food, dehydration or just hanging around at base camp. On the off chance it was thick blood i’ve started taking aspirin.

I’d hoped it would be easier, charlie seemed well, hempie plodding along, but me last in feeling faint.

Rehydration with 8 cups of tea followed and news from team 2. They have had a weather forecast putting off summit day till the 19th so have decided to wait out at bc. Which is good for Rikki as he should be able to join team 2 having got fit at lower climes.

This splits the group somewhat. We have 3 forecasters, one in Toronto, George’s mate, who has said 19th, one through Malcolm, not sure whats happened to that and one from Switzerland, through mine and Hempie’s buddy, clive in bristol, from baileysballoons.com. Now Clive can put an aviation twist on it and talk in knots and Zulu, much more detail than the others. He is forecasting 4 good mornings Thursday through Sunday. So we’re inclined to go with him. Tomorrow is a day off at abc and so another update before committing.

Problem is you degrade so much at high altitude that it is a one shot, once above north col, the chances of a second attempt are very slim. So the forecast is very important. The same Swiss forecaster is supporting another team aiming for summit on friday.

We stayed awake after dinner chatting, its evident we have way too much O2 and 2 sherpas each. No excuse.

Entry 48

May 11 abc day off

A new problem. The fixed ropes, 4 years ago the teams would all get together and donate sherpas, ropes, stakes, carribeenas etc and the route would have a safety rope all the way to the summit. Over the last 4 years the CTMA have taken on the task, charging for each climber as part of the permit. They haven’t done it. Our sherpas and other teams are pulling their hair out. Another reason so many climbing companies prefer the south side. It doesn’t look like it will be done anytime soon either. Unfortunately the ropes are a ‘no-go’ item. The route is so steep, one slip and you’d disappear 10,000’. Last years are no good as the wind shreds them in a matter of weeks. I’ve asked but our Sirdar won’t let his guys go without the rope in place.

Apart from that news, it was another uncomfortable day waiting in a hot tent for meals. I’m begining to dread meals. I feel so sick and not hungry, an effect of altitude that every mouthful makes you gag, its got to go down though, the only way to keep up strength. Seem to be eating egg with everything too, omellette for brekkie, spanish omellete lunch, fried egg dinner. The sherps eat the same thing eveyday, rice and dal bhat a green bland lentil thing. We have it as a side occasionnaly, not the best.

The 3 of us went for a walk just before lunch for something to do. We’re ready and waiting for the ropes…. Team 2 are still at bc.

Entry 49

May 12

Woke up to Sonny and Cher, ‘i got you babe’. Groundhog day.

Bed tea at 7, brakepast (nepalese pronunciation) at 8.

At 9 we wandered over to the CTMA tents to see if we could find out their plans for the ropes. Today no, tomorrow impossible. thats really bad news, if they don’t go tomorrow, we’ll miss our weather window and it’ll be weeks before another. The lead guy had a lockston puppy in tow, awwww.

Back for hot tea and the wait for lunch. More egg.

The afternoon passed without incident, tent bound staring at the roof. So lethargic, couldn’t even muster the strength to pick up a book.

Good news at dinner, the loud singing was the Tibetans and they are planning to start putting in the ropes tomorrow after all. So full steam ahead. The downside is every other party has the same plan, could be a busy route. Fingers crossed it isn’t a rumour. One aspirin, half a diamox and i’m in my sleeping bag trying to not get excited. Tibetans still singing.

Entry 50

Friday 13th

Excited this morning, up earlier than bed tea. Sherpas were already ascending the north col.

I off loaded everything apart from water, torch, gloves, food and hat to a bag for my sherpa. Mine was still heavy, but had crampons, harness and paraphenalia i’ll put on at crampon point.

Porridge and honey for breakfast, Charlie managed 4 fried eggs too. I had my 4 layered boots on just as the message came the Tibetans were’nt going to be putting in the ropes today after all, probably not tomorrow either. A massive anti climax.

