Saturday, May 8, 2010

Hard lonely day on the way to ABC camp

Wednesday May 5th
Trip from Camp 1 to Camp 2
We got up at 8 am about the time the guys arrived from the base camp. They had left about 4 am on their way to camp 2 with Nima and me. I got out of the tent and knew we were in for a hot day so I double checked to make sure I had full water bottles and some sweets to help me along the trial which should be no more than 4- 5 hours. Jim and I had done it in 3.5 hours the last trip but the snow was about 15 inches deep and this would make it slower with crampons and even slower without so we chose crampons until we go finished with the ladders.
I was doing well about the first hour and was moving up but I was sweating faster than I could get water in my body. I continued on up until we got to the last steep ladder and I told Nima he had to help me with my backpack. I was out of gas. I finally made it over the last ladder and was out of water, couldn’t pick up my backpack and quite frankly couldn’t go anywhere. I told Nima to go ahead and get me some water that I would keep moving if I could and I would meet one of the other guys but please bring me more to drink. He didn’t want to leave me but we had cleared all the ladders and I could see the trail even though visibility was only about 15 feet. We finally called Jim and Jim told Nima to go on up and get some help (water etc) and Jim and I decided it was best if I could to camp 2 and I agreed.
I sat there almost 45 mins. I was completely dehydrated for some reason. I had been drinking on the trail, I had drunk almost 2 liters during the night in the tent but I was out of gas. It was later determined that I was out of “protein” I had nothing left to give and it was now just living off my muscle and it just took me down. I would get up and just fall over. I was beginning to think that I couldn’t go up or down and I was halfway up. I had never in my life been in this kind of condition but I just couldn’t go nay where. Finally after about 30 mins it started to snow pretty hard and get colder. This cooled my body down and I had eaten a few candy bars and I was finally was able to move again. While the viability has worsened to about 5 feet I could still see the trail. I began moving (very slowly) and in about 30 mins I was welcomed by Mata and he had a litter of pineapple juice and a coke. I sat down and drank ¾ liter of the pineapple juice and then about ½ of the coke. He picked up my backpack and we proceeded up the mountain in a slow but steady pace. After 5 mins, Nawang showed up with some water and I drank about ½ liter of it. I was beginning to feel better and we all got in step and finished off the last 1.5 hours before we arrived at camp 2.We had to be slow and steady because we could barely see the trail and we could barely each person in front of us. The cold weather and snow felt good on me and the 3 Sherpa’s gave me the confidence to make it home.
Even with the 45 mins I was still able to make it to camp 2 in 4:45 so not too bad with the heavy snow.
I was ready for bed and the weather was bad so Nima brought me my dinner in my tent and I was actually hungry as I ate and went to bed.

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