Unsuccessful trip to Camp I

April 19th Mon
Jim and I were awaken around 3:30 am in the morning as the Sherpa’s were eon their way up the mountain. We had decided before went to bed that we would go only if it was a clear morning and it didn’t snow all night. When the kitchen fired up the gas stove at 2:30 I heard it and I heard the snow so I was hoping that we wouldn’t go up. I had a terrible night sleep and didn’t feel well but that wasn’t what was on Nima Tashi mind. He was going up the mountain and when he awoke me at 330am and again at 331am I saw his hand come through my tent asking for my sleeping bag. This was the deal but I didn’t know I was only going to have 1 min to get organized before I had to give it up.
Just a little background on the sleeping bag.
When I am leaving early am in the cold weather I stuff all my clothes in my sleeping bag so they will stay warm until I put them on in the morning. So when he woke me up at 330am and at 331am wanted my bag that meant I had to get all of my stuff out of my bag and would have to get dressed in the cold tent. And when it is cold outside the clothes get cold quickly so the socks were the first thing on me but I had to put a band aids on my heels because my new boots made some slight blisters on the back of them when we had gone up a few days ago. After the band aids then a strip to duct tape to make it slick so the socks would just slide over the heel on those steep inclines. Now the trade off of the cold clothes was to carry that extra 4 kilos or not so you know the sleeping bag went out the tent when I saw the hand and didn’t think anymore about it.
Jim and I both were moving a little slow (later found out that Jim was feeling good either) but we made it to the dining tent and decided to have a little breakfast. I didn’t feel like eating much so I had just a little coke. It was a funny feeling, not nausea or headache or anything like that just didn’t have the “spring in the step” We sat in for about an hour and we finally decided to leave about 5 am. The walk to the ice fall entrance is about 15 mins and it is a nasty walk over the base camp glacier in your stiff boots. You are slipping and sliding all over the place and by the time you make it to the Ice Fall you are breathing like you know what. (I hate it like you wouldn’t believe)
Ok we are now at the Ice Fall and we put our crampons on, (now I do like this because it allows you to be lazy because you will not slip) and start of the mountain. I was not feeling good but kept thinking it would get better. We started in the Ice Fall and at the steep hills; Jim was stopping to catch his breath. I thought this was good because this would allow me not to be lagging behind. This went on for about an hour and Jim got better and I got worse. We actually talked about it on the mountain when he finally turned around and said that he was finally feeling better. At this point I was not being dead weight but I was certainly being slow but we continued. I thought if I could just get to camp 1 I could rest and surely I was strong enough to get there. We continued on and finally after 3:15 we got the first ladder in the Ice Falls. Now this was the same place that Martin, Nima, and I were at in less than 1 ½ hrs the first time we went up so this shows how slow I was on this trip. We talked again and I said let’s keep pushing up. I really didn’t want to go down. I knew what a commitment this was to get back to base camp. It was a long way but the bottom was so much up and down I just didn’t know that I could do it. Up was a lot steeper but it would be shorter and I thought I could just push through it but it wasn’t happening. AN hour later I ask Jim about the status and he said we were about ½ way. I told him we needed to go down. This was one of the hardest decisions that I had made so far because I knew what “crap” I was going to have to go through to get back to base camp. I just didn’t know if I could do it. I absolutely had no power in my legs. I was shot and really didn’t know why. I had climbed many mountains and never before had this happened to me. One thing that was happening was I was peeing about 10 mins without any notice and it was immediate ( less than 10 seconds),it hurt like hell, it was gold color( which I know is not good but not the worse it could be) and it was very little. Holy shit I am dehydrated some but something is wrong here. BTW I am a good water drinker as I learned this a long time ago on this High Altitudes climbs and I know my body well so I was baffled.
With a lot of patience from Jim, with me basically walking about 10 steps, going down one hill and going up one hill and me constanly asking him can he see the end we finally made it out 3 ½ later. Two days before we had madwe it down in less than 40 mins from not too much further down than when Jim and I turned around so you know we have a problem.
We made it to the crampon removal area and I just sat there and told Jim to go on home. It was only a couple hundred meters and quite honestly I didn’t know how I was going to get up that hill and especially didn’t know when but he wouldn’t leave me.
SO we ventured on up the hill passing by some friends who wanted to make sure we were ok because they had seen others that had seen me and told them that I was not doing well.
We were back at the camp in about 25 mins. We had just completed 8 hours of walking and we had gone nowhere. What a defeating thing for anyone to stomach and it was proablbly the hardest walk I had ever done in my life and I have had some hard ones ( the 26 Kilometers walk out of Acocongua is one at the top of my list)
Ok we leave at 5 am and I am back in my tent at 1 pm exhausted delirous and just wanted to be left alone. Only my pee bottle needed to be my friend.
I laid across the tent with my feet outside for over an hour trying to just remember who I was and the Sherpa’s were so helpful. They removed my harness, my boots and helped me get into bed. Jim later came with a homemade grill cheese tomato ham speciafiaclly made for me. The Sherpa’s had never seen such a thing but I was not hungry but knew I needed something. I did manage to eat one of them and then I rolled over to try to get some sleep.
I mention these next few items so one day I can laugh about them but if you want to skip reading this section I will not be offended.
After a while I realized that my pants and underwear were wet because I had sat on the snow so much on the way down and I needed to get them off or my bag was going to get wet and cold. Some how I did get them off down to my ankles ( I know this because I woke up later cold and my legs were tied to together) I had tied the bottom of my ankle tight to keep the snow out of my boots and I guess when I was trying to remove my pants I couldn’t figure out how to get them off so I left them until I woke up cold. I did finally manage to get them off b ut the Sherpa’s had destroyed my organized tent looking for my hat that not I could find any damn I do not know how long this sage went on but I finally found something to wear. Now add this drama with me having to piss at a moments notice. Ok 10 sec ( and I mean no more than 10 sec and it was flowing)to find the pee bottle, find the head lamp ( they couldn’t find mine so they gave me one of the sherpa’s which was totally different from mine so I could never find the regular light button, undo the screw cap and get it out of my pants and into this bottle. Funny huh? So you know what happen most of the night. I didn’t hit the bottle enough and my blanket and sleeping pad was in bad shape the next morning I now know what if feel like to be in an old folks home because when I awoke on Tuesday morning I thought I had moved my bed to the urinal. This was not good. The last funny of the night was on Jim. I had the pants story and he had the same thing happen to him with his shirt. He couldn’t figure out how to get his shirt because he couldn’t undo the buttons.
High altitude is a great thing, Huh?

Somehow I made it through the night and actually felt much better after that crazy day/night.