23 rd January; moving to Camp 1

We had an amusing start to the day. We were supposed to go to the doctor's for one last count of our oxygen, and I came out on top at 86%. Shum's was improved, but still low enough to worry Lito. Jackman was high, as it has always been. This quick test, however, took forever, as very unfortunately, a person with deep frosbite (probable amputation case) was being treated in the little cubicle next to ours. A case of summit fever, pushing on while knowing you are putting your health at risk. Anyway, this was obviously not the amusing part. But it took a long time, and by the time we were done, Lito was already anxious for us to go.

As, normally, it is always sunny in base camp, when it isn't, things stop functioning. Most things are solar energy run, and the days are long, starting with the sun hitting the tents around 9h30, which is when most people start peaking out of their sleeping bags, and ending with the sun set nearly 12 hours later. Now, with all this snow we've been having every afternoon, plans get changed. Shum wanted to have a shower during the day yesterday, which I did as early as I could (once the solar pannels had heated enough water) and Jackman did soon after. But Shum waited too long and got stuck without one, which meant that this morning, he was adament that he needed to shower before we could go. So, already late, we were a little further delayed.

It was nearly noon when we left for what had taken us a leisurely 2:50min two days ago. But now we were fully loaded with about 20kg of gear (including liquids).

It took me about 25 minutes to realize that, if I insisted on carrying this heavy load for 3 days running right before summit day, I was risking it. The combination of thin air and steep climbing was exhausting, and for the first time since the beginning, I was unable to keep up with Lito's pace.

At first, it was still sunny, and relatively warm. But then it clouded over. Which made me think, at least it's not snowing. When it did start to snow, I thought, at least it is not the big, wet stuff. I stumbled into camp after 3h40 minutes, tired and worried.

Lito and Jaime were already busy preparing water, an exhausting task involving climbing higher to find clean ice, filling a huge bag of the stuff (snow, once melted, turns into nothing, while ice is much denser and gives a good amount of water). Jaime is the "general" porter, meaning that he carried the group tents, stoves, cooking stuff and food. But, with this experience, he is much more an assistant guide than a porter, and Lito trusts him. He will probably become a guide later.

Anyway, Lito fed us, then we rested, and it started to snow that big, heavy, sodden stuff again! Ugh! We were all driven into the tents, which made dinner a difficult thing as we could not easily eat outside.

I was sharing a tent with Lito now, and the vestibule area of it was used for the constant task of making liquid. At 5L each, that means making 20L, plus the cooking. And of course, since this water is made from ice, it contains no minerals whatsoever, which means that, until you supplement it, drinking it with nothing is pretty useless as far as hydration goes. It'll go right through your body without stopping to do the important stuff of getting rid of toxins, etc. So you add sugar, and tang, and tea and soup and whatever.

I made the decision to hire a private porter for the next 2 days, and spoke to the guys about it. A porter can carry 20kg. We decided to split the cost and load. I would take 10kg, and they would take 5kg each. This worked out well financially, as the costs are (very reasonably and understandably) high. The cost to carry a load from camp 1 to camp 2 is 130$ US, to camp 3 is 180$.

So I felt calmer about this. Once again, the analogy to running comes to mind. No ones does difficult workouts 3 days running right before a marathon. This is the time to try to keep your body strong and fresh. If I wanted to have the best possible chance of reaching the summit, this was the best thing to do.

It kept on snowing and snowing and snowing, Lito started grumbling that it might as well be winter, which made me laugh, it is impossible to be upset at something when somebody else is even more upset, and even insulted, by it. So I just kept on writing in my journal and reading.

We were rewarded later; the wind picked up, it cleared everything, and we had a spectacular sunset!