Unlimited Potential, Up to 8000m

Last night was horrible again. Fighting with the pillow, trying to find an even surface in my tent to place the sleeping mats, and not sliding towards one side all the night. I changed my position after the first night, with head next to the vestibule instead of feet, but nothing worked well… Moving all night long, running out of breath, growing the anxiety because of not being able to fall asleep, hearing my climb partner in agony again, turning right and left, upside down again, feeling warm, cold, itching on my head!!!… I ended vomiting in a plastic bag… I plugged the iPod Angelica prepared for me and I finally managed to relax and eventually fall asleep.

Right after I woke up we commented our difficulties with the rest of the Team, and I’ve surrendered… I’m on Diamox today 😦

This is a popular high altitude drug. The commercial name in some countries is Edemox and the active principle is Acetazolamide. This medication forces the kidneys to excrete bicarbonate, triggering some effects that will help on acclimation and fighting AMS. The blood gets re-acidified, balancing the effects of the hyperventilation that occurs at altitude in an attempt to get oxygen. This re-acidification acts as a respiratory stimulant, particularly at night, reducing or eliminating the periodic breathing pattern common at altitude. That’s why some climbers know it as the Sleeping Pill.

After breakfast my main goal today was to re-engineering the setup of my tent. I can barely move without loosing my breath, but with the help of three Sherpas now I have a perfectly flat, free of rocks and ice surface, where to reposition my tent. I’m also getting rid of my extremely expensing Thermarest expedition inflatable mattress, which keeps sliding over and over again. I hope both the sleeping pill and the new setup of my nest allows me to have a decent nigh for the first time at ABC.

Tomorrow we are starting with our first rotation, meaning that we are looking to tag the Camp 1 at the top of the North Col and back to ABC for some rest before repeating the operation or retreating to BC. The idea is to get as high as possible on the icy wall of the North Col. But we don’t have stupid rules along the way, like the ones Russell from Himex set as part of his $75k deal on the South Side, where all team members have to execute several rotations with military precision under his supervision, otherwise they are turned back home. We do have a telescope to observe the progress of climbers on the North col, but unlike Russell we only use it if we suspect they are hot chicks (or birds as the English like to say 😛 )

As part of preparations for my first rotation, I’ve been inspecting and simplifying my climbing gear. I’m not happy at all with two things:

– My climbing harness fits two small on top of my expedition suit. I have a BD Colouir, probably the lightest in the market for alpine climbs. I’ve got a size S because it packs like a box of cigarettes. Now I know if was not wise to bring only that one here. I can buckle it with no issues, but if you want to do double buckle for extra safety then it fits too tight 😦

– My down saloppettes (the bottom part of my two pieces down suit) has the perfect length for a short man like me, but it compresses my chest making breathing even more difficult. I have wide back, and I thought it will get more elastic with the use, but on the summit push, wearing two layers underneath it will for sure bother me a lot. I think I’ll need to use scissors on this crazy expensive piece of gear 😦

Lets see how it goes tomorrow. I’m not using the expedition suit but the normal stuff I use on my alpine climbs, plus new ice climbing pants from NF and my new Expedition Climbing Boots, La Sportiva Mons Evo (my existing Scarpa Phantom 8000 are too cold for Everest)

Climb on!

It’s my first day at Advance Base Camp, and I’ve had the most horrible night so far. A combination of extreme altitude (6450m) triggering some of the symptoms of AMS, and a uncomfortable position in the tent, with a very uneven surface making the exercise of sleep somewhat similar to a stunt of Cirque du Soleil. One of my climbing partners sleeping two tents away from mine sounded like in agony the whole night. Its was horrible to hear him winging loud all night long. He woke up and said that was the worst night of his life. I was so worried thinking he was already affected by HAPE or HACE… I knew our Expedition Leader would take care of him and thus I was waiting in my tent trying to fall asleep. And when I finally did I have the most spooky dreams. Some of my colleagues told me the also have these sort of dreams at high altitude. In my case it was all about anxiety and confronting with some of the people I love the most. Do you normally have these dreams where you want to get somewhere but you can’t because you move very slowly? You run and your goal is far, and you can can run fast, and the time goes away. My dreams this night were somehow similar, with the only difference that I was running very fast but not being able to reach my goal. Everything on my dreams tonight was extremely fast, like my heart rate I guess… Very extenuating dreams, lots of anxiety… I don’t know how many night I’ll have to suffer like this :S