We sat around moping for a while before setting off to ask the CTMA why not. We were directed to and found a chinese tent, as we entered the CTMA chap left. We were ushered into an audience with a very rich chinese business man, he was sat at the head of a table, holding court. He said he was vice president of the CTMA and said he didn’t think our forecasts were correct and advised patience. Until about May 20th! He was also the owner of a large mountain, a 7 summitteer, polar explorer and a poet. Hempie took his card, i think he saw a potential client.

Back at the tent fed up we decided to stretch our legs and go for a walk. By the time we got back team 2 arrived. It was great to see them again. Justin neglected to bring his backgammon set as he thought we’d be up the hill by now.

Graham and Gina arrived an hour or so later.

Clive phoned through the forecast and it turned out the CTMA had done us a massive favour and their forecast was correct. We had been planning to summit on monday, this would have been a disasterous move as a jet stream has swung around and will be blowing the top off on that day. Clive suggested new dates, the same as the CTMA’s, 18-20 May. More days staring at the roof of a tent…. At least i’ve got my buddy Justin back for entertainment.

Entry 51

May 14 – ABC

Time passed the same, staring at the tent roof, waiting. I am getting the strength now to read a book and have started the excellent epic, ‘Shantara’ about an escaped Australian Convict in Bombay, true story I think.

We’re still no closer to knowing our date, looks like 18-20 May. The Chinese seem to want their party to summit first, so there may be a bit of stalling involved.

Rikki is having a day off at BC and hopes to be up at interim tomorrow.

I’m regretting leaving my shaving kit behind, I need a shave before using the O2 mask, for a tight fit. May have to do something drastic…..

Sunny and hot throughout the day, then at 1540 sharp the sun disappears and the temperature plummets. Tee shirt in tent to needing to be in a sleeping bag within about 30 secs.

Hanging in there, hopefully good news soon.

Entry 52

May 15

“Put your little hand in mine, aint no mountain we can’t climb, babe, I got you babe…”

Still here at ABC…

All hell broke loose at the CTMA meeting yesterday, someone suggested the teams should discuss tactics and so on as all the leaders were present. After that, the subject of missing O2 bottles came up. One leader stood forward and blamed the Sherpas for stealing O2 on the mountain.

Error.

The place erupted. Crikey I thought the Sherpas were always mild mannered. Never offend them! They had a very loud and vocal union meeting near our tent.

It went on for hours, turns out they’d drafted a letter to the Nepal Tourism Office which they then brought to our mess tent and tried to get Hempie to sign as witness at the meeting. The letter called for severe action against the leader who’d accused the sherpas of stealing at a multinational meeting.

This leader runs a company that depends on sherpas, it ain’t looking good for his future…. Hempie managed to side step the issue and agree with them without signing, very diplomatic. His get out clause was the accusation and subsequent arguing was in Nepalese, so he didn’t know what was said, exactly.

Acclimatisation

May 15th The science bit by Dr George….

It was necessary early in the trip to come to this altitude (and higher) for acclimatisation purposes. After our descent to Base Camp to recuperate, we had hoped to be able to come up fairly rapidly to the summit, such that we only had a day or two at ABC.

Now we find ourselves spending many more days here than we hoped on our summit push, while we wait for weather and ropes to be installed high on the mountain. Thus at this point we find this additional number of days at 6400m is taking its toll on our mental and physical energy, because this is simply too high for anything like complete adaptation. As a result, we may find our summit push (which we hope will arrive will arrive within the next 2 or 3 days) to be physically more demanding than if we’d just come up from Base Camp and kept moving higher each day until we reached the summit.

In short: at this point, we are just deteriorating.

Entry 53

May 15-17

I decided to group all 3 days together as not much happens at ABC!

