This was the big day. We were all so anxious about the summit attempt that night, we hadn't considered the long steep slog to the next campsite! We left Third Caves Campsite at about 8:15am. A great sunny day though a bit cold. It was a steady uphill climb and we soon broke up into three groups. I hung onto the first group. Jane was quite ill and had to stop several times - I thought she might need to descend which would have been upsetting as this trip was for her 50th birthday. Camille also started to feel ill with stomach pains but some eload seemed to help, at least temporarily.
Here is a shot that shows how steep it was. It became very windy and the clouds rolled up, bringing a nasty cold damp. I just tucked my head down and kept going. I had 4 layers on and was just right. 4 hours later we were at 4722m at the School Huts. Jane somehow summoned whatever to get to the top. She came in about 20 minutes after me. Very very impressive.
A quick picture and then we went to rest until supper. The idea was rest, be woken for dinner, and sleep until 10:30pm when we had to get ready for the summit attempt. We were advised to sleep in our clothes so we wouldn't have to search for things in the dark. I slept about an hour in total. Still no headache but quite light-headed and everything seemed to take the wind right out of me. I was still hungry though which was a good sign. The porters were partying though and I found it impossible to sleep. I was also cold even though I wore 2 pairs of wool socks, long johns, ski pants, wool undershirt, light fleece, medium fleece, thick fleece, 2 hats and gloves on! Imagine trying to squish down into a mummy sleeping bag with all that.
This was the big day. We were all so anxious about the summit attempt that night, we hadn't considered the long steep slog to the next campsite! We left Third Caves Campsite at about 8:15am. A great sunny day though a bit cold. It was a steady uphill climb and we soon broke up into three groups. I hung onto the first group. Jane was quite ill and had to stop several times - I thought she might need to descend which would have been upsetting as this trip was for her 50th birthday. Camille also started to feel ill with stomach pains but some eload seemed to help, at least temporarily.
Here is a shot that shows how steep it was. It became very windy and the clouds rolled up, bringing a nasty cold damp. I just tucked my head down and kept going. I had 4 layers on and was just right. 4 hours later we were at 4722m at the School Huts. Jane somehow summoned whatever to get to the top. She came in about 20 minutes after me. Very very impressive.
A quick picture and then we went to rest until supper. The idea was rest, be woken for dinner, and sleep until 10:30pm when we had to get ready for the summit attempt. We were advised to sleep in our clothes so we wouldn't have to search for things in the dark. I slept about an hour in total. Still no headache but quite light-headed and everything seemed to take the wind right out of me. I was still hungry though which was a good sign. The porters were partying though and I found it impossible to sleep. I was also cold even though I wore 2 pairs of wool socks, long johns, ski pants, wool undershirt, light fleece, medium fleece, thick fleece, 2 hats and gloves on! Imagine trying to squish down into a mummy sleeping bag with all that.