Today I feel so tired… I took a quick nap that I restricted to about an hour, because the idea of sleeping during the day and being awake the whole night simply terrifies me :S I feel so bored of resting the whole day… Laying down somewhere all the time, restricting the exercise to a five meters walk from my tent to the dinning tent just to prevent myself from running out of breath again… I’m not hungry at all, and seeing all yummy food prepared by our skilled cook Pumba (The Lazy Lama) passing in front of my eyes in the dinning tent makes me feel sick. I also feel apathetic… I don’t want to talk, I don’t want to read, I’m not interested on the music in my iPods, I have nothing to write about, no photos to take, and I don’t even want to stare at the Holy Mother, Mt Everest 😦

We now have a weather forecast predicting the Jet Stream to move towards the North side around the 27th. That means we have some few days to squeeze two rotations in, or to rest “well” at ABC and tag the North Col once before we retreat to Base Camp.

Last night both Markus and I had a very good sleep,. I could say the best since I left Dubai. It must be related to the lack of exercise and anxiety we had for so many day or weeks, and now we are finally using the muscles and climbing Everest!

We woke up, had milk tea with a boiled egg and a piece of bread, folded our tents, and moved quickly up to Advance Base Camp. I could not get any water for the Trek and that kept me nervous most of the day… and not only that…

The trek was extraordinarily long and demanding, with dozens of yaks along the way, making the whole experience somehow similar to an obstacle race. Almost all team members split up keeping with their own pace, and we all arrived at ABC very tired and with some symptoms of AMS. It’s been such a long day… 650m of gain elevation, but I reckon the positive gradient is about 800m since there are many sections where you go up and down hiking the moraine detritus and icy hills of the East Rongbuk Glacier. Probably 10k that took us an average of 5h to complete.

I had a large and heavy backup and very little water, and that was a terrible combination. Having one egg and piece of bread for breakfast was not a big concern, since I’ve had plenty of Gu Roctane energy gel to boost me up thorough the day. These Gu performance products are amazing, the perfect substitute of a meal for any endurance athlete, and I’m consider myself very lucky to have Sport in Life, Gu distributor in Dubai and UAE, to sponsor me with a wide range of products that I’ve been using for my Everest training and I’m taking with me all the way up to the summit. Roctane ultra endurance energy gel and brew is like fuel rocket, but to start the combustion you need a sensible amount of water to mix with, otherwise the risk of getting dehydrated is high. This is not something specific to this product, but all energy gels have the same caveat. For each calorie contained in any energy gel you need x number of water molecules to process it. If you don’t drink that water then you’ll digestive system will take it from somewhere else. I experienced the side effects before, and therefore I decided not to use the Gu Roctane Gel. The heavy backpack was not an issue considering that I climb 980floors in 4h with 15kg backpack twice per week in the Almas Tower in Dubai. The extreme altitude makes you feel like carrying 25kg and you move very slow, but the quick dehydration is what turned the whole story to be a drama. Carrying that load through the East Rongbuk Glacier with about 500ml of water is nuts, because the extreme UV radiation, high winds and dry air, take any moist out of you body, and you feel dehydration coming faster than in the desert dunes in the UAE.

With no water you more slower and slower, and then you see dogs walking around you like crazy without running out of breath. Is that one of the effects of AMS? No! some the yak owners have dogs that seem to be well acclimatized to the 6400m of ABC.

All the way up you cross path with many groups of these animals coming from a Steven Spielberg movie, the yaks, and you smile and say hello to their owners looking for some sort of interaction with them. One of them, very young, asked me for medicine for the head. Gosh… he was trying to keep with the fast pace of the yaks and most probably he was suffering from the symptoms of AMS, with the Man of the Hammer going after him.