Although I did have a shower (bowl of water), shave and washed my only t-shirt and pants, I wasn’t quite prepared for the extended stay here, I have clean stuff at the North Col and BC, not ABC. The t-shirt didn’t dry in time for bed so I had to put it on when it was frozen solid as a board before I got into my sleeping bag. Very damp and cold for a while, the Rab down sleeping bags are awesome. Even sleeping with soaking wet socks isn’t a problem (off feet), wake up in the morning and everything is dry. I sleep with my 2 mobile phones (UK and chinese) and camera too in an effort to preserve their batteries, in case they work above the North col. they are a bit lumpy.

Justin made an excellent back gammon board by drawing on his sleeping mat (he even drew the hinges of the fold out board) and that has been the source of our entertainment, well mine and his anyway. the pieces are carved brazilian nuts for the white and dark stones for the black. The dice are somewhat variable, hard cheese. hey work well, lots of double sixes, at least its the same for both of us! It is considerably better than the usual death stare at the roof of the tent.

Rikki arrived on the 16 May, yesterday, bringing my razor from BC thankfully. It is so good to have him back, I get on really well with him. He seems a lot better and our rest day on the 17 May has done him loads of good. He is now coming with the main team, having got his acclimatisation spot on. He is probably the best prepared out of all of us, although he is still worried about his bronchitis.

We are planning to go as one group of 7 (binning the 2 team idea), my Sherpa is called Nima, he’ll be with me all the way up to the top. The CTMA have apparently set off today to put in the fixed ropes, 17 May, so we are full steam ahead for tomorrow (again). Planning to summit on the morning of 21 May hopefully.

I’m noticing injuries don’t heal too well here at ABC (21,000’). Particularly small cuts on finger ends, they stay raw and painful, I guess because there is limited oxygen. I have lost so much weight, my 36” trousers slip off my waist and down my legs with buttons done up. traditionally I’m a 38” waist. Unfortunately George insists nearly all the mass lost is muscle mass. I remember going to a super hero fancy dress party as the incredible hulk, the most frequent response was “the garden pea jolly green giant isn’t a super hero” so imagine what i look like now!

I have finished the epic book Shantaram, 937 pages. a truly excellent read. its stopped any idea i had of an autobiography, my life just wouldn’t be nearly interesting enough. He escaped from a maximum australian security jail, after being a heroin charged armed robber, joined the bombay mafia, lived in a slum, went off to war against the russians in Afghanistan and much more. I sort of just bumbled along. not the same.

There is a multi-national group here, and their swiss team leader (Kirri or maybe Charlie) is excellent. He has been very helpful with advice, CTMA dealings, weather, tactics and everything, very generous. We are really all novices, sort of making it up as we go, so a brief from someone who knew what they were talking about was very useful. It is his 11th visit to the mountain. I think the group are called ‘Kohbler and partner’ not sure on the kohbler spelling. Their setup is very professional and organised. If anyone is reading this and wants to go to the summit next year I recommend going with them.

So fingers crossed for tomorrow, if the weather holds and we hear the CTMA have stayed up and begun fixing the ropes, we’re off. Can’t wait.

Progress Update

Nearing the Summit

The Iceland Everest summit team left bright and early this morning, as most of us slept the team finally left ABC, all hopes are for the good weather to remain and for each of them to return safely…

The communications team are in constant touch with family and friends…

Here’s a little of what Graham Hoyland had to say…

“They also serve, who stand and wait.” Or so someone wrote. The climbing team left for the mountain yesterday after final preparations, stocking up on food, and performing final oxygen set checks. I feel like a parent sending a child off to school for the first time.

All we have to do over the next five days is download weather reports and radio them up to the climbers in the high camps. Also we will prepare a small casualty clearing station in the form of a bed with an oxygen cylinder and a medical kit. We also have a Gamow bag, which is like a giant inflatable sleeping bag with windows. If a climber comes down from high altitude suffering from fluid on the lungs or brain, we put them inside and use a foot-pump to pressurise the bag. The extra air pressure can take the climber down to an effective height of Zhangmu, 2000 metres below us here at ABC. This can give enough of a respite to get the climber well enough to get out the bag and start walking back down to Base Camp.

