Everest day 43 – camp 3 to camp 4!

This is definitely the second hardest day of the climb, after the summit day. That being said, last year it was my favourite climbing day! We climb from 7100m, to 8000m, which is a huge amount of elevation gain at such high altitudes.

Last year I had left early, at 4am and it worked well to allow me to rest for a few nice hours in camp 4 before I had to leave again for the summit push. We don’t plan to spend a full night in camp 4 before or after pushing for the summit, because the altitude is too high and it is well into the death zone. We often don’t have enough oxygen, and even whilst resting using bottled oxygen at camp 4, we are still at a huge risk.

Anyways, Pemba and I woke up at 2:30, because we had to make water (by melting snow). I was a little nervous about the fact that everyone pees right outside their tents, and we also get snow to melt in pretty much the same areas. Oh well.

Pemba made some water, and I put some in a dehydrated rice pudding meal packet. I ate that – it was disgusting haha. I also should mention how cold it is at 2:30am at 7100m, whilst the tent is quite open as we don’t want to die from inhaling all of the gas from the propane cooking. I packed up my sleeping bag, and changed my socks. It’s important that I don’t sleep in the socks I need to climb in, in case I sweat a tiny bit in them (even though I’m cold, it happens) and they can get very cold. I also activated my chemical hand warmers that I put inside of my gloves. I had done everything I could do to prep, last night so I wouldn’t have to do too much in the cold and dark.

By about 3:30 we were ready, and I went out to pee. Yes, other people were out, and many people saw me, but I don’t care. It’s too dangerous and unnecessarily exhausting to walk far from your tent to go to the toilet, so I literally went about 1m away from my tent and somebody else’s! I geared up with my harness and crampons, and we were ready to rumble! It was great because my friend Kris, who I had climbed with yesterday, was ready at the same time and we set off together. It’s hard to talk with the oxygen mask on, but we fist bumped and set off! He is very strong, but we both wanted to take it easy so 4 of us climbed together, with our 2 sherpas.

It’s always tough as the start, but it was nice to get into a rhythm when climbing with Kris. There was barely anyone else leaving at the same time, but I had no idea of how many people were at camp 3. We are still on the Lhotse Face, and it only got steeper! There were sections of very steep blue ice, similar to the icefall, but much longer and tougher due to the much higher altitude.

Many people think that the bottled oxygen removes the effects of high altitude – like scuba diving. But the oxygen only makes the climbing barely doable. We adjust the flow rate, and that amount of (pure) oxygen gets added to the air that we are already breathing in (that only has about 30% oxygen). So it just slightly increases the pressure of (only) oxygen in the air we inhale. It’s hard to say WITH using oxygen, it can make the climbing feel more like 7000-7700m. It also depends on the flow rate.

We continued on the Lhotse face. It’s very steep, and cold too, since we left so early. My hands were okay, but my feet were getting very cold. I knew that the sun would rise in only a couple of hours, and I just wiggled my toes in every step. It feels like this face never ends, and we were never getting any closer to certain sections that we could see from afar.

Climbing on the Lhotse face, I saw my friend Kris (not the same Kris I had been climbing with!) who had come down from the summit the day before, but had bad frostbite. He needed to get down to camp 2, and be taken immediately to hospital. It was lovely to cross him, and I think he was happy to see a familiar face, but it’s hard for me to be supportive to him whilst still going up towards the dangers myself. He showed me his hands, and his fingers were already going dark grey. I gave him a huge hug, and carried on.

After a few hours, we reached the Yellow Band. This is a little bit of a more technical section, and we had been going for a while so I had a little rest. There was a tiny part that was less steep and I tried to kick out a little seat in the snow for Pemba and I. That was tiring! I had some high-carbohydrate gel, and a little bit of water. We couldn’t stop for long before we started to get cold. Kris is crazy and didn’t have a break, so he continued on.

I started climbing on the yellow band – it’s a ~50 vertical metre section of sandstone, mixed with ice and snow. We climb up and over it, but it does wrap around the mountain at parts. The climbing is not objectively hard, but at altitude, big moves are hard and get you quite out of breath. Luckily Kris had a break, so I caught up to him 😁.

When we got to the top of the Yellow Band, I looked back at the hours of climbing we had done and I see this HUGE snake line of people coming up far behind us. I have never seen anything like this. I had not realised how many people were in camp 3, as most people just disappear into their tents when they arrive. I was so grateful to be ahead!

An hour or so past the Yellow Band, we arrived at Lhotse Camp 4. Lhotse (hence the Lhotse Face) is the 4th highest mountain in the world, and very close to Everest. To climb it is almost the exact same as Everest, but Everest climbers turn off to the left at Lhotse camp 4. Finally the sun had come out, and I saw my friend Anastasia who was coming down. She had just summited Everest!!! I was so happy for her! We’re spending so much time with people like her and the two Kris’s (and many others) at base camp, and they all feel like family now. We are all finding it tough, but we all are so driven and support each other along the way.

It’s very hard to recognise people in their big suits, oxygen masks, and goggles! I even find it hard to distinguish between male and female up there!

I had another rest at Lhotse camp 4, but by then my gel was well frozen :(.

The next and last hard section is the Geneva Spur, it’s not technically that difficult, but there is a steeper rocky section. Pemba and I had caught up to another group, but it’s too difficult to pass on a section like this. At the top, it gets flatter and we got our first easy section in hours!!

After 20 minutes we walked into camp 4!!!! It’s such a surreal feeling. It feels so extreme, seeing everyone with oxygen masks on, walking slowly with heavy steps. Life is very hard up here.

Pemba and I found our tent. Ngudu was also there, as he went ahead to head start making some water. I awkwardly crawled in, trying to carry my backpack inside at the same time to stay attached to my oxygen bottle. Ahhhh, I could finally lie down! It had only taken me 6.5 hours, when last year it had taken me almost 8, which was a good time too! I felt bad for everyone I saw in the queues who would take 10+ hours!

I laid down, and even at these altitudes, the tents get HOT! I took off my big jacket and other layers until I was just in my thermal. I drank as much water (super important to thin out blood and help prevent frostbite) as I could – with specs of dirt in it, and most likely pee in it. I just close my eyes and drink. I had an instant soup as well, and some muesli bar. I did not have an appetite at all!

Then Pemba, Ngudu and I (all in the same tent) napped for a while. We would be leaving that night and will be awake for at least 24h so it’s good to try to sleep a bit. We had changed my oxygen bottle, and I adjusted it to a lower flow rate whilst I was resting.

i’ll stop today’s blog here!