Sat 2nd Feb. Back down to oxygen...

Gorak Shep

Looking down on the village of Thukla where Lauren and Rhonda were helicoptered from.

Back down to oxygen in Pangboche. Sorry I haven’t replied to everyone but these conditions sends your phone from having 60% battery life to zero in around five minutes. To give you an idea on how cold Gorek Shep was, I went to bed wearing icebreaker 260g thermals, a polar fleece, an insulated vest, my down jacket, my sleeping bag, a blanket over the top and a nalgene water bottle full of boiling water. I was the cooler side of comfortable. Not to mention a resting heart rate at midnight of 102 bpm, normally around 57 bpm. In the morning there was ice crystals on the ceiling of my room.

The team opted out of KP so we decided to try and make it to Pangboche. A different stop to normal.

Gary is still battling illness and can’t eat anything. He claims to have lost a power if weight. Tahlia would amputate her foot right now than battle the blisters and the fact it looks like she will lose a toe nail with her toes hitting the end of her boot on the downhills. She is going to try Josh's runners tomorrow to see if that eases the pain. There’s always a bright side....pedicures will be cheaper with only 9 nails to work with. We all have a dose of Trekkers cough. We pity the poor people sleeping in the rooms right next door to us.

Tomorrow should be an easier walk back down to Namche having come this far today.

Ps. The Gman has been very quiet about any "back end illness". I think he was pre warned not to say a word for fear it will end up on the blog.