Day 35: The Tention Mounts (Base Camp 4800m)

The next day started at 8am after everyone having a mixed night of sleep. Downstairs was Joe, Luke and Ronan who heard every bit of noise in the Cabin. Upstairs was Matt, Chris, Julia, Adrian and myself who had to put up with Chris snoring and farting like a trooper. We all headed across the road to the restaurant and found all the guides ready for the day. We sat into a great breakfast of Fruit Salad and Omelettes and started to pack our smoke smelling gear into the jeeps for the journey to the rufuge.

The refuge is located at 4,800m. Another 4,500m down the mountain is the car park which is the last point the jeeps could reach. So after a couple of awesome pictures in the car park and sharing out all the food to carry up the mountain we started out up towards the refuge with all of our equipment. The average journey time for this part of the climb is 45mins. For me it was hell. I felt every step but still we all made it up in 45mins and our guides were very happy with our progress.

Ro

The refuge is nothing other than a cabin with a couple of matresses laid out on top of the mountain. There are gas cookers but there is no electricity and you have to flush the toilet with a bucket of water. (If you require more information leave a comment and I´ll explain further!) We picked out our beds and headed down for a bowl of soup. The next thing the rain came. And I mean it came! We were supposed to go out and practice our technique on the glacier but when the rain and thunder started Paulo suggested it might be a better idea to reschedule for 3pm.

We suited up and headed out to practise on the glacier at 3pm. The glacier was another 40min hike from the glacier. When we got there we put on our Crampons and got our ice picks ready and started hiking up the glacier. Paulo was showing us all the different techniques on the ice and then he showed us the coolest thing, sliding!!

Sliding means you sit on your ass and slide down the mountain. The only problem with that is you have to stop! To stop you have to roll over and dig your ice pick into the glacier to bring yourself to a stop. Paulo marked an area and said it was the crevace and you had to stop before then! Unfourtunetly, Ronan slid straight into the crevace and died but it was good practice for the real thing!

We got back to the refuge and then we had more food again. They were really trying to load us up with food so we would have the energy to climb the mountain. This is when Joe started to get sick from the altitude. I knew something was wrong when he didn´t even want to touch his dinner! A clear sign there is something wrong with Joe! While the rest of the guys were getting ready to go to bed me and Ronan and Luke settled in for some coco tea with Freddie one of the guides who started telling us all his stories from the mountain. Like how he made it in 1hr 45mins.

Charlie.

Freddie was an animal. We were told that at a quick pace you could climb the mountain in 5 and a half hours, so 1hr 45 is dam impressive. He must have sprinted the whole way. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw him. His shoulders were wider than I am long and he had aa face that looked like he could stop an avalanche by just looking at it. I asked Him If we got tired would he carry us the rest of the way like the sherpas do to Homer Simpson up the Murder horn but he said that would cost extra.

Myself Charlie and Luke were in flying form at this stage with about 7 cups of coca tea in us. We were going to climb the mountain there and then but we said we better get some sleep first (8.00). Bad Idea. Say I slept for about a half an hour before I woke to run to the toilet. Stood up too fast and thats when the pounding head ache kicked in. The only thing that relieved the pain slightly was to squash my head with both hands. This isn't easily done while taking a whizz standing up at the same time. The rest of the night was hell. The headache didnt stop, this was amplified by the distinct smell of joes insides which I had seen him fill the bin with just before lunch that day.