Sebastian Merriman - 2 Poles and 7 Summits: Day 24

We are up and ready to leave in good time but as previously feared there are problems with the yaks in that we need far more than have been booked. This is all being organised by the local team although I imagine that there is quite a culture clash with the Chinese run CTMA that run this side of the mountain. A couple of other groups are moving up the mountain today so the scene is fairly chaotic with all sorts of people and yaks wandering about.

After a bit we are told that everything has been sorted out - on further pressing this means that we will use the available yaks today and other ones later. The big discussion then is what is going to be left behind - some emergency medical oxygen is high on our list of priorities as we will be hitting 7,000m in the next few days! Anyway, after impressing a few key items we head off hoping that nothing too significant will get left behind.

Apparently the hike to intermediate camp should take about 6 hours and the yaks will do it in 4 hours. We need to be there by about 5 as the sun goes behind the nearby mountains shortly after that and the temperature plummets then. I have packed a pretty heavy rucksack as I am still using these days as training and to help force my acclimatisation.

We walk as a group for the first hour along the flat glacial valley but then we turn left up a side valley but this is much steeper and trickier terrain and so end up spread out as we wind our way up the valley. There is a well established path but it becomes really very steep in a number of places which are very tough as our bodies struggle for the oxygen required for this degree of exertion at such an altitude. In fact the walk takes us a bit over 3 hrs to 4.5hrs and we have been overtaking yak trains all morning.

Interim Camp is very windy and I try to take some shelter in one of the yak / tent placements whilst waiting for the others to arrive. These are small flat platforms made on the hillside that will accommodate either a yak or a tent - whilst they do provide a bit of protection from the harsh wind, they are rather pungent!
Over the rest of the afternoon various groups of people and yaks turn up, have a congratulatory chat with each other and then get in their tents out of the wind. There must have been a lot of further discussion over the yaks before they were able to set off as we only just get our tents up by the effective sunset at about 17:45 - over 5 hours after I arrived at camp. I get the feeling that our fun and games with this move are not yet over.

Whilst we are getting some nice panoramic views of the surrounding mountains, we are mainly walking in and amongst moraine. We will gain altitude pretty rapidly from now and that should start to provide much more beautiful sights and photos.