Saturday (6th May) we all returned to BC, now the 26km walk back to BC was equally as bad as the first time we travelled this route and everyone will be happy when we return this path for the last time, however this is part of climbing Everest and so must be endured. Everyone was really happy to be back to the oxygen rich environment of BC and we all enjoyed a meal of Yak stew. Saturday night’s entertainment was a viewing of “Top Gun” and if you haven’t seen it in a while we would suggest that you rent a copy now! Last night was a really late night and we all managed to stay up until 11pm, unbelievable I have no idea what we do when we get home and have to stay up late?

Hi All,

I would like to report that since our last blog (Thursday) I had reported that Hassie and Fergal were making a second attempt to make it to 7700m, camp 2, well they did! Brilliant, well done, the day before we had turned around because of the cold, well, they set off in down gear from head to toe and you guessed it? It was boiling hot and they had to strip down to their base layer instead, what a difference a day makes on Everest. So after reaching their high point they returned to ABC with Kate for a well earned rest. (I had been set a task while Raymond and Fergal set off on their climb- Raymond and Neill had spent the night before in a tent belonging to some Italians, and they needed me to clear their gear into one of our tents. This sounds like a simple enough task, but two hours later I was exhausted and the tent had just about been cleared. After that it took another two hours to melt enough snow to allow for 3 cups of sweet black tea. For those of you who know me, the altitude must be affecting me if I’m drinking black tea! I must say that having reached the North Col, I can now appreciate how difficult the climb beyond 7000m will be for the boys, but I know each climber if well able for the task ahead-K)

That evening we had a big group discussion with the climbing Sherpas and our Sardar and we decided on a battle plan for our summit bid, so here it goes, we return to BC for a few days rest, then 2 days walk back to ABC, climb up to the North Col to spend an overnight, climb to camp 2 (7700m) and then return to ABC, this will complete the acclimatisation phase of our expedition, after this we will be in a position to make a summit attempt, this we be from around the 20th May onwards. This is the current plan anyway.

Check out our Gallery section of the website to see the latest photos from base camp, ABC and the Everest North Col

Thanks to Kate’s for the blog on Wednesday, she is much better at it than I am, so Kate’s will be looking after the updates from tomorrow on hopefully.

Anyway what’s been happening around here, well first I must defend myself to those comments about my white knees (Chocolate Brown I like to think?) Now Paddy the porter has a little thing about knees and it was in fact jealousy that was making him laugh, what else could it have been? And as for the weight of my rucksack, again my pack was very heavy and in fact I carried all my own stuff up the North Col, I could name and shame those who didn’t but I will not, although Paddy has very strong little fingers!

Back to the North Col, well, the North Col was very hard and took us up to 5 hours to complete, it would have been hard enough without the extra weight of our rucksacks and this certainly made it a lot more difficult. Luckily our campsite is the very first camp site when you arrive at the North Col, so we rolled it our tents, now Jonathan, Fergal, Hassie & I had good 2 man tents, however Geoffrey & Steve were particularly lucky to get a one man tent, this has helped very well with the bonding of the climbers and Geoffrey & Steve are now refusing to sleep alone! So after another uncomfortable night we awoke to a delicious boil in the bag meal of you guessed it? Porridge! We then set off on the 4 hour plus climb to 7700m, and after 1.5 hours we reached a height of approximately 7300m and had to turn around, it was unbelievably cold and would have needed to have dressed it our down gear, we had set off in fleece with a Goretex shell, but this was totally inadequate for the conditions, this said we have learned from the experience and will be better prepared on the next occasion. So after returning to the tents we took a break and waited for Kate arrival who was attempting the North Col, and brilliantly she made it! Now not being sexist or anything like it we thought she would not make it, you could take 100 people of the high street and ninety percent would not be able for the North Col climb, so it was our delight to see Kate hauling herself up the last fixed rope to reach the North Col, well done Kate.

Steve, Jonathan, Geoffrey & myself then decided we would go back to ABC, Hassie and Fergal decided they would stay at the North Col for another night as would Kate as she was too exhausted to make the return journey to ABC, Kate did suggest that this was the hard thing she had ever done.

Life back at ABC is much more comfortable and relaxed than the North Col, and we have heard that Fergal and Hassie have taken a head stagger and have decided this morning to attempt 7700m again, Kate is still awaiting at the North Col and shall return this afternoon with Hassie & Fergal.

