Sunday 25 May 2014

Day 59 - Summit Day

Unfortunately it seems that pretty much every other group had decided to set off quite a bit earlier than us and by the time we get out of the tents there is a huge line of lights leading up the hill - all of which are moving very slowly. The bad start doesn't end there - my crampons (which have been excellent on all my expeditions so far) chose this time to snap, so it is leatherman and some rope to the rescue and then a few minutes later Sas decides that she is not in the right shape to start for the summit and so heads back to the tent.

We set off and within 5mins hit the back of the line and come to a complete halt. The next four hours are incredibly frustrating as for every 5 seconds of movement we rest for about 20 meaning that we get to the ridge after 4hrs rather than the normal 2! From there it is a long, slow trudge along the ridge, over the three steps and then up the final pyramid to the summit. Along the ridge my breathing becomes increasingly laboured with both my chest and throat tightening - I am not quite sure what is going on but just hope I can last the day!

The sun rises as we approach Mushroom Rock and we can start to take in our surroundings on the roof of the world!

Sun rising over the Himalaya

Sorting out our oxygen at Mushroom Rock

Sun rising over the Himalaya

The second step is my big concern - this is a bit of a scramble up some big rocks and there is some pretty nasty exposure there; ie a several thousand metre drop off the side of a less than 1m square platform half way up this cliff. This is the point where my summit bid could fall apart if my vertigo kicks in badly so I have spent a lot of time thinking about and trying to visualise it.

Second Step

Looking down the Second Step
In fact, and really quite bizarrely, my reaction is limited to looking over the edge thinking that the ground is really quite a long way away and then turning round to carry on up the step - is this mind over matter or me being hypoxic to really register what is going on? Anyhow, from there it is a flat easy path along to the third step but it is amazing how even this is very difficult at this altitude and takes a remarkably long time.

Long traverse to the Third Step

Approaching the Third Step


Bottleneck developing at the Third Step

View back down whilst waiting at the Third Step

Unfortunately, the third step is developing into a bit of a bottleneck both above and below it. The very earliest summiteers are now coming back down and a group or Russians seem to have come to a stop below it. Waiting for the climbers to come down takes about 45mins which is pretty annoying but luckily no more than that and it pretty luckily gives me a chance to jump ahead of the Russians. From there it is up the steep slope onto the summit pyramid, the final tricky, rocky traverse, up the rocks and a final stagger along the summit ridge to the top - sounds easy but it takes a long, long time and unfortunately in this time (since waiting at the base of the third step) the weather has come in and there is now pretty much complete cloud cover and the wind has started to pick up. The final ridge is fairly short with only a few small inclines but my breathing difficulties mean that even this is a real struggle and takes a ridiculously long time - imagine three steps forward and then 10 seconds rest.

Anyway, by the time I get to the summit I am feeling so wretched and combined with be lack of any view, that I feel very little about being on top of the world and having got to the end of my challenge. There is also the dread that I now have to make the long journey back down without being able to breathe. I feel oddly numb and none of the sense of elation that I have had on prior summits - perhaps it is the realisation that now I have come to an end, it is back to reality and a finding a job....

Exhausted, out of breath and with no view - but the highest person in the world!!!

As I had no view whatsoever by the time I summited, the following photos were taken by others when they summited at a time of excellent conditions.

View I think down the South side

View back down the North Ridge

View down the West side - following the Rongbok glacier

Possibly the East side of Everest

Anyway; there is a bit of a wait for my turn on the summit but then I am up there on top of the world amongst the clouds. With no view there is not much point staying for long - it is also cold an windy and starting to snow so we do some photos, change onto a new bottle of oxygen (my last) and set off down the mountain. I was hoping that the ease of descending would put much less pressure on my breathing but my chest, lungs and throat have been deteriorating and tightening over the past 10 hours and even this is a struggle as I need to stop every now and then to catch my breath. Whilst this slows my speed below what I was hoping for, I am oddly  still moving faster than most others heading down which is a real source of comfort!