Almost one and a half hour before getting to ABC, one of our Sherpas approached me with a flask full of warm water mixed with strawberryTang. He was doing his way back from ABC knowing that most of us had run out of drinks and were struggling on the trek. He looked like an angel when he refilled my small water bottle, and he also offered to carry my backpack. I drunk a good sip from my bottle and refused his offer to carry my load. I’m climbing Everest, what the heck? When I was close to our tents in ABC, or Sherpa Sirdar insisted I should give my backpack to one of them, but I refused again and made it happy, yet extenuated, into my comfy tent 🙂

Today we started our two days trek from Base Camp to Advance Base Camp. The idea is to go slowly and spend a night in a Interim Camp at 5800m where we can have some food and plenty of sleep before moving to Advance Base Camp at around 6400m. That way we won’t drain all energy reserves now that we are not fully acclimatized. In theory the whole trek from BC to ABC is 17km with a total elevation gain of 1200m, which is brutal considering the extreme altitude at which we are moving now, just after two weeks since I left sea level.

The trek to IBC is extraordinarily ugly, dusty and dirty. Probably the worst I’ve ever done in my life, and it took me about 4 hours to complete it. The views are monotonous all the way, with no sight of Everest at all, just minor peaks adjacent to the glacier moraine. There are groups of Yaks all the way up, and they are fast and dirty, so you have to stop multiple times to leave room for them to take you over. Breathing is difficult, but with a heavy back pack, the worst thing for me was feeling my legs very weak.

I’ve left BC at some time around 13:00, and I was in a precarious tent with my buddy Markus a bit before sunset. We had a delicious soup and pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese (from Spain, LOL) and we are now supper positive and ready to sleep and seize the day tomorrow!

Nighty-nighty blog followers and friends zzzZZZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzz

Today Saturday April 20th is our last day in the comfort of the Altitude Junkies Base Camp.

After few days of bad sleep in my tent, last night I managed to get proper sleep which make me happy knowing that I have about 24h to start moving higher up. I’m not feeling any strong but so far I haven’t feel sick a single day. I’m a bit worried about my difficulties to breath while I sleep but I know what to do and I’m ready to start punting in action things I learnt thorough the years.

We have carefully reviewed our climbing strategy and the options, as well as the usage of oxygen from Camp 2.

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll move from Base Camp (5200m) to Interim Camp (5800m) to spend the minimum tent in the dirtiest place of the whole mountain. Early in the morning we’ll move to Advance Base Camp (6400m) where we’ll rest for about three days before trying to tag the North Col (Camp 1, 7000m). We might rest at Advance Base Camp for another three days before tagging North Col again and coming back to Base Camp for 5-7 days rest. This is what we call rotations. We don’t care about the crazy schedules of the swiss and germans teams where they do 3 or more rotations, burning themselves completely before the summit push. We Altitude Junkies will take it easy and might one do just one if we feel with that we are ready to conquer the highest peak on Earth.

Let the climbing game begin!

This morning we had our delicious breakfast, and 62 yaks with their Tibetan porters invaded our Base Camp. So cool! I love animals and these hairy cows look like the’ve be taken out of a Star Wars movie. They seem to be submissive and patient with their owners who load them with 30-40kg each. There will be 30 more joining us on our way to Advance Base Camp, a total of 92 going up. Dorje, our Sherpa Sirdar, told me only 72 will make their way down… I hope I’m lost in translation!

These yaks will carry 140 bottles oxygen. Each 4l bottle contains 960l of compressed oxygen. They weight 3.5kg full and 1.9 empty meaning that the yaks will carry a total load of 490kg of O2 up and 266kg down. Climbers and Sherpas will have a total of 134400l of oxygen, which at 2l/m rate makes a total of 1120h of O2 for all of us, 50h each.

They will carry our gear, gas, tents, food, propane, and a long list of items required at high camps. A total of 3600kg from the Base Camp. These strong animals also need a program to acclimatize. They need to take some rest at Interim Camp (5800m), as we do before moving any higher, all the way to Advance Base Camp (6400m). Both yaks and climbers will make a jump of 1200m in about 24h, so we all expect the man with the hammer to visit us tomorrow night.

The amount of things we carried in trucks to Base Camp from Nepal and other places is Tibet is massive. 72 three man tents, 9 mess tents, 4 domes, 12 reclinable and 22 normal chairs, 30kg of fresh meat in 6 coolers, 45 propane cylinders, 15kg each, 120 gas canisters, 24 cases of beer, 34 boxes of wine…

11 out of our 16 Sherpas are following the Yaks today, and tomorrow they’ll start provisioning high camps.