That’s all for now.

Neill

Well, I’m all alone at Advanced Base Camp, apart from 2 cooks and Paddy, our newly named porter. We are not sure what Paddy’s real name is, but he has become the new life and soul of the group. He appeared about a week ago down at Base Camp where he started bringing in hot water and soup. Lukpa our head Sherpa described him as a ‘Tibetan Hardman’ but really he is far from it- he has a great smile and is always up for some craic!

The 6 summit climbers set off this morning to spend their first night at the North Col. The are intending to spend the night sleeping at 7030m, before climbing up to the next camp at approximately 7700m, tomorrow. They will climb straight down without spending the night at this high camp, and are due back to ABC sometime tomorrow afternoon. The plan was to leave this morning at 10 o’clock, after a hearty breakfast of you’ve guessed it- porridge, eggs and pancakes. The team managed the hearty breakfast but the 10 o’clock departure was a bit more elusive. Perhaps the boys were still running on Fermanagh time, and departure was closer to 11 o’clock (and no, Fergal was not the last to be ready)!

The mess tent was spread from one end to the other with crampons, water bottles, chocolate bars and climbing harnesses. Each climber claimed that they could not fit another thing into their rucksacks, and by the time they had packed in a huge down sleeping bag and coat there was room for nothing else. Jonathan was even heard trying to convince a Sherpa to carry his sleeping bag! Paddy came in at this point, lifted Neill’s rucksack with his little finger and threw it up and down, laughing at how light it was. If you consider that on the way to ABC Paddy probably carried close to 4 stone, he probably did think it was light. Paddy was already laughing hard at this stage, when Neill tried to put on a clean pair of socks. As soon as Paddy caught sight of his white knees, that just finished him off- he had to go into the cook tent to recover, and I haven’t seen him since!

After numerous cups of tea, and grunts to try and fit everything into tiny rucksacks, the climbers were ready to set off. I have to say that they resembled a bunch of Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Participants on their first hike, with cups and water bottles hanging off their rucksacks.

I was half hoping for a day where I didn’t need to speak to anyone, since living in such close proximity to 6 hairy climbers is enough for any girl. My plans for a day curled in my tent with a good book were soon destroyed. No sooner had the guys left, when I heard a shout for the Northern Ireland Team. I was descended upon by not one, but two other teams who had just called in for a chat- and incidentally if I could fix it, an oxygen mask. So much for a good read and peace and quiet! Several cups of tea later, and one fixed oxygen mask I finally got some peace. By that stage it was of course time to write this blog. I hope you have not been too bored by my recounts and I promise Neill will be here to entertain you again in the next few days. Now all I have to do is remember how many degrees the satellite phone needs to be tilted at, which direction it must face and the two passwords Neill told me about last night, in order to send this blog, so here goes…

Saturday morning Adrian, Alan, Andy and Francis were due to leave base camp at 09:30, unfortunately their transport turned up at 09:00 Chinese time and not Nepal time, so after a mad panic to get all their gear packed and ready we said a tearful good bye to the boys, we have really enjoyed their company over the last month and they will be sadly missed by all. Adrian was in tears at leaving base camp as he has enjoyed the cold, snow and the miserable conditions, don’t worry Adrian its ok for a man to cry, Andy nearly broke the handle of the 4x4 he was in such a panic to get away from BC! As for Alan he has been missing Linda so badly he was also in a panic to get away, Francis was as cool as ever.

After this, the day was spent relaxing in the mess tent and highlight of the day was watching Sahara and the Borne Supremacy on DVD, Geoffrey was quite taken with Matt Damon movies and has been asking for a repeat showing!

Sunday and the team moved out for Interim camp again, and no one was really looking forward the prospect of a 4 hour walk (make that 5 for Kate) in the boiling heat, anyway after approximately 4 hours we eventually arrived at the camp and set up for the night, dinner this evening as particularly delicious consisting of Indian boil in the bag meals, I think I got a vegetarian option, excellent, luck me. The camp we also were lucky enough to occupy was like lying on a bed of nails, so a wonderful night of sleep was had by all.

Monday morning we awoke to have another a beautiful breakfast of Indian curry again! This was the first time ever I have had curry for breakfast and hopefully the last, the curry was so good that I still tasted it a day later. So after breakfast we set out on the four hour (again make that 5 hour for Kate with poor Raymond trailing behind!) walk to Advance Base Camp, this is comparable to the walk from Base camp to Interim camp. Again we eventually arrived in our ABC in great health and spirits.