Unfortunately my oxygen seems to be depleting really rather rapidly and finally runs out on the ridge at 8,500 just above high camp which is 200m further down. This is fairly unbelievable as I have only been on it for 4 hours and it should have lasted for 5.5 at a minimum - I have been turning the flow rate down for the past hour to try and eek it out until I got back to camp but for some reason there has just not been enough. This would normally be very challenging but with my chest and lungs I really have no idea how I will be able to survive without oxygen as I just can't breathe up here.

Try as I might, I just cant get enough air to carry on walking and there is no one anywhere near me to help so I start crawling along the ridge. Even this is taking more oxygen than I can breathe in and in am soon feeling very sick and absolutely drained. I am stopping every 10 seconds to catch my breath and having frequent racking, coughing fits that leave me prostrate and gasping for air to avoid passing out. Things are really not going well and I have got to the top of the sections that lead down to camp - there are a number of sections here where I will need to climb and also some pretty big drops. It really isn't safe to continue as I am, so I have no choice but to wait for people to come along who can either give me some oxygen or get some sent back up from the camp below. This is rather worrying as the weather has continued to deteriorate and it is now getting very windy with frequent snow storms - I am not that warm at the moment and lying on a very exposed ridge waiting for a random person to come along with oxygen is going to be a very cold wait! If no one comes along and I am unlucky with the weather I might have to start heading down to try and generate some heat and get out of the wind but that means taking a risk with falling which could be a lot more serious ...

Just as I am about to abandon waiting for help and start down the tricky descent, having been passed by a couple of people in a bad way who could not help, a team comes past and one of them (a Sherpa I think) is bringing down an empty bottle and is more than happy for me to carry it down for him. The pressure gauge is not quite on zero but pretty much there, so pulling myself together I set off again.

Given the minimal amount of oxygen in the bottle, I have it turned right down which gives me enough to stand and move very slowly but little more - I just hope that this can get me back to camp - or at least down this steep section from where I can stumble / crawl into camp. Moving slowly and safely, I make decent progress on what I my weakened state are some pretty tricky sections despite falling a few times. These are mostly tired falls / sit downs after technical bits so I am not too worried. After the exit crags, there is a short walk across a flatter section and then about another 200m walk through the camp to our tent. Unfortunately my oxygen bottle is now pretty much empty and I am walking on vapour - it will be interesting and a little dispiriting to see how far I can get before it runs out.

The camp site looks fairly post-apocalyptic. What tents are left, are situated amongst rocky outcrops and new snow from the days storms. The area is littered with broken tents, rope, oxygen bottles and other detritus and there is no one in sight. I seem oddly to have moved ahead of the group that stopped to help me and I am now on my own again. Whilst not a problem when I have oxygen, things are going to get rather tricky when my oxygen inevitably runs out. Sure enough, this happens just when I get to the camp leaving me another 200m to go. Getting back down to 8,300 seems to have helped and I am now able to walk (albeit very slowly and unsteadily) the tent is tantalisingly close and I really need to get out of the weather and get a reliable source of oxygen to stop further damage to my lungs and get some rest for the rest of the descent. I make very slow progress through the camp largely as I need to stop every few seconds or so for a coughing fit or just to rest but eventually I collapse into the tent at about 15:30.

Once safely in the tent there is oxygen, hot juice and a chance to rest. It is very unsafe to spend a second night at this altitude so I am very keen to carry on down the mountain to get to Camp 2 which is another 700m lower and at the edge of the Death Zone rather than a long way into it. However, my breathing continues to deteriorate and I am having 'episodes' where I am virtually unable to breathe and so need to turn the oxygen right up even though I am just lying in my sleeping bag at the moment. I have also started to become delirious and, for the first time on the mountain, I can really recognise that my mind is not working properly as I struggle to think clearly even when lucid. I try radioing down to camp a few times but, as usual, I can't get any response.

A big concern is that this is the last bottle of oxygen up here and it appears that the group Sherpas have cleared our equipment off the mountain. Quite why this has been done before there has been confirmation that we are all safely down is an absolute mystery and taking the general incompetence in the organisation of this expedition to new and very dangerous levels! My lungs / throat / chest are not improving and for the first time I start to wonder how on earth I am going to get down; not much I can do at the moment so we will just have to see how I am in the morning.

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