You only realize about the complexity of an expedition like this when you are part of it and you get to know the people and numbers that will make the dream come true…

Today I woke up feeling a bit better. My back and neck are soar but I managed to get good sleep and I didn’t wake up every hour as the last few days. I changed the position of my sleeping bag and I think it helped, but I’ll change it again tonight since I’m still feeling uncomfortable in the tent. I’m acclimatizing well, but I still need few more days to feel strong at this altitude.

This morning during breakfast we spent good time looking at the oxygen mask and talking about the climbing strategy, that we have not developed completely yet, but is good to start talking about the options now so that we build awareness on what might happen in the next few weeks. This is very important, specially to prepare our gear, since we are leaving Base Camp in four days and everything we need higher up must get ready now. A group of 60 yaks and some sherpas are leaving tomorrow morning to start preparing the route. All the required personal stuff on higher camps will be cashed at Advance Base Camp, so that’s why now we have to think on what to send with the Yaks and what to leave here. From Advance Base Camp we’ll move up and down in one or two rotations, depending on how strong we feel and weather conditions. Ideally we should tag Camp 1 (North Col) twice before coming down for a good long rest at our palace in Base Camp, but the plan is tag it at least once, a very relaxed schedule.

Right after breakfast we packed for the Yaks to carry our gear up to Advance Base Camp where we’ll stay five to seven days. I spent few hours reviewing all my gear and splitting it in different compression bags. I want to get everything extremely organized for the different phases of the climb, since I don’t want to do any mistake with the gear when I’m ready for summit push and brain fried. I have prepared all gear I’m using exclusively on summit push in a separate compression bag. High altitude globes, liners, mittens, googles, buffs and some other stuff to be used from ABC higher up goes in a separate bag. My two pieces down suit in separate bag as well. Then climbing hardware, high altitude boots, and the -20C sleeping bag is packed separately. It took me quite a while to figure out what food and toiletries to send with the Yaks, and to pack then in small separate zip bags so that I can just grab one per climbing day.

All the gear and stuff I’m using from Base Camp to Camp 1 I’m taking it with me, and I’m leaving some spares at BC that I will need during the time we’ll spend here resting before the summit push. I’s all about making the right decisions not to send too many things tomorrow up to ABC that I might need before getting there, and leaving some stuff here so that I don’t need to take it down before or after summit push. A good example is the decision I’ve taken to leave the -40C sleeping bag at Base Camp and taking the -20C with me. We are spending a night at what we call Interim Camp right after leaving BC and reaching ABC. It’s going to be a cold night but the -40C is way to heavy and and it does not worth taking it in my back pack to high camps, since I will sleep from Camp 1 in my down suit.

I’ve also spend a good time setting up the crampons with the metallic toe belt, since on Khan Tengri I fit them on the cold Scarpa Phanton 8000 boots using the the plastic strap, and now that I have a brand now pair of Sportiva Mons Evo I feel they fit better without it, and the metallic toe belt. I’m not too happy with these Petzl Lynx modular crampons that I used in Kyrgyzstan and Iran last year. They are very versatile, and aggressive on ice, but not easy to set up when the conditions are harsh, and they feel a bit fragile on mixed terrain. I will write a review on these once I finish the expedition, and I will find a new set from another brand that are more appropriate for my next expedition.

I’ve also tested the settings of both high altitude boots and climbing harness with my new two piece down suite. The boots feel so warm and comfy, I’m happy that I finally bought size 44. My street shoe number in 41-42, and I spent hours in a shop in Paris trying to make up my mind in between sizes 43 and 44 for these new high altitude boots.

The down suit is awesome, and Phil is impressed with the new design of the down saloppettes (the bottom part) and decided to acquired his own. The new model includes a large piece of soft and warm windstopper fabric covering from waist all the way to the chest and back. It’s not impossible for the wind or snow to go underneath these pants, which was a big caveat on two pieces down suit and the reason why many guides do recommend using only a full down suit for 8000m peaks.

For this expedition I have spares of the most important gear, which I’ll take with me on summit push: Glacier glasses, googles, globe liners and down mittens, all x2.

Knowing that I have the right gear is for me the most important point to feel mentally strong in expeditions like this.

Of course all these tests I’ve done it back home, but now I’m just testing again and changing some of the settings. I’ve just realized my Black Diamond Colouir alpine harness is a bit small and it’s going to be hard to set it over the down suit with cold hands 😦 Not the end of the world though, since I’ll have the help from sherpas and climbing partners up there.