As I write this Gina and I are chatting to Mingma, the Sherpa Camp manager. All we can do over the next few days is…..wait.

Duff Summits!!

May 21st

Finally on the 21st of May at 6.55 a.m Graham Duff completed the challenge of his lifetime by Summiting Mount Everest as part of the Iceland Everest team.

Here’s a taster of what’s to come..

Charles Hobhouse and George Rodway were taken ill during their summit attempts and had to abandon their ascent. Rikki Hunt began climbing up from camp three but decided “it didn’t feel right”, and opted not to continue. They all made the right decision: the mountain is littered with the bodies of those who didn’t turn around when they should. They all arrived back at ABC one by one – exhausted, dehydrated, but safe.

This left only four. Then a Sherpa came on the radio. Mingma translated – they were on the summit! Rodney Hogg, Graham Duff, and Justin Packshaw had all made it at 06:55am on a beautiful, windless day. We went outside to peer at the top of the world, three miles above us. Everest’s summit is only the size of a dining table: it was amazing to think that they were up there. We were delighted, not knowing that the next day and night would be even more stressful than the last.

Graham will fully up-date us all tomorrow when he’s had time to re-charge his batteries.

Entry 54

18 May ABC to North Col

Well we’re finally off, again. Hopefully. Apparently the CTMA are still on the mountain, so fingers crossed. It was a day to do in your own time. Also it was obvious every other team had been waiting for the go. As we got half way up, looking back, you could see a line of ants following us up, about 200 people.

A minor disaster happened at a rest break. As we stood up, I looked down to see a big stain of yellow liquid under my rucksack snow dent. It was my camelback water system (lime flavour). I’d forgot it was in my rucksack and sat on it! Heck, that was my only drinking delivery system.

I think the liquid had been forced through the lid and no harm was done, >apart from Justin had already set off, leaving me at the back of the queue. We got to the North Col camp in under 4 hours, much quicker than previous. Our old tent had been fairly destroyed in high winds, so we moved next door. The tents had been there so long, they had sunk in the snow, as they’d heated up with the sunlight. The snow had also piled up high against the sides. As we were there early in the afternoon Justin got busy drawing a Backgammon set on my therma rest to keep us occupied.

The night was uncomfortable, the floor had been melted to a shape of a banana.

Entry 55

19 May North Col to Camp 2

We got fully dressed in our summit gear, wearing the full suit and under clothes. 2 minutes later we’d all overheated as the sun was out and there was no wind. Crikey it was hot. Charlie stripped off and exposed all his skin, neck and above. I tried to keep covered, having learned my lesson on the way up to ABC the first time. We then joined the ant procession up the hill, a never-ending snow slope. It went on and on. 5 hours later we arrived at the camp site, the Sherpas still had heavy bags so we arrived at about the same time. They then needed to dig out the tent sites. The mountain-side was steep, so they dig into the snow and rock and build a wall until they have made a ledge big enough to place a tent. This was the beginning of our problems. The tents took so long to place that by the time we were in and ready for drinks (snow had to found and melted) and food it was very late and we didn’t hydrate properly. 2 bowls of noodles to share per 3 man tent and little water.

Justin and I sorted Charlie out, he was struggling a bit after his sun exposure. Not a good nights sleep, tired, hungry, thirsty and in a 2 man tent.

—May may

Entry 56

20 May Camp 2 to Camp 3

Charlie wasn’t well today. He had gotten sun stroke and it cumulated in a bout of sudden diarrhoea in the tent, effectively ending his Everest bid. He was one of the strongest members too, we were all gutted for him, so he headed down to ABC with his Sherpa.

Breakfast was a cup of noodles (supa noodles) and weak tea. I managed to get half my water bottle filled up. Lunch was a chocolate bar.

