At breakfast it seems that others are feeling the after effects of the chicken as well but we soon start up the mountain for the last time! My focus on eating seems to be paying off as for the first time I feel that I have plenty of energy. I am also wearing my face mask again with the restricted airflow that comes along with it which seems to moderate my breathing. I end up walking with a group of Sherpas which is no mean feat but it turns out that it is a slow group (slow for Sherpas) as some others pass us on a tricky, steep section.
This is quite a different climb to previous ascents. There has been a huge melt since we were last here and whilst we have lost the pure white of before there is a lot more character and variation to the area. There are probably about 60 people (possible more) heading up this morning and this provides excellent views back down the headwall with snakes of people on it and coming up the glacier from ABC.
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| Crossing the glacier to the headwall |
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| A lot of the snow and ice has melted giving the headwall a much rockier face |
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| The string of other climbers coming from ABC |
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| Heading up the headwall - not too many people in the advance groups |
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| Queues starting to build up on the lower sections |
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| Picture from the headwall (quite a steep section!) of the groups heading up from the North Col to Camp 2 |
Things aren't so good when I get to the top. Our tents are in the most exposed part of the camp and there is quite a wind coming over the Col. We have lost two tents in the wind and so all the equipment has been put into the other two meaning there is little space for shelter. I head in for about 15 mins until some of our Sherpas turn up and then it is back into the cold and wind to pitch two new tents - starting with digging out the snow and ice to try to get flat and even sites for the tents.
Once that is done we head in to rehydrate and eat - tomorrow we head up to 7,800 or so which is a pretty big day and preparation is key! I manage to eat quite a bit which should hopeful stand me in good stead for tomorrow.
It turns out that one chap had come down pretty badly with the chicken bug and turned back about half an hour after we started up the mountain - it is not clear what opportunity he will get to make an attempt on the summit now; what rotten luck!
My ribs have taken a significant turn for the worse. I have no idea what has caused this but any form of cough or sneeze is terrible and deep breaths are painful. I have upped my Ibuprofen to 800mg but am not seeing much difference - I can't sleep on my left side any longer which can't be good! The only positive here is that it doesn't really seem to be impacting my walking yet unless I push too hard on a very steep section and need to take some very hard deep breaths.
I sleep pretty poorly which is far from ideal but this seems similar to what I have suffered from on previous expeditions so I am not too worried. This was probably exacerbated by the fact that 3 of us are sharing a '3' man tent and (despite our valiant efforts given the conditions) there is a reasonable slope so very shortly I am sleeping in a 1 foot corridor between the side of the tent (where all my gear is stored) and one of our Sherpas (the joys of heading for the summit) and things are probably only going to get worse as we head to the highest and most uncomfortable campsites in the world!
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