The rest of evening was spent repairing the generator and other things around ABC, we have came to the conclusion, that if it going to break it will break on Everest, it has become a full time job fixing equipment.

Tuesday has been a rest day at camp, preparing equipment and food for higher up on the mountain, tomorrow morning at 8 am we move out for the North Col, we will hopefully camp at the North Col for the night and the following day climb to camp two 7700m, this will be our highest point Everest before making a summit bid.

That’s all for now from the monkey, Kate will probably be keeping the Blog up to date from tomorrow on.

Neill

Saturday morning Adrian, Alan, Andy and Francis were due to leave base camp at 09:30, unfortunately their transport turned up at 09:00 Chinese time and not Nepal time, so after a mad panic to get all their gear packed and ready we said a tearful good bye to the boys, we have really enjoyed their company over the last month and they will be sadly missed by all. Adrian was in tears at leaving base camp as he has enjoyed the cold, snow and the miserable conditions, don’t worry Adrian its ok for a man to cry, Andy nearly broke the handle of the 4x4 he was in such a panic to get away from BC! As for Alan he has been missing Linda so badly he was also in a panic to get away, Francis was as cool as ever.

After this, the day was spent relaxing in the mess tent and highlight of the day was watching Sahara and the Borne Supremacy on DVD, Geoffrey was quite taken with Matt Damon movies and has been asking for a repeat showing!

Sunday and the team moved out for Interim camp again, and no one was really looking forward the prospect of a 4 hour walk (make that 5 for Kate) in the boiling heat, anyway after approximately 4 hours we eventually arrived at the camp and set up for the night, dinner this evening as particularly delicious consisting of Indian boil in the bag meals, I think I got a vegetarian option, excellent, luck me. The camp we also were lucky enough to occupy was like lying on a bed of nails, so a wonderful night of sleep was had by all.

Monday morning we awoke to have another a beautiful breakfast of Indian curry again! This was the first time ever I have had curry for breakfast and hopefully the last, the curry was so good that I still tasted it a day later. So after breakfast we set out on the four hour (again make that 5 hour for Kate with poor Raymond trailing behind!) walk to Advance Base Camp, this is comparable to the walk from Base camp to Interim camp. Again we eventually arrived in our ABC in great health and spirits.

The rest of evening was spent repairing the generator and other things around ABC, we have came to the conclusion, that if it going to break it will break on Everest, it has become a full time job fixing equipment.

Tuesday has been a rest day at camp, preparing equipment and food for higher up on the mountain, tomorrow morning at 8 am we move out for the North Col, we will hopefully camp at the North Col for the night and the following day climb to camp two 7700m, this will be our highest point Everest before making a summit bid.

That’s all for now from the monkey, Kate will probably be keeping the Blog up to date from tomorrow on.

Neill

Base camp life seems to roll from one day into another, it is not the most interesting place in the world and the routine goes as such, get up around 08:30 have a wash, have breakfast from 09:00 to 10:00 then you are free until lunch time.

Breakfast normally consists of porridge etc, now today Pemba the cook excelled himself and for some reason accidentally thought lunch was breakfast, curried potatoes, semolina and mixture of rotten vegetables for breakfast? I have no idea what he was thinking? But needless to say everyone dived into the Weetabix and Cornflakes boxes and left the locals to eat the lunch-breakfast meal that Pemba had prepared. Now one team member young Alan McDowell decided that he was not a team player and that he would selfishly eat a boil in the bag meal that he has been carrying for the last month, a few or the others turned green with envy, but I was ok as I do not like beans and bacon!

So back to this free time, well this is normally spent drinking Tea and slagging each other off, we haven’t ran out of detail yet! However today was some what different in that Adrian, Alan and I decided that we would go and see the Indian team, they had a very sick climber on the North Col a few days ago suffering from HACE and he had to be lowered down the North Col and carried on the back to Base camp on the back of a sherpa! Now this was an amazing feat, not the lowering bit as there were 30 plus climbers available and willing to help, but the carrying, can you imagine a man or woman carrying another person on their back for 22km! Amazing, now the good news is that the climber was taken to Kathmandu yesterday and is fine, that’s the nature of Altitude related illness the simple cure is descent, and the oxygen rich air cures almost all problems instantaneously. Anyway the Indians we called to see were out and all we got was a Indian who could only speak a few words of English, mind you his English was better than our Indian!

