It was a real effort sleeping at the Rongphu Monastery Guesthouse last night - half because of the extreme cold and half because of the extreme altitude - really simple things like going to the toilet (latrine) and just eating take so much effort. I've still got that blocked nose so when I'm eating I can't breathe through my nose and I've got to hold my breath as I chew with my mouth closed - this becomes really tiresome after a few mouthfuls because I'm not getting enough air. Even unpacking and packing your bags will get your heart rate and breathing up and make you feel tired.
The toilet thing is a problem as well because when you sleep at night it's really too much effort to go for a marathon 100m to the outdoor latrine in -10degrees, to compound this you have to drink a lot of water at high altitudes and that leads to urinating alot as well but I just held my bladder all night to make for another uncomfortable night of sleep.
Nevertheless, despite all these problems it's worth seeing the sun rise over Mt Everest as you wake up. I've taken a liking to Tsampa as well for breakfast energy food. You just get a scoop of barley flour in a bowl, add some Yak butter tea, some sugar and some powdered milk and use your spoon to mix it into a gooey looking paste and then eat it. It looks like raw sewage but actually tastes halfway palatable.
After breakfast our driver drove us 8km to the site of Everest base camp where we'd continue on foot. Today was our lucky day as it was the last day of the climbing off-season so we were allowed past EBC as there was no-one there to stop us. Usually, normal tourists like us aren't allowed past basecamp. We thought it would be cool to see if we could make it to camp 1 and back in a day. Mind you, with the strong winds and cold temperatures I had to wear a scarf around my nose and mouth as well as a broadbrimmed hat and 'blind-man' sunglasses to stop getting sunburnt and keep the dust and cold air out of my eyes, nose and mouth.
Basecamp and beyond is total moonscape - nothing grows here and you are hemmed in on the eastern and western sides by desolate mountains made out of loose rock and dirt. To the front is Everest with the Rombuk glacier at its foot. The Rombuk glacier has blue spikes resembling the planet Krypton.
It was really tough going at about 5300m - I don't know how these freaks/idiots make it to the summit at 8850. We had to stop and and pause for a break to get some water and let our headaches subside a bit every few hundred metres . We all got headaches from the lack of oxygen but nothing serious enough to stop us from moving forward slowly. It's a shame we didn't have the time to acclimatise properly to the altitude first before we attempted our trek.
It felt absolutely incredible to move closer and closer to the Everest mountain itself - at times this would override the heache and exhaustion and I would move a little more spritely. Lunch was a picnic on some rocks at 1:00pm consisting of cold pancake, dried apricots and banana chips - you also lose your appetite at high altitude hence the small lunch - I guess it will be my highest picnic ever.
After lunch, Phil forged ahead at mountaineers pace leaving Holly, Sarah and myself to trudge along slowly - I'd given up making it to camp 1 and now the goal was just to get to Rombuk glacier before turning back. Our headaches got worse and worse and exhaustion was beginning to set in at about 3pm where with each step forward, we knew it would be an extra agonising step to take back. I saw a pile of rocks overlooking the glacier and set that as my final turning point - it would be the highest I'd get and the closest to the summit of Mt Everest I'd get this time I thought to myself, satisfied with having come this far.
Me looking cool on top of a pile of rocks at the self-imposed turning point - Everest is the 'smoking pyramid' on top of my head.
A 'self-shot' with Everest in the background...
With my camera's 3x zoom this is what you actually see with your eyes where I was standing.
The walk back down to basecamp and then the tents 4km beyond was torrid! We were now heading down the valley without the psychologically magnetic pull of Everest infront of us anymore -
the physical exertion we'd put on ourselves throughout the day had been huge so the headaches got worse and the rest-stops more frequent - at about 6:30pm we'd made it back to Hotel California with the help of our Landcruiser for the final 800m. All-in-all I think we'd walked a total of 12km today which is not so much at sea-level but a total killer at 5300m. You can just make out the black tent on the right hand side - 'Hotel California'.
I'm now staying at the most unsanitary dormitory ever in Cho-Dzom deep in a valley where we left Hugo to help us recover from our altitude sickness. The place reeks of a mixture of Dog and Human body odour and the walls are manky. Too much of Tibet has no running water or electricity and I'm using my sleeping bag for the first time to shield myself from the smell. I'm looking forward to a visit to the hot-springs tomorrow to relax my tired body and clean myself.
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