After checking gear and packing I’ve decided to have warm shower and now I feel like reborn. I’ve not shaved though since I’ve decided not to do it before I get back home, hehehe. I’m also thinking on using my razor before summit push and make some fanny with my hair. I haven’t asked my girlfriend though 😛

The girl who got bitten by the dog made it safe to BC, and I wish she makes it safe all the way to the Top. Not surprisingly another girl from another team got bitten in Tingri as well, and she has decided to continue with the expedition without rabies treatment…

Very busy and productive day. My brother and girlfriend are sending me emails and sms and it feel so good. The team is awesome and Phil has the best sense of humor, so for now I’m not feeling sad but instead I’m happy to have so many people supporting me. So far I have received two emails from followers in this blog sending me good vibrations. One of them said he is my fan.I think he is the first fan I’ve ever had in my live! 😀 Thank you so much to everybody, for now I just can send updates but not checking comments and FB stuff but once I’m back from the expedition I’ll use few days to go through every single of them.

Today we woke up very excited, since the our Sherpas and the Lamas were ready to start the Puja. We’ve had an amazing day, abusing a bit of the alcohol but I’m sure tonight I’ll have very good sleep. I will never forget this beautiful experience and its’s difficult to describe all feelings…

I have plenty of photos and videos, and my climbing partner Edita has beautifully described the day in her blog post:

“We got up this morning before 8 AM Nepalese time. Today is a Puja day. We had breakfast – some yummy omelet, fried tomato and chapati (Nepalese bead). I always add porrage with honey. So, it is a good breakfast to stay strong on the mountain! Da Pasang, our chief cook, always makes amazing meals. It is hard to have an appetite at high altitude and good cooking helps a lot!

After breakfast, we all went to get our gear ready for Puja.Puja is a Buddhist religious ceremony when we ask gods for safe passage to Chomolungma.

No Sherpa would climb without Puja as they would consider it a bad luck without asking gods for blessing. Three monks from the Rongbuk Monastery arrived early this morning. As they were in no rush (only few groups this year on the Everest North side), they were ordering our Sherpa how to create the altar for the ceremony.The weather was perfect, no wind, so we did the Puja outside. The ceremony started with the Monks chanting for an hour or so. The Sherpa sat all heads bowed. We also sat around and observed the ceremony. Many of us ended up taking photos and videos. The mood was perfect, maybe because it was such a perfect day! After some chanting, the Sherpa raised the prayer flag pole over the Puja altar that the Sherpa built this morning. Dorje, our Sidhar Sherpa, kept burning Juniper twigs, in a small furnace on the side of the Puja altar. Then, we are given handful of flour (called tsampa) to trow into the air. It got a little messy here as the wind picked up the flour and scattered all over us.

Then, we all stand in line and are offered pendant with Buddha picture. I got my zee stone pendant blessed again (first time on Cho Oyu, then Manaslu). Lamas smile as I gave my zee to them for blessing. They smile wide again when they put it on my neck after the blessing is done. Zee is a mystical Tibetan stone, supposed to protect from bad spirits and bring good luck. First time I submitted an 8,000′er, many Sherpa and Tibetans said it was zee who helped me. Let’s hope the stone will protect me again on the ridges of Chomolungma.

After that, we all stood in line for three shots of rum. They all had a good laugh when I choked on my third shot.

After that, the Sherpa dance came… I was dancing with few other non-Sherpas… just to almost pass out at the end of the second dance. I feel the altitude when I do any kind of physical activity.

Targi Sherpa and Edita (Beers)

This is when the real altitude junkies and Sherpa drinking began. We all went to our comms tent and everyone relaxed, opened up, telling jokes and stories. It was hilarious. Phil as always, shared a few great stories with us from the what he knew about groups on the south side of Everest. The lunch was served around 1 pm and I retreated to the privacy of my tent not too long afterwards. I needed a nap after all that Puja drinking… It is not polite and insulting not to drink during the ceremony… Only one member in our group who never drank in his life remained sober but seemed to enjoy the celebration no less than his drinking mates. As I am writing this a few hours later, I still hear voices of Sherpa and some of my group mates who are still celebrating…:-) They all deserve to relax and enjoy this day as we will begin our climbing and “suffering” in few days. It will be really hard, the hardest thing most of us have ever done, of course, except Sherpa! However, the Sherpa are working so hard and they deserve more than anyone on this mountain to relax for a day! They will be carrying load from ABC (Advanced Base Camp) prettty soon and begin setting up out camp. They are the true heroes, without them, most of us would not even dream of coming here to climb these beautiful ridges of Chomolungma.”

