Down the Lhotse Face from Camp 3, funny how slopes never seem so steep in a photo!
Brigantes Everest Expedition Day 19
What a place! A little flattish ledge of snow (probably at about a 30 degree angle, so not that flat!) on the Lhotse Face with steep slopes above and below. We have to be attached to fixed lines all the time to ensure we don’t fall off – it can get pretty gusty up here at 24,500 feet! We’re glad to rest today. Yesterday was a bit tough – especially for our porters and guides who saved us from disaster innumerable times. We owe them big time!
So it’s good to chill and reflect. We’ve tried to be out in the sun as much as possible. To be honest the tents are beginning to stink. Too much flesh unwashed for too long and too many layers impregnated with sweat all add up to a pretty toxic mixture. Fresh air is much better, though there isn’t much of it – every movement is an effort up here. But it’s those layers that have kept us going. It can be very, very cold, so you need a lot of them, but then at times it and you get very hot, so a few thick layers don’t work. Lots of thin ones with a good padded over jacket is the answer. How the early climbers dressed in tweeds managed I just don’t know!
We’re all weary but determined, very short of breath but not of determination. And we’ve only got to climb the height of Ben Nevis to get to the top. We can do that!
Luke N Brightside
Communications Officer
None of us guides and porters has ever been this tired at Camp 3! We had to haul, nurse and sometimes almost carry the Brigantes yesterday. It’s not only them that need a rest! And they seem to think the job’s done! Little do they know what the mountain still has in store for them.
Sherpa Dowting
Head Porter
more Everest, but not as you know it !
more A summary of our virtual Everest trek
more Back At Base Camp, What A Relief !
more Despite everything our President has made it to the top of the world.
more Onward and upwards to the south col and camp four.
more About our friend in Nepal, Major Lil
more Held back again.
more Ever upwards !
more Here we are at Camp two.
more In the valley of silence.
more Not much to see through the whiteout.
more Climbing the Ice Fall
more A taste of the real thing.
more Settling into base camp
more Finally reaching base camp.
more On to Gorak Shep
more Getting up amongst the real Himalayas
more Our yaks on the trail.
more Onwards to Dingboche.
more Onwards and upwards
more Leaving Namche
more A rest day in Namche
more We move on towards Namche
more Arriving at Luckla Airport
back We are staging a virtual climb of Mount Everest to raise money for Wellspring, Carers Resource and Covid relief. All the previous daily blogs can be read here.