Day 58 - Move to Camp 3 (8,300m) - the highest campsite in the world!

Today we are heading up to 8,300. The first part of the climb is up through the rest of the campsite, which is spread up over about the next 200m of the hill, and then some traverses on a mixture of rock and snow - nothing too tricky but I spend most of the morning trying to overtake those who have got up earlier but are waking far slower. This is a bit of a concern for summit day where these sorts of speeds cause hold ups and bottle necks.

Leaving Camp 2 in fine conditions

Heading up through the remainder of the camp

Tail of climbers behind us

Conditions starting to deteriorate

Getting worse as we get to our camp spot

By the time I get to camp (at about 1pm) the wind has picked up and it is rather amusing again trying to put up a tent on half a ledge in this wind; I have taken my oxygen off to breathe some fresh air but that makes any form of exertion tricky.

Trying to pitch the tent in some pretty tough conditions - and on a pile of rocks 

Relaxing (!) in our tent at the highest csmpsite in the world

The rest of the group arrive a bit later on and we end up in one tent with the Sherpas in the other (a bit of a change of plan from earlier in the day). We have about 7 hours to rest now with the plan to set off at about 10pm. We talk, drink and eat for a bit while discussing the plan for the next 24 hours and then try to get a couple of hours sleep - the plan being to wake at 8 to give us a couple of hours to get ready.