Last night was quite cold and I could not rest well again. I’ve been fighting with the pillow (plastic piece of crap I purchased in Kathmandu) and my neck still hurts. I also filled a one little pee bottle and since it was -4C in the tent I stopped drinking, thus I woke up dehydrated. I had little headache and my skin is dry now. My SPO2 and heart rate are not good, but I’m not too concerned for now. The pain on my neck really bothers me, but I don’t want to take any medication yet. Headache on forefront is normally associated with dehydration, which I fixed in about one hour after I woke up. Pain on the base of the skull or the neck can be altitude related, and if I take ibuprofen now I won’t be able to understand if I already have issues to acclimatize. I’ve walked for about an hour and stretched for thirty minutes, but still the pain does not go away. Today is very cold, it was snowing for few hours, and my muscles are contracting and bothering me everywhere. I need better sleep and more stretching or I’ll have issues on back and knees during the climb. It’s a pity my friend and sponsor Fabien Rabeau from International Sport Expertise is not here to help me out with physio. He did a fantastic job getting me acclimatized with hipoxic sessions before I left Dubai. He would be priceless here, we are all sore. My ITV on my bad leg (left) is really tight and I already hear clicks in that knee. I must work hard these days on recovering elasticity there and fixing my neck.

Before going to sleep I managed to call my girlfriend using my spanish SIM card which fortunately roams here. I can not use it much and I must keep it for emergencies, otherwise I’ll get disconnected by Vodafone. She is OK but she has pain everywhere after taking a bad fall in a wadi while doing hiking and via ferrata in Oman with some friends. I hope you heal soon Preciosa, you have lots of people that love you and your friends will take care of you while I’m away.

The lack of wind and snow today after our warm weather yesterday is a good sign. Phil (our expedition leader) is very optimistic about the possibility of an early summit this season. The snow will make the ascent easier and safe. Today that black giant wall on the North Face is covered in white, and it’s very cloudy up there. No windy at all though. We’ll get weather reports weekly before May the 1st, when these will be delivered on a daily basis. We are so lucky that we managed to get the internet connection to work! All the other teams must be freaking out by seeing our two Wi-Fi networks, Altitude Junkies & The Boss. For now we’re going to keep the secret on how we managed to get this to work, but once again all friends Phil have in china, after expending seven year in Lasha as resident teacher for the climbing school, are priceless.

The guys from the team who got stuck in Tingri are still missing. I feel sorry for them… having to spend more nights in hell is not a good start for their expedition. On the positive side of the things, the girl who got bitten by the dog finally managed to get the shots without crossing the border, and shell be able to join her team with all the remaining shots that she can self-administer considering she is a doctor.

On the large Chinese camp there is a small group of Yaks leaving to the glacier, meaning they are starting to provision high camps.

Our Base Camp set up is awesome. Almost everything is brand new, and it feels very luxurious. We have 18 three man tents, each climber and Sherpa has his/her own, with a comfy green carpet, a large foam mattress and led lamp. There are two big domes filled with reclinable chairs, one for chatting and socializing and the other one for relaxing and being quiet. One more dome is Phil’s office and he is sleeping there. Then we have two tents with separate toilet and solar-gas propelled shower. They feel quite clean and luxurious , with sit toilet and warm water in a bucket at all times of the day, towel, soap, sanitizer, and a even air freshener. One big tent with all this commodities for boys and a separate one for the three girls in the expedition. And they have flushable toilet! The rest of the large tents are double the size, huge. One dinning room for us, and one for the Sherpas. One kitchen for us and one for the Sherpas. One storage tent where we can leave anything we don’t need to have at hand, making our personal tent super spacious. We also have a comms/entertainment tent with large projector, four laptops, two wireless high speed internet connections, and charging station for our personal appliances. Everything is powered both with a solar panel system, and two small Honda generators that have been tweaked for good performance at high altitude.