The route up to Camp 3 went straight up the ridge line, in a queue of people, I didn’t mind the queue too much as it kept the pace steady. I overtook a few people and arrived at camp 3 ahead of the pack and got a great piccy of Rod coming up to the camp above the cloud, we’re now at 8300m, 27,000’ish.

Again the camp wasn’t prepared, even worse all the kit, the tents and oxygen was stored at 8100m, meaning the Sherpas had to do shuttles to get the stuff, then start digging into the mountain side to make the ledges. There is a reasonable argument for not preparing the camp early, the winds are ferocious and will tear down any tent very quickly.

A Malaysian camp lost everything. Again it meant we were to miss out on boiled snow and food. George arrived not able to speak, he’d picked up a chest infection and it had attacked him quickly. Justin and I shared a tent with Rikki, and eventually a Sherpa too. We were only going to be there for an afternoon, planning to leave late evening (9ish) for the summit.

I started panicking, I was certain we needed at least 10 litres to hydrate and fill our water bottles between the 3 of us. By 7pm we had boiled 3 litres. Never-mind any water that could be used for food prep.

At 9pm we were ready ish to go, head torches on, looking at the precession of lights ahead, one group already way ahead on the ridge. I had no food and had 1 and a half litres of water in my camelback and 1 and a half litres in a bottle I gave to my Sherpa, Nima. I decided to carry extra oxygen, normally 1 bottle each, with the Sherpa carrying 2 spare, I carried 2 my self.

George was worse, he couldn’t go on and got him self prepared to go down. Rikki got as far as fixed to the rope and his crampon broke, he hadn’t been himself and decided enough was enough, a sign not to go on, he too headed down.

George later had an epic, again a diarrhoea story……. It went in his hood without his knowledge right up until he put his hood on his head….. it was Graham’s suit and when Graham saw him at ABC he said “how have you got mud on my suit?” “That aint mud” George replied as he pushed past him to the shower tent….

Entry 57

21 May Summit day

Justin and I were a little behind Rod and Hempie who’d set off at 9 exactly. Nima wasn’t quite ready, but said for us to go ahead and he would catch up. I actually felt really good, excited, confident and fit.

Even though it was dark and 9pm, the moon was full, hidden on the other side of Everest, and was highlighting everything. There was a line of lights far ahead of other groups. The ‘7 Summits’ group had set off very early and would eventually summit in the dark.

I started to get cold toes in the queue and said to Justin I was going to start overtaking people, did he want to come? He wanted to wisely stay with his Sherpa. The problem with overtaking is you have to unclip from the rope, walk alongside the line of people and find somewhere to clip back in again, all the while on a 10,000’ sheer slope, walking on snow, ice and rock. Also the burst of speed was expensive, the legs would happily cope, using the stored oxygen, but the penalty on the lungs, slow to catch was immense, it felt like I was properly suffocating. Eventually I got to the head of the line. The route went straight up to the ridge. I found myself topped out on the ridge and completely alone. It was spectacular, very serene and moving. Way off in the distance I could see the tops of thunder storms as the lightning streaked across the clouds at 28,000’. I got some great pictures of the summit and Cho Oyu in Everest’s moon shadow, with my slow lapse camera.

I was just in my own world. The only people ahead were far ahead, the ‘7 summits’ group and I was far ahead of the main pack coming up from Camp 3. Oxygen was a worry, I hoped Nima would catch me up before the summit, and before I ran out.

I was shocked back to reality with the first of 4 dead bodies on the route, I came round a corner and there were 2 booted feet sticking out of a snow filled crack. One of the bodies was gruesome, tied up by his feet, the route walked around him, on his back, arm frozen vertically in a salute, face fully visible and horrid.

There are 3 steps on the North Ridge (Like the single Hillary step on the South Side). So I thought there would be 3 scrambly bits, very wrong, the route became very technical, much more than I was prepared for, not a problem going up, fixed ropes with an ascending device makes it easy to pull up, down was going to be a problem. Quite a few sections were long and scary, a tiny ledge of rock for crampons to scrape and slip on, with no hand holds, lumpy rock pushing your body out and a massive drop, luckily not visible in the dark!

