Sunday 3 February 2013

Day 6  -  Move to camp 1

Having stored much of our gear at Camp 1 yesterday and then returned to Base Camp to sleep (climb high sleep low), today we move up to Camp 1 and stay there. This is another day of trying to push it to really get prepared for the higher altitudes.





The team about to head off



Explaining to a rapt audience just how easy this climbing malarkey really is...


The water supply at the camp is a very small run off of melt water on the other side of the valley from the camping spot. It is not clear why, but the stream runs out pretty close to the bottom of the of ice. Even whilst we are filling up bottles the stream receedes further and we are forced to reposition the one metre length of pipe that is used to collect the water - just hope that this does not continue as having to melt ice for water at this altitude will be a real drain on our gas supplies.
During the day the camp is very hot and the sun very strong - clothes need to be used in a variety of protective ways up here:




But we do have a pretty good view from here:



The food at base camp has fit a certain formula. Breakfast is a mix of porridge, cereals, cheese, ham and bread. Lunch and dinner are soup, meat and veg and some form of pudding. This is pretty standard fare for a base or catered camp in the mountains although I have to say that this is towards the top of the that range.
I will write more about the food that we have brought and will prepare for ourselves on the mountain.
Tonight is our fist time to cook on the mountain and we are doind so at 5,000m!
We have pasta with cheese and broccoli, plus tuna and creamed corn- lots of garlic chilli sauce. Obviously we don't read the label properly and do two packs which apparently provides enough for 6 people. Despite a valiant carbo-loading effort we can't quite finish it but at least this provides leftovers for breakfast tomorrow.
Quality and quantity - not much more that you can ask for from a meal on the mountain!

No comments:

Post a Comment