For dinner we’ve had delicious steak and the cooks and Tibetan assistants deliver top class service, so it feel like we are eating in a restaurant rated in the Michelin guide 😛

Tomorrow we have our Puja. We have three Lamas coming from the Rongbuk monastery, the one with the highest elevation in the World, to start around 8am. Phil want us to be very focused on it, since this is a extremely important religious ritual for the Sherpas, and if they don’t feel OK with the Puja there will be no success for any of us.

We left Tingri this morning very early, 3:45 Nepal time, and after four and a half hours of driving in our comfortable bus, we arrived to our desired destination, our wonderful Base Camp. We did half of the drive in complete darkness but the other half was very scenic and we enjoyed amazing views of Mt Everest from different angles. I remember when I did the trek to Everest Base Camp in the Khumbu Valley. I will never forget the views from Kala Pathar, but other than that I could barely see the mountain. When climbing the Normal Route on the South you don’t get to see the top of Everest almost before summit day.

Climbing from the North I think is more demanding but much more rewarding. Is not only the amazing views you have of Qomolangma from virtually everywhere, but also the quietness of the route. The Base Camp is practically empty, with 8 different teams distributed across a giant flat area. Is quite windy and a bit dusty, but other than that you don’t see rubbish or yak’s poo whatsoever. We are seven foreign teams plus the Chinese one climbing the North Route at different times. We estimate a maximum of 90 climbers this season, and more than 500 from the South… When I visited EBC few yeas back the place was empty since it was mid March, too early for the climbing season, and it looked such a small camp with chaotic orography beautifully sculpted by the Khumbu Glacier. It is impossible for me to imagine 1200+ people fitting there today… is total madness, like a heavy metal concert where the viruses camp all around and the main challenge becomes being healthy. Once the survivors get to climb the Normal Route, they have to queue most of the time, and I think that makes the experience a bit plastic. How the hell do 500 climbers plus their sherpas fit in those tiny high camps? And there is a single line for around 1200 people to clip to… It’s going to be interesting to hear from my friends Maria, Mirza, Moe and Ali who are all climbing South this year.

The situation in the North Camp today is not normal I should say, since the political situation these days force many teams to go climbing from Nepal side, where once the climbing permit is issued there are no major challenges other than those I’ve just mentioned. North however is risky and we suffered few days in Kathmandu, Nyalam and Tingri before getting to our safe zone, our gorgeous Base Camp. Now is only the mountain and us, and we are not longer concerned about the logistics. The other team is not that fortunate. They are still stuck in hell, AKA Tingri. They have not managed to get transport for the 20 of them and although their sherpas and BC crew are setting up their tents and domes, I have not seen any climber yet. I’ve also heard the girl who was bitten by the dog, could not get the rabies shots at the Chinese military station at the border, meaning she’ll need to make her way back to Kathmandu.

The setup of or BC is almost completed. When we arrived, the Sherpas were finalizing the installation of three cozy domes and we have plenty of mess tents for different purposes. I will describe our camp tomorrow in great detail once everything is finalized. For now it looks like we just need to set up the showers, comms tent, and getting power sources plus Internet connectivity up and running. What I can say now is that our camp looks like a palace compared with the others here. It is extraordinarily luxurious and although the cooks are not up to speed with setting up the kitchens yet, we had a delicious lunch and the famous Altitude Junkies Happy Hour (4pm) with red wine, cheese, black olives and other appetizers.

I’ve had a very bad night with almost no sleep, and my neck is aching a lot from a hard bed with crappy pillows. I’m also worried because early in the morning I’ve got three sms from my girlfriend who had an accident while hiking in Oman. Last message says she is OK now, but I could not get every text she sent me, so I don’t really know what happened.. I don’t have signal in my Dubai cellphone anymore, and I’ll try later with the sat phone if Phil manages to find me a spare Thuraya card.

Other than that I feel strong, and although both my O2 saturation and rest pulse are around 82 I think I’m doing well with acclimatization. I had plenty of time to set up my huge three men tent, with three mattresses, a minus 40 sleeping bag, and the pics my girl printed out for me. Weather was awesome most of the day. Boiling in the tent by noon, I decided to take a “cat style” shower with plenty of baby wipes. Then I’ve had a nap in the chill out dome on a reclinable chair.

Tomorrow I’ll exercise a bit and we’ll try to sort out the Internet.