I scared my self by stopping for a rest and putting my arm up to the ever present rock to my left only to find it pushed through into thin air. Right through the cornice and out over the drop to the other side on the ridge. I stood up sharpish and moved back from the edge a bit!

About now I got very cold fingers and had to consider taking my rucksack off to find my down filled mitts. Its strange, it seems so obvious now. But the effort of decision to take off my rucksack, open it, and dig through the contents made it almost impossible. That’s how frost bite so easily occurs. Eventually mitts on, warm hands and feet, no probs.

I thought I’d gone too fast I was at the base of the Summit pyramid by about 2am, still alone, I didn’t want to summit in the dark and I was needing my Sherpas water and oxygen. I started to realize how weak I was about then. No food for a few days and I was at the end of my water. I tried my last lucozade sport energy gel, frozen solid. I put it back in my pocket where it slowly oozed out over my gloves.

With the infinite possibilities of the human mind, mine was now fully wired to ‘up’ and nothing else. Onwards, always forwards. A good friend of mine, the only ginger pilot in the Red Arrows, Kirsty, told me it was simple,

Step 1 Put left foot in front of right foot Step 2 Put right front in front of left foot Step 3 Repeat steps 1 and 2

Funnily enough that’s all I could think of.

There are so many false summits, false hopes, it took me a further 4 hours to reach the summit ridge, probably only a 100m. I had been on my second oxygen bottle for quite a while now, but it didn’t matter, I had to get to the summit.

I was literally 10 yards to go and I got a tap on my calf, I looked round to see a grinning Nima! ‘Dude! Have you got my oxy?’ A big grin in reply. Phew.

We sumitted together at about 6am. I cried, a wailing child cry, the sort where the sides of your mouth are dragged down and your mouth opens. I was happy, but I had physically given everything.

Its difficult to explain the feelings, exhausted, beyond normal, hypoxic, starving, dehydrated, excited, elated, flippin cold and finished.

There was some joker playing an Alpine Horn, I later saw a para-glider launch and disappear after 3 seconds too.

Many people had turned round from my side, a Norwegian I spoke to got to 8,500m and froze, couldn’t go on. Stopped for 40 minutes, then turned back and walked down in a group of eleven people who had also turned back.

I quickly lost my hat, a photo I wanted a picture of, my camera case, its windy on top and I wasn’t firing on all cylinders. I forgot to phone my dad, take many pictures I had planned and generally do what I’d dreamed of.

Nima persuaded me to pack up and get going. We were just leaving as I recognized Rod and Justin coming up, I waited a while, they took so long, 20 mintes to do about 20 yards, I gave up and went down for an emotional cuddle. I bumped into Hempie soon after and had a tearful photo, he was elated and with the same Sherpa N’temba, who he had sumitted 20 years ago from the south side with. He had 100m / 4 hours to go!

Now the epic really began, it took me longer to get back to Camp 3 than it did to get to the summit.

One abseil I was all set up for, I had connected my ropes, checked my karabiners and was ready. I just couldn’t get over the edge. There was a frozen dead body at the base and it was very off putting. I started coughing up sweetcorn bits from my lungs too, solid phlegm, at one stage it got caught in my throat and made me rip my mask off as I gagged and vomited. I think this was what broke my mask, I now had no oxygen. I could only walk 10 yards before I had to stop and sit down each time.

Nima produced my water, frozen solid. Before I could stop him, he’d decided it was useless and threw it away.

Later I would find out an Irish chap had got too high and couldn’t get back down the second step and would become the fifth body on the ridge. Justin and Rod caught me up and walked with me to Camp 3, they were similarly shattered. We were all out of Oxygen, unbelievably the helpful Sherpas had cleared all the spare oxygen out to the North Col, so the ample Oxygen we thought we had, disappeared.

