A bit of an update.....

My last "real" post was from Pheriche some days before we attempted to climb Island Peak. By having a satellite phone within our group, I was able to keep Heather up-to-date who was then able to update the blog. So from my last post at Pheriche we slowly made our way up the valley to Island Peak by stopping at Dingboche (one night) and Chukkung (two nights). Chukkung is definitely the end of the earth - there's not much there, its bitterly cold and a chill blows up the valley through the village. We spent a couple of days there as part of our acclimatisation as it situated at about 4,730m. Without too much to do, we played plenty of games of cards in the "sun room" which is about the only place with warmth in the lodge we were staying in. We also practiced our rope techniques for the final part of the climb of Island Peak, which as we all know now, never came to fruition!

On Thursday we made the trek up to Island Peak base camp which was situated at 5,120m. Our fantastic team of Ang Chhiri, Pemba, Pasan and Tenday already had our camp set up - two two-man tents and a cooking tent. At this point I really wasn't feeling too good and the altitude had probably finally caught up with me. Having arrived mid-afternoon, our plan of trekking to the summit at 2am the following morning was put on hold by how I felt, not that the two Paul's were feeling great either. So Saturday was spent relaxing around a very cold and desolate base camp. The temperature would have struggled to have been above 0 degrees so your tent was by far the warmest place to be. There was still some spectacular scenery around, so I did go for a short walk and take some photos. However, as soon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains at around 4pm, ice would start to appear on the ground and on the tent, so it wasn't the most comfortable place to be! The meals cooked up by Pasan Tenday were fantastic and included soups, spaghettis, rice dishes and the local dish of dahl baht.


So at 1am Saturday morning we were out of sleeping bags in minus 15 temperatures with a light wind. For me, I did not have a good night's sleep and was feeling the altitude quite badly that morning. It was quite a struggle to get myself ready as I was constantly short of breathe, but after a bowl of porridge we were off just after 2am. The first stage is quite flat as it follows a valley along the side of Island Peak. Soon after it turns sharply up the hill and a small track zig-zags its way up the hill. Unfortunately for PaulD, he had picked up a bit of a chest and cough and was the first to start struggling at around 5,350m. He made the decision to turn back as he realised he would not have the strength to continue, so Chris (our lead guide) headed back with him. So it was left to PaulT and myself to continue and we both felt quite good until the track steepens and hits some quite severe rock that you need to haul yourself over. By around 7am and having progressed to around 5,700m (still 490m from the summit), we both new our morning was over as we struggling to get ourselves over the rocks and steep ledges. The photo taken is of myself, PaulT and Pasan Tenday and is from our highest point with the summit in the background (in the sun so hard to see). So disappointingly we both turned back, with still a few hours of effort required to get to the top. We arrived back at base camp at around 9am quite shattered from the physical exertion we had made. Lunch was egg, chapati, backed beans and cheese - I had a double helping I was so exhausted from what we had done. We were all keen to leave base camp so at around 1pm we made the two hour trek back to Chukkung in the freezing wind.

So where did it go wrong? Although we had spent alot of time above 4,700m prior to the climb, we didn't spend any time higher than our base camp and in hindsight that was where we could have acclimatised better. By the next day I was quite personally disappointed that I had not summitted, having come all this way. However, we had still thoroughly enjoyed our travels, seen some fantastic scenery, met some great people and spent a fortnight with four local Sherpa people who added alot to our journey. I think my future treks and climbs will be limited to day walks in the French and Italian Alpes where there is a cafe at the top to enjoy a hot drink and pastry!!

Following our return to Chukkung, we put spent the next two days trekking back to Namche Bazaar where we are now. It is amazing how easy this walk was, not just from being downhill, but from now being at a lower altitude which made even the uphills seem easy.


Today was an easy day around Namche. I bought some new trail running shoes which I can use for orienteering - half the price and by far better than anything I could find in Australia. We then went to Ang Chhiri and his wife Pemba's house in a nearby village (about an hour's walk), who had invited us around for lunch - another massive meal of chapati, fried rice and hot potato chips! This evening we went down to the local bar to play pool and have a few beers (not celebration ones unfortunately) which was a welcome change to being in bed by 8.30pm because it is normally too cold!

So we are now on the last few days of our journey. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we walk back to Lukla to hopefully catch a flight out on Wednesday back to Kathmandu, weather permitting. I am still struggling to convince Heather to let me shave off my furry and annoying beard - she wants to see it "live", all I want to do is get rid of it! I certainly won't be following the trend of a couple of other work colleagues that kept their facial hair following trips to Nepal.....