My trip to the top of Everest
Discussion
NickXX said:
UTH said:
I'm going to try and dig out my diary over the weekend which is packed away in a box somewhere, as I think I was pretty good at logging nearly every day.....although I know I stopped on the final week which I now regret because reading back I'll have the whole story right up until actually heading to the top, but it's weird how at the time lots of things suddenly didn't seem important.
From memory it looked something like:
Land Kathmandu - 2 nights here
Helicopter to Lukla, then another helicopter to Namche - I know lots of people trek from Lukla to Basecamp, but for reasons I won't go into, this company didn't see the benefit over the admin and other factors
8-10 days trekking in to basecamp
5-6 weeks living at basecamp including rotations up the mountain to camp 2, back to base, camp 3, to camp 2, back to base etc
Final summit push was about 6 days basecamp, camp 2, camp 3, camp 4, summit, back to camp 2 for a couple of nights, back to base.
Couple of nights at basecamp, then trek back to Namche. Couple of nights at Namche celebrating, helicopter to Kathmandu. Couple of nights here, fly home.
Awesome, thank you! What was the purpose of the 5-6 weeks at basecamp? Was it to acclimatise, or was it to wait for the right weather window?From memory it looked something like:
Land Kathmandu - 2 nights here
Helicopter to Lukla, then another helicopter to Namche - I know lots of people trek from Lukla to Basecamp, but for reasons I won't go into, this company didn't see the benefit over the admin and other factors
8-10 days trekking in to basecamp
5-6 weeks living at basecamp including rotations up the mountain to camp 2, back to base, camp 3, to camp 2, back to base etc
Final summit push was about 6 days basecamp, camp 2, camp 3, camp 4, summit, back to camp 2 for a couple of nights, back to base.
Couple of nights at basecamp, then trek back to Namche. Couple of nights at Namche celebrating, helicopter to Kathmandu. Couple of nights here, fly home.
Slowboathome said:
This is great. You make it sound easy!
Re the fitness issue, I heard somewhere that it's more about your basic physiology, and you either have the right stuff or you don't (something to do with your red blood cells?).
Did you get bad headaches? I thought everyone got those
Given it costs £100k you’d imagine most people that aren’t professionals that do it are older and in probably worse shape. I’d guess being 30 odd is a huge advantage vs some 50 year old business man! Re the fitness issue, I heard somewhere that it's more about your basic physiology, and you either have the right stuff or you don't (something to do with your red blood cells?).
Did you get bad headaches? I thought everyone got those
Not sure I’d personally attempt one of the harder ones given the mortality rate, personally. The stats for Everest make it seem fairly safe vs K2 or Annapurna.
You deffo did the right thing though, get those big things done while you’re free to do so!
Regarding the altitude - as UTH said there the body adapts and produces more red blood cells. It is why cyclists do camps training at altitude/sleep in altitude tents ahead of races. And is why in recent years many gifted riders are of Colombian origin as it’s mostly at high altitude. Nairo Quintana for example was born somewhere that is at 2900m. Hence Sherpas make light work of mountains, normal for them.
Edited by okgo on Saturday 24th June 09:23
So after my previous post of our 4 days of general climbing and acclimatising in and around Chamonix, climbing Mont Blanc was up next.
This was a 3 day process - we started on the Italian side which, as you can see from the photos, very warm and started off as basically a nice walk/hike in warm sunny conditions. First day was to head to the "hut" where we'd spend have dinner, sleep and then set off before dawn for the summit. Having made the summit, we head down and stay one night in a "hut" for dinner etc, then up in the morning to head all the way down then back to Chamomix for a final night then head home.
This was a 3 day process - we started on the Italian side which, as you can see from the photos, very warm and started off as basically a nice walk/hike in warm sunny conditions. First day was to head to the "hut" where we'd spend have dinner, sleep and then set off before dawn for the summit. Having made the summit, we head down and stay one night in a "hut" for dinner etc, then up in the morning to head all the way down then back to Chamomix for a final night then head home.
Having completed my first ever summit of a mountain successfully, I met up again with the Everest expedition leader to talk through the next steps. He was in touch with the team in Chamonix and said that feedback was very positive, and for all intents and purposes moving on to an 8,000er was definitely going to be on the cards. So with one eye already on signing up to the Manaslu trip, we decided it would be a good plan to tackle the Matterhorn and the Eiger in an intensive week, with the final couple of days dedicated to scaling the mountains after a few days of climbing various things to get body ready again for altitude.