At Camp 3 we rested for a few hours and tried to drink some water. The Sherpas insisted we couldn’t stay, we were above 8,000m and in the ‘death zone’. Rod went ahead and eventually, heroically, made North Col. My crampons broke repeatedly and I gave up putting them back on and slipped down to Camp 2 with Justin.

There was nothing there. Only a tent. No food again. Xhangbu, Justin’s Sherpa went begging for a cooker and a pan. He also procured a radio so we could talk to Graham at ABC. We asked for some oxygen, a spare bit for my mask, food, a cooker, a pair of crampons and other stuff to be brought up by Sherpa as we were in a bad way. We didn’t realize that all the Sherpas were knackered, Hempie was in peril at camp 3 and no help would be coming. It was a miserable night. Xhangbu did a sterling job and made us some weak tea and filed half a litre each into our water bottles.

This was the worst nights sleep yet. The wind was flattening the tent, the tent was so slopey, we 3 were crammed into less than half the space. Justin and I had a sleeping bag, but no matting, straight onto the snow floor, Xhangbu wore my down suit over his and kept his boots on. Miserable.

Entry 58

22 May Camp 2 to ABC

A day of 2 halves.

Graham had sent our Oxygen up to Camp 3, thinking Hempie’s need was greater. There would be a pair of crampons waiting for us at North Col. That was it. No mask, no new cylinders, no food. A little water Xhangbu had melted.

I briefly had a childish ‘I can’t do it moment’ while I was trying to get out of the wet sleeping bag into my frozen wet down suit. I’m pleased I kept it to myself though. I was so weak. I manned up and carried on.

We stumbled down to the North Col, the wind was ferocious, I stopped every 20 steps to catch my breath and rewarm my hands, frost bite a moment away. Xhangbu had given me his crampons, he fixed mine with string for him to wear. Legend.

At North Col was food and water AND OXYGEN!!! And spare bits for my mask. We rested for 2 hours, ate and drank.I had an accident, as the exhaustion caught up with me and I had an attack of diarrhoea, the sort that has no warning, you get the idea.

Gloves on until ABC and the shower tent. Hempie pitched up. He’d had an even worse time than us, although he had had oxygen. He’d got to Camp 3 late to find it gone, the Sherpas had packed up and left. He had had to go begging another group for a tent to sleep in, had no sleeping bag and used all his arctic experience to stay alive. “In my 19 visits to the Arctic I have never been in or experienced wind like that” he said.

The second half of the day was wonderful, Justin and I changed out of our suits, put on oxygen and set off down the sheltered North Col, the sun even shone on it. Reinvigorated, on our last leg of the journey, fed, watered and happy. It was a lovely way to finish, with me new best buddy too. Amazing what a meal and a drink will do.

Back at ABC we had an emotional reunion with Rod, Rikki, Charlie and George and waited for Hempie and N’temba, who were still resting, eating and drinking at the North Col.

They arrived a few hours later. 4 sumitteers, no injuries. Done.

Entry 59 - Final Post

May 27 Hyatt in Kathmandhu

I knew it was over when I sank into the bath. 10 vials of hotel soapy stuff, it was like soup. It took us 2 days to drive from BC to Kathmandhu. A fantastic sceneried trip, but wasted on tired folk who just wanted to get back and get clean.

Thank you so much for all the support. It turns out it wasn’t just my mum reading the blog.

Flying home Qatar Airways tomorrow. 61 days away. A bit like Afghanistan, I’m really looking forward to coming home. See you all soon.

Kindest regards

Graham (aka Duffy)

Reach for the Summit

Duff Summits!!

Graham Duff finally reached the summit of Mount Everest on the 21 May 2011 at 6 a.m…We all want to wish him congratulations on this amazing achievement and I hope you all agree he has entertained us with his amazing blogs, offering us all an insight into his adventure. Entries:63