Day 9 - Low Camp

It was a pretty chilly night and there is little movement in the am as everyone is waiting for the sun to come out from behind the mountain and warm the place up. There hasn't been much wind overnight but it will be interesting to see what conditions are like higher up. 

In fact there does not seem to be much happening up on the ridge but the weather forecast is for strong wind today dropping tomorrow and more so the day after. It is a pretty easy decision not to go today and so after a quick breakfast we head for a trek up a close mountain to help with our acclimatisation and to actually do something - this is a bit of a relief as it wasn't really looking forward to just walking around the camp for a couple of hours!

Shortly after we start trekking, the wind picks up and we quickly layer up and get to try out our face protection systems for the first time - ie something which covers the whole face apart from eyewear. I have a tough neoprene mask which works well but it is probably more than is required unless circumstances have got really bad and so I am trying to fashion a rather lighter one out of a buff. However, I really struggle as I naturally breathe out through my nose a lot and I tend to exhale quite a lot of moisture. This releases warm, damp air onto whatever glasses or goggles that I am wearing which then fog and freeze. When I concentrate, I can breathe out through my mouth only but in tricky situations my concentration will shift and I will then be left with fogged glasses just when I need to be able to see clearly. Hopefully with practice I can make exhaling through my mouth alone more natural.

Starting up the incline



High plateau 

Starting on the ridge

Summit - with a view out over Antarctica 

Starting back down

The trek itself is pretty good as we have some excellent views and a variety of terrain - a decent ridge, hard ice, deep snow and crevasse evasion (with varied success in the group) which make for a great day out. We spend the rest of the evening in the mess tent chatting / supper until bed at about 11pm. 

The weather forecasts is improving with lighter winds expected tomorrow and so we may head up to High Camp. The weather gets updated at 11am so if that sounds good and what we can see looks right we will make the decision to head up. 

I have not slept this much in a long time and unsurprisingly can't get to sleep for quite a long time. Whilst we certainly get treated a lot better than on the Denali trip, it is still frustrating and a bit boring to be treated so much as guests rather than as part of a team. I am also probably developing some bad habits and will need to watch them to ensure that they don't cause problems on Everest!

Food:

Pancakes and jam

Soup and a spicy pork stew.