So below are just a few shots of the first 3/4 days again in and around Chamonix doing various routes of climbing to prep for the final push on the mountains themselves
So below are just a few shots of the first 3/4 days again in and around Chamonix doing various routes of climbing to prep for the final push on the mountains themselves
With the preparation climbing done, it was time to tackle the mountains!
The plan was to arrive at the Matterhorn, head straight up to the top, climb down, stay the night at the lodge/hut at the bottom, then drive from there to the Eiger, take the train through the middle part of the mountain and climb to the hut, sleep then set off before dawn to the top of the Eiger, head down then drive back to Chamonix.
The Matterhorn was possibly the hardest of all the climbs I've done, mainly because the descent just seemed to take forever as the bottom never seemed to get any closer. We were pretty much alone on the mountain as we were on a different time schedule from what most other people would do. We did have one hairy moment where we suddenly heard something coming quickly towards us from above - we knew there was one duo above us as we'd passed them on our way down, and we thought we were going to look up and see one of the people tumbling down. Luckily it was just a rucksuck, but it was a pretty worrying moment.
It was after 10pm by the time we finally made it back down, having navigated our way in mostly darkness by the end, with one thing keeping us motivated - a beer back at the lodge. Very disappointingly, the whole place was already shut, with everyone in bed already as all the people staying there would be getting up at dawn for their push to the top. Luckily they don't lock the front door so we did get in and found a bed, but the beer we'd dreamt of all evening wasn't happening.
First view of the mountain, sadly sitting in a lot of cloud
Sadly weather wasn't great for this mountain, which was a shame
Cracked 4,000m again
A sadly cloudy summit. The view would have been incredible, although at the time it didn't matter, reaching the top is always amazing, no matter what.
Looking back having conquered one, one more to go
The plan was to arrive at the Matterhorn, head straight up to the top, climb down, stay the night at the lodge/hut at the bottom, then drive from there to the Eiger, take the train through the middle part of the mountain and climb to the hut, sleep then set off before dawn to the top of the Eiger, head down then drive back to Chamonix.
The Matterhorn was possibly the hardest of all the climbs I've done, mainly because the descent just seemed to take forever as the bottom never seemed to get any closer. We were pretty much alone on the mountain as we were on a different time schedule from what most other people would do. We did have one hairy moment where we suddenly heard something coming quickly towards us from above - we knew there was one duo above us as we'd passed them on our way down, and we thought we were going to look up and see one of the people tumbling down. Luckily it was just a rucksuck, but it was a pretty worrying moment.
It was after 10pm by the time we finally made it back down, having navigated our way in mostly darkness by the end, with one thing keeping us motivated - a beer back at the lodge. Very disappointingly, the whole place was already shut, with everyone in bed already as all the people staying there would be getting up at dawn for their push to the top. Luckily they don't lock the front door so we did get in and found a bed, but the beer we'd dreamt of all evening wasn't happening.
First view of the mountain, sadly sitting in a lot of cloud
Sadly weather wasn't great for this mountain, which was a shame
Cracked 4,000m again
A sadly cloudy summit. The view would have been incredible, although at the time it didn't matter, reaching the top is always amazing, no matter what.
Looking back having conquered one, one more to go
Looks fab - how hard would you say the Matterhorn was in terms of actual climbing?
I have often thought about doing it, I was on a trip in the 90's where the intention was to do it, but the conditions were not good, and so we did other peaks.
I am more of a hiker than a climber, and wondered how much actual climbing was involved (I think I would have to get used to exposure again :-) )
I have often thought about doing it, I was on a trip in the 90's where the intention was to do it, but the conditions were not good, and so we did other peaks.
I am more of a hiker than a climber, and wondered how much actual climbing was involved (I think I would have to get used to exposure again :-) )
Burrow01 said:
Looks fab - how hard would you say the Matterhorn was in terms of actual climbing?
I have often thought about doing it, I was on a trip in the 90's where the intention was to do it, but the conditions were not good, and so we did other peaks.
I am more of a hiker than a climber, and wondered how much actual climbing was involved (I think I would have to get used to exposure again :-) )
Probably the one with more climbing/scrambling than just hiking/trekking I'd say. Still no points where you're dangling off your finger tips, but certainly a heavy workout on your legs and arms......I have often thought about doing it, I was on a trip in the 90's where the intention was to do it, but the conditions were not good, and so we did other peaks.
I am more of a hiker than a climber, and wondered how much actual climbing was involved (I think I would have to get used to exposure again :-) )
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