After this we called over to see the Everest max guys, they were just down from the North Col and full of beans with their achievement, they offered us the full box set of James Bond movies, but we had to decline as some of the team may have gotten carried away, we have enough James Bond wannabes in the team!

We then returned to our tent to discover that some of team had resorted to child labour, unbelievable, I have heard of “when in Rome” but this has been an all time low, imagine employing kids to wash and dry your clothes! Steve Hodge and Raymond Hassard you should hang your heads in shame! (Can I just say that the child labour Neill refers to is not strictly true- the girl was at least 14. A side from which I fully support anyone who is prepared to wash Raymond’ now stiff socks, not to mention the rest of his underwear. –K)

So back to the normal base camp day, Lunch comes along at 12.30 every day and consists of a three course meal, now the fresh vegetables seem to have run out a while back? And the food is getting worse by the day, that’s my opinion but there are others grumbling as well about the slipping standards, I just hope things do not get any worse!

After lunch the afternoon is your own, so you can read, listen to music well if your die pod worked! Or wander about base camp. Now today we went down to the village close by base camp and sampled Tibetan tea, disgusting is all I can say! I have no idea what it tastes like, in fact I could not describe it only to say there is a generous helping of both salt and butter in it! Not for me or anyone else from the west, but the locals love it.-N

So after copious amount of tea we returned to our base camp tents. (I think that the lads actually drank coke and listened to a rendition of the local Base Camp talent on a Tibetan stringed instrument). I am assured that it was hardly Robbie Williams in concert, but it kept people happy and gave them something to do for the afternoon. In fact one of our Sherpas is still missing and was last seen in search of more butter tea! Judging by breakfast, goodness knows what culinary delights await us tonight????- K

Stop Press

After all the complaints made today about the food, Pemba and his staff have total surprised us with a culinary delight fit for a King! Chicken, roasted potatoes, rice and vegetables, quite an unbelievable meal, and to top it all this was followed by a cake (baked at base camp) for the team members who are leaving us tomorrow to return home. Thank you, Pemba.

Today we welcomed Hassie, Kate and Francis back to base camp, everyone is now safely in camp and we will be resting for the next few days, the North col Climbers (Francis, Adrian, Alan and Andy) will depart from Base camp in two days time for Kathmandu, and everyone will be sorry to see them go, as they have kept us entertained over the past weeks.

That’s all for now

Disaster struck last night at Bc last night when the generator went out and Andy and I had to dive into our tent early than we expected, we have been missing all the others who are still up at ABC but we have been heartened by the news that most them have made it safe to the North Col and back to ABC, the lucky …….

Anyway this our breakfast was the normal delightful porridge, (a word of warning to everyone when I get home never offer me porridge!) the rest our day was a normal base camp day, simply visiting other teams and drinking tea, I must admit base camp is a bit of ghost camp at the moment, as everyone seems to be up at ABC or down at a lower altitude.

The highlight of the our day was Jonathan, Steve, Fergal, Geoffrey, Adrian and Alan returning to BC, the guys returned this evening at 5pm full of stories of their adventure, and their difficult return from ABC, they timed it really well as it just started to snow as they entered the mess tent and it has not stopped snowing since, in fact there is as much snow on the ground now as last week, so I think we shall be stilling put for another few days?

Hassie and Kate have decided to stay at ABC for another night and Francis decided that he would also stay in case they were in any danger? They may return to BC tomorrow but with the snow lying everywhere I would doubt it?

Thankfully with Steve returning to BC I was able to fix the generator, Steve was a great help and advised me that Red is Live and Black was neutral, brilliant if there are any lines that Steve put up near you, you are in no danger, he is an electrical genius!

Adrian is in much better mood now that he has returned to BC, we thought we had lost him for a few days there, but the extra oxygen has certainly recharged his batteries?

Alan has grown a lovely Ginger head of hair and it suits him well! Well we think so; we will get an image on the web so please send your opinions to: no_one_loves_a_ginger_baby.com

As for Steve and Jonathan the trip to a higher altitude has had little or no effect other than Steve has said I can have another drive in the DB9 in the Summer.( Steve, I promise I will not crash it again)