Day 29 - Up to North Col (7,074m)

Whilst I can't say that I feel bad in the morning, I don't feel great either. Added to which, my backpack is petty heavy - camping at over 7,000 mtrs is no laughing matter! I am probably carrying about 25kgs which is probably not very sensible for the first time that I am going to such an altitude but we'll see.Nothing like getting your excuses in early!  I am taking up my mountain food and quite a lot of other equipment to leave up there so that I have a lighter pack for future rotations when I will be doing a lot more when I get up there!

The route to the North Col is a surprisingly long trek along the glacier which takes us about 2 hours and then ascending the very steep headwall which takes us 3:40. I am not sure how to do this justice in words but just imagine a nearly sheer 500m face of ice and snow - not quite the wall in Game of Thrones but in that direction but we are doing it at 7,000m rather than just off ground level!
This was one of the hardest sections I have done in this series of expeditions - although I imagine that we could have made things far easier for ourselves by having more breaks and next time I will be doing it with a much lighter load.  

View up the headwall to the North Col

Top of the Headwall with a view down the valley and ABC

Having a rest at the top - not the best conditions really

North Col camp and in the background a view of the North Ridge of Everest with the summit on the far right

I am actually pretty glad that I am staying up here for the night on my accelerated acclimatisation schedule as I feel really rather drained. The others are heading back down to ABC for the night and I will then catch them up somewhere on the way back to BC tomorrow. 

Our tents are in fact a few minute walk along the ridge towards the flags that can be seen on the right hand side in the above photograph. As can be seen in the photo, the protective mound to the right soon comes to an end and so our tents are going to be continually exposed to the wind coming down the valley - which is described in pretty frightening terms. Quite why we are camping here is not that clear and even more concerning as we had to use our spare guy ropes for the tents at Base Camp.

The rest of the afternoon / evening is meant to be a relaxing one in the tent recovering, eating, sleeping etc. But the self deflating issue that I had when I first bought my sleeping mat seems to have reoccurred (I have not had it since and it has chosen a fine time to reappear) so I have a pretty miserable evening and night trying to remain warm and comfortable on the very hard and angular ice. The fact that I am having altitude impacted bizarre dreams really doesn't help either as there are now three factors vying to keep me awake at any given moment. 

We are using an older brand of freeze dried food as unfortunately Fuzion went into administration - this food is not nearly as good and even slightly too much water has a real impact on the appeal of the food. When you are already struggling with a loss of appetite at altitude this can be very serious as a day, and therefore a summit attempt, can be ruined by one day with no energy. These pack do however contain more energy than the Fuzion ones - 800 cal vs 500 cal - which is a real bonus if you do eat all the food.