Well it’s our final night by the fire in the teahouse here at Pheriche where we’ve been tucked up in comfy beds and been fed like Kings and Queens. From here on in we’ll be in our sleeping bags and tents and the spirit of adventure will step up a notch.
Tomorrow we move to our Base Camp at Lobuche, and you’ll have to forgive the sporadic nature of our updates as we will be out of range of cell phones and have no access to wifi.
The plan is to reach Lobuche Base Camp tomorrow, take a rest day with an acclimatisation hike the following day before starting to move up to high camp and look at a summit bid. We choose to climb Lobuche instead of doing another rotation on Everest as it reduces our team’s exposure to the icefall whilst still giving the team a great opportunity to concrete down those technical skills and gain roughly the same acclimatization benefits as they would on a first Everest rotation. It also offers some variety & the joy climbing another great Himalayan peak.
Today we did a beautiful scenic hike above Pheriche to approximately 15,200ft with everyone feeling strong. It snowed lightly throughout the night so we walked through a fresh dusting to crisp blue skies and incredible views of our next goal Lobuche amongst other giants like Ama Dablam, Thamserku, Kangtenga & Kangteri. We even captured a glimpse of Makalu – the 5th highest mountain in the world.
Our Speed Ascent climber is doing amazingly well and is already ready to move up hill after feeling great on our acclimatization hike and sleeping soundly. She popped into the HRA who were super impressed with how well acclimated she is. The hypoxico tent and her training has certainly done its work. Our Lhotse climber flew safely into Lukla today and has already started moving up the valley, we’ll rendezvous at Everest Base Camp.
Everyone happy and well – sleeping soundly and their appetites are great which is a strong sign of solid acclimatization.
Photo by Casey Grom
