I’ve heard that my last audio blog wasn’t completely audible, so apologies for that – the signal evidently wasn’t too good in the fairly narrow valley between Everest and Nuptse. We all had a successful first rotation, spending two nights at Camp One and two nights at Camp Two. With Camp Two being higher than the summit of Denali we were sleeping higher than I’d ever slept before, and the effects were definitely there.

Moving up to Camp Two, otherwise known as Advanced Base Camp, took almost 5 hours, moving nice and slowly for cope with us trying to acclimatize at the same time. Besides a couple of ladder crevasse crossings at the beginning that stretch of the climb is a simple walk up the middle of the Western Cwm, avoiding the sides in case of avalanches. You get to the bottom of Advanced Base Camp though and it’s another 45 minutes up to AAI’s camp. I think we’re getting used to this pattern, but it doesn’t make that last stretch any easier.

The rest day at Camp Two wasn’t great at all for me. I woke up suffering from the altitude and was off my food all day. At that sort of altitude you don’t feel like doing anything at all, so I spent the afternoon napping, and then went promptly back to bed after dinner! Others were in similar boats regarding food and lethargy, but we all coped in our own ways and were up at 3:30 the next day for an early breakfast before our descent.

We left camp at just past 5am and had wonderful views of the sunrise on the mountains opposite us. We sped down to Camp One carrying sleeping bags and mats to leave there for the next rotation (we all have second ones down at Base Camp to lessen the load carrying as much as possible for the Sherpas), and left almost all of our other stuff up at Camp Two for next time. The first part of the descent was made more interesting when Steve almost fell off a ladder as too many people tried to help him and his ascender would only move with difficulty, but he was saved by Lakpa, Jose and some friendly Sherpas who all grabbed the rope at the side of the ladder and helped him regain balance. Straight after this Michael punched through the path with one foot into a crevasse, but fortunately was able to pull it out without an issue.

After a break at Camp One we carried on down towards the dangerous section. My dad and I were right behind Garrett at this point and when we reached just before this section he told us that we were about to enter it and to go ahead – he’d wait and relay the message onto everyone as they passed. So the two of us moved off as quickly as we could, a little ahead of the others. It turned out to be exactly the right thing for us as there was no one else in sight for quite a while and we had a really great time speeding down at our own pace and even taking ladders side by side when there were two of them placed next to each other.

The whole descent took my dad and myself just under 4 hours, with everyone else coming in spread out soon after. It was a race to the shower list, and I managed to get on there first. A mixed blessing, as it meant that I also got the coldest shower… But I can’t complain. Base Camp guide and solo Lhotse climber Ben Jones got back to camp the day before we got down, so it was lovely seeing him here again. Unfortunately we also had to say goodbye to Camp Two climber, Steve, who made to his goal and has actually flown out of base camp this morning by helicopter to make his flight to Kathmandu. I think we’re all jealous of him staying in a proper bed tonight with a proper toilet and shower. He’s already missed though.

Many of the team have come back with terrible coughs from this rotation, the so called Khumbu Cough from the dry, cold air, made much worse from exertion. Both my dad and Chris we believe also caught a throat virus and so have been talking with very rasping voices for a couple of days, although both appear to he clearing up well. Touch wood, so far I seem to have avoided any terrible cough or sore throat, I hope it lasts! We now have 4 days of rest and recuperation, trying to sort out the coughs etc. Today was very restful, with everyone doing almost nothing, but tomorrow we’re planning a trip down to Gorak Shep to use the internet. An exciting prospect for us climbers experiencing weeks of withdrawal from social networking, emails and internet in general.

By the way, the photo of me shows Everest behind to my left and Lhotse behind to my right – it was taken above Camp One, and the Cwm is created with Nuptse coming up to the right of Lhotse – opposite to Everest, creating a semi circle. You can actually see it behind my dad in the photo of him. Hope you’re all well. Ttfn.