Our Virtual Everest Trek Day Twenty

Held back again.

Another Whiteout

The morning view from our tent 

Brigantes Everest Expedition Day 20

Disaster! This was to have been the day when we made our push for Camp 4 and then to the summit. But what did we find when we looked outside? Nothing. White nothing. A few shadowy figures moving and nothing more. We couldn’t see a mountain or anything that looked like a mountain. It was certainly not a day to think about moving up to Camp 4. If we’d even thought 

about it, Dowting knocked it firmly on the head. He reckoned it was set in for the day so we might as well settle down to a day in the tents. We weren’t going anywhere.

Part way through the morning Dowting came round to check how we all were. I’d finished my book and told every joke I knew so I chatted and told him how I marvelled at what the Sherpas were able to do. He said a lot of it was down to experience – he’d been to the top a number of times – and was used to the altitude. He said he’d never led a group like ours – not sure if that was a compliment – and that we’d done better than he’d expected. I quite warmed to him. He’s proud of what he does – and quite rightly. We’d have been in trouble without him. 

He told me that expeditions in the 1920s had established the reputation of the Sherpas as mountain guides. The British called them “Tigers of the Snow”. And he said that Sir Edmund Hillary, who famously made the first ascent of Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, had set up a trust to improve the life of the Sherpas. He told a story about the airfield at Lukla, which the Trust built, primarily to fly in supplies. There were no mechanised rollers to level the runway but the builders came up with an ingenious solution. They employed young men from the villages who, high on alcohol, danced and jumped on the strip to compact and level the surface. Of course in later years it was tarmaced.

We chatted for over an hour and I really felt I got to know him as a man. When he left I thought about how different, and dangerous, Everest would be without the wonderful Gurkhas. I expect he’ll be back to his crusty self tomorrow – but that’s his job and our lives depend on him.

Let’s hope for a fine day tomorrow. I couldn’t bear to think of spending another day here.

Luke N Brightside

Communications Officer


We must get going tomorrow or risk calling the whole thing off. I’m not sure they’re ready to go on but there’s only one way to find out. Had a chat with Brightside today. He’s not as cocky as he seems but I still don’t think he understands what’s needed to get to the top. He soon will!

Sherpa Dowting

Head Porter

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Another Whiteout

Our virtual Everest expedition

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.