Blair at Gorak Shep, 5,100mts
SUCCESS..... We have had no wifi or phone service for over a week.
Yesterday all three of us busted our arses to summit Island Peak. We set off for Base Camp from Chukhung and arrived at around 2pm. Tents were set up in very windy conditions and no sooner were we huddled in the warmth, food was brought into us and we were settling in for the night in preparation for a 1am wake up call ready for a 2am start.
Very little sleep and before we knew it we were on the trail under headlamp. All three of us agree had it have been daylight and we could see what we were climbing we would have said "no thanks". At one stage what I thought was stars, turned out to be climbers head lamps way up where stars normally are.
We had four hours of literally straight up......could it possibly get any harder? Well we then hit the ice. Out came the crampons. We had two ladder crossing with crevasses that went to nowhere. I felt really safe though as we were all harnessed and tied together so basically if one goes, we all go.
Could it get any harder??? Well yes it can. We then hit a sheer wall of ice we had to climb. About 80 meters in height and about 80 degree steepness. So it's then I realize the ice axes we were given the day before weren't just for looks!!!!. It took us around 3 hours to climb this wall of ice, which took us up to an iced ridge line about 60 centimeters wide and a sheer drop on either side. Another 30 minutes climbing this ridge we were all standing on the summit.
We can now appreciate why it's called Island Peak. It sits in the middle of other giants on its own. The views are amazing. We stayed up there for about 10 minutes (9 hours of busting our arses for 10 minutes on the summit)!!! We couldn't have been more exposed, 10 minutes was long enough.
We followed the same route down and it took just as long to get down the ice wall. Attached to ropes and kind of abseiling down but so difficult with the ice shards. We ended up back at Base Camp at around 5pm after 15 hours of one hard slog. We then decided to not spend another night in tents and head back down to Chukhung again under head lamp arriving around 8.30 - 9pm absolutely stuffed.
Going back a few days now and Blair had stomach problems during our 2 nights acclimatisation walk at Periche. He lost his ability to fart confidently very quickly. He managed to still do an acclimatisation walk up to around 4600mt before calling it quits.
There's no stopping David as he decides the morning we got to Gorak Shep we would all go to Everest Base Camp, come back to the lodge, relax at 5100meters, have tea and be ready for an early ascent up Kalar Patar. Nope David had other plans, he went up Kalar Patar that afternoon after doing Everest Base Camp in a record time of one hour 10 minutes up and 40 minutes to come down. Meanwhile Blair and I sat back in the lodge around the Heater fueled with yak dung drinking hot chocolates etc. Well the laugh was on us as all night it was gale force winds and we were up at 5.30 to start our walk up in blustery conditions while David was having a little sleep in.
Blair and I put David's lung capacity in altitude down to the fact that he can free dive for nearly 5 minutes under water. His body tells him at the 2 minute mark that if it doesn't get air he will die......he ignores it and stays down (which apparently is what you're meant to do). I start to panick at 17 seconds.
Blair is still struggling with his speech and a few days ago commented that Prakash our guide would probably be sitting back in his "dick chair" while we summit Island Peak. I'm trying guys.
FYI Prakash didn't join us to summit as he doesn't have insurance to climb.
We are now in a place called Pangboche. Still no wifi, so can't attach photos. Tomorrow night we will be in Jorsale, then Lukla. Heavy knee deep snow in Lukla a couple of days after we landed shut the airport for around 3 days. We have found the higher we climbed the better the weather. Trails are very dry and dusty and to be honest could do with a bit of snow to keep the dust down. Blair flinches when I say this with his experience only 11 months ago when he was here in waist deep snow.
We can't read comments or answer comments until we have wifi. I was looking forward to the normal 5 bars at Gorak Shep but apparently the tower was broken.
Yesterday all three of us busted our arses to summit Island Peak. We set off for Base Camp from Chukhung and arrived at around 2pm. Tents were set up in very windy conditions and no sooner were we huddled in the warmth, food was brought into us and we were settling in for the night in preparation for a 1am wake up call ready for a 2am start.
Very little sleep and before we knew it we were on the trail under headlamp. All three of us agree had it have been daylight and we could see what we were climbing we would have said "no thanks". At one stage what I thought was stars, turned out to be climbers head lamps way up where stars normally are.
We had four hours of literally straight up......could it possibly get any harder? Well we then hit the ice. Out came the crampons. We had two ladder crossing with crevasses that went to nowhere. I felt really safe though as we were all harnessed and tied together so basically if one goes, we all go.
Could it get any harder??? Well yes it can. We then hit a sheer wall of ice we had to climb. About 80 meters in height and about 80 degree steepness. So it's then I realize the ice axes we were given the day before weren't just for looks!!!!. It took us around 3 hours to climb this wall of ice, which took us up to an iced ridge line about 60 centimeters wide and a sheer drop on either side. Another 30 minutes climbing this ridge we were all standing on the summit.
We can now appreciate why it's called Island Peak. It sits in the middle of other giants on its own. The views are amazing. We stayed up there for about 10 minutes (9 hours of busting our arses for 10 minutes on the summit)!!! We couldn't have been more exposed, 10 minutes was long enough.
We followed the same route down and it took just as long to get down the ice wall. Attached to ropes and kind of abseiling down but so difficult with the ice shards. We ended up back at Base Camp at around 5pm after 15 hours of one hard slog. We then decided to not spend another night in tents and head back down to Chukhung again under head lamp arriving around 8.30 - 9pm absolutely stuffed.
Going back a few days now and Blair had stomach problems during our 2 nights acclimatisation walk at Periche. He lost his ability to fart confidently very quickly. He managed to still do an acclimatisation walk up to around 4600mt before calling it quits.
There's no stopping David as he decides the morning we got to Gorak Shep we would all go to Everest Base Camp, come back to the lodge, relax at 5100meters, have tea and be ready for an early ascent up Kalar Patar. Nope David had other plans, he went up Kalar Patar that afternoon after doing Everest Base Camp in a record time of one hour 10 minutes up and 40 minutes to come down. Meanwhile Blair and I sat back in the lodge around the Heater fueled with yak dung drinking hot chocolates etc. Well the laugh was on us as all night it was gale force winds and we were up at 5.30 to start our walk up in blustery conditions while David was having a little sleep in.
Blair and I put David's lung capacity in altitude down to the fact that he can free dive for nearly 5 minutes under water. His body tells him at the 2 minute mark that if it doesn't get air he will die......he ignores it and stays down (which apparently is what you're meant to do). I start to panick at 17 seconds.
Blair is still struggling with his speech and a few days ago commented that Prakash our guide would probably be sitting back in his "dick chair" while we summit Island Peak. I'm trying guys.
FYI Prakash didn't join us to summit as he doesn't have insurance to climb.
We are now in a place called Pangboche. Still no wifi, so can't attach photos. Tomorrow night we will be in Jorsale, then Lukla. Heavy knee deep snow in Lukla a couple of days after we landed shut the airport for around 3 days. We have found the higher we climbed the better the weather. Trails are very dry and dusty and to be honest could do with a bit of snow to keep the dust down. Blair flinches when I say this with his experience only 11 months ago when he was here in waist deep snow.
We can't read comments or answer comments until we have wifi. I was looking forward to the normal 5 bars at Gorak Shep but apparently the tower was broken.
