A super exciting day today for three reasons:
- We left Tengboche and arrived in Pheriche in time for lunch. Pheriche is roughly 14,000ft or 4,200m. We are now well above the tree line and won’t see any green trees for quite some time! Everyone is feeling fighting fit, happy and healthy. We popped over to the HRA (The Himalayan Rescue Association) this afternoon for their daily briefly about how our bodies react to altitude and how to respond to any signs and symptoms.The HRA is a voluntary non profit high altitude medical clinic. Major credit goes to Dr. John Skow, an American national, who in 1973 went up to the Khumbu and was distressed that many people were dying from Acute Mountain Sickness. He felt that something ought to be done about it. He called together a meeting of officials from the Ministry of Health, some doctors and few other individuals from trekking companies. Another meeting followed with more clear ideas about what to do. The persons from the trekking companies also realized that since it was their clients who were affected most should take the initiative. Finally in the third meeting it was decided to form Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal with most of the trekking agencies contributing generously in its early days. They set up some remote medical outposts, including here in Pheriche and there is also an HRA at Base Camp. The HRA have been an integral and critical part of Everest mountain life ever since. We can’t speak highly enough of them and the doctors who volunteer their time. The clinic runs on donations, small fees and merchandise sales.
http://www.himalayanrescue.org/ - Our Speed Ascent Climber has arrived into Pheriche all the way from London (she’s originally from Hungary) this afternoon. We thought that with the valley being socked in with cloud we would have to wait until tomorrow morning to welcome her, but a tiny weather window opened this afternoon to reveal glimpses of the mighty mountains all around us and then we heard the roar of chopper blades and there she was! She is has been acclimatizing at home in her hypoxico tent and is already acclimatized and ready to go! That means with the arrival of our last Lhotse climber in a few days our CTSS team will be complete. We can’t wait.
- We worked together as a team to figure out and solve Guide Casey’s riddles… we’re all feeling very smart – evidentially the altitude hasn’t affected our cognitive abilities. The reward – a block of Rittersport chocolate! Here’s food for thought for you too – but you have to promise not to Google the answers, no matter how tempted you may be and then if you figure them out you can give yourself a chocolate themed reward!- You are standing outside the door to a closed room, on the wall in front of you there are three light switches that correspond to three light bulbs inside the adjoining room. You can only enter the room with the light bulbs once, so how do you figure out which bulb corresponds to which switch?
– You have 9 eggs. They are identical in every way to the eye. They all feel exactly the same in your hand, except you know that one egg is slightly denser than the others. You can use a scale only twice to figure out which egg is the odd one out and the densest. How do you do it?
Tomorrow we’ll be doing an acclimatization hike above Pheriche before spending our final night in a teahouse and the next day we’ll go on to Lobuche base camp where we’ll spend our first night in our tents – may the adventure begin! There are definitely a few excited climbers ready to get their crampons out…
CTSS Team
