EVEREST SUMMIT DAY! (Uphill)

Sorry it’s taken me so long to write/finish this blog!

I woke up from camp 4, along with Pemba and Ngudu. It was starting to get colder so I put all of my layers back on. We then had to make more water, and eat a shared dehydrated meal.

I organised my gear and checked off things from my list. Up there, we are tired and with the low oxygen levels, it’s easy to forget key items – like sunglasses – that may seem less obvious when we are leaving at sunset. I put my electric socks on, ate an energy gel, activated my hand warmers, and triple checked I hadn’t forgotten anything.

Finally, it was time to leave! I put my boots on from inside the tent, then awkwardly crawled out with my pack, as I had to stay attached to my oxygen bottle. I quickly unzipped my rainbow zip (butt zip) and went to pee very close to the tent, to avoid getting tired walking too far. Nobody cares at all up there about things like privacy! I geared up, checked my oxygen flow rate again (to ensure I hadn’t bumped the regulator into a higher or lower flow, which could cause major problems) and Pemba, Ngudu and I set off. I was very happy to see not many other people, just 10 or so, heading off in front of us.

We set off, walking slow and steady. The start is a pretty tame gradient for about 30 ish minutes (I think?), before getting quite steep on the Triangular Face.

It’s a weird lot of emotions that I felt at this moment. Knowing that the next 15 or so hours will be some of the hardest in my life, and will change my life – positively or negatively – forever. This one day is so different to the rest of the climb. It is so much mentally and physically harder, more intense, and more dangerous than any of the other climbing days – by a long way. Accidents to do with hypoxia, frostbite, people falling from forgetting to clip into the rope (due to exhaustion) all happen on this day.

All of this was going through my head before leaving, and as I was walking out of camp. It’s emotions unlike anything I’ve experienced elsewhere, but after an hour or so, I realised that whilst it is easy for something awful to happen, it is in my control to keep myself safe and prevent accidents. I was going to go and give this summit night my best shot, so I might as well enjoy it. And I did! The sun was still out when we left camp, but slowly set down over Mt Makalu (5th highest peak that I now have my eyes set on) and other surrounding peaks. As we would be climbing all through the night, to preserve battery, all climbers waited until the last moment before we turned on our head torches.

Pemba, Ngudu and I overtook a few people, until we were the second group that we could see (more were further ahead). It’s very hard to pass people at this altitude as we are all going slowly, some just less slow than others. Some people are going at 5 steps a minute, and if I’m going at 10 steps a minute, it still takes me a lot of effort in order to overtake.

Climbing up the Triangular Face is steep, and even a bit rocky at sections. It’s hard mentally because you have sooooo long ahead, but I just focused on getting to the Balcony. I find it easier with it being pitch black, so you can’t see what’s ahead :). I felt physically pretty good, and it was nice to be some of the first people on the mountain that day (night). We stayed in the rhythm of those in front of us, and even though they were going at a slightly slower pace, it wasn’t slow enough for me to be able to pass with ease – and there was no point in pushing too far ahead.

I was also singing the song “Angels” by Robbie Williams (don’t ask why I chose this song) in my head over and over hahahaha

The bottled oxygen is extremely dry and makes you extremely thirsty. Even though it’s -20 to -30°C outside, all I wanted was an ice cold sprite, coke or beer (I normally hate beer). After speaking to friends afterwards I’m glad to know that others also had the exact same extreme thirst!

After a few hours of steep climbing, we finally reached the balcony. I sat down on the flat-ish snow and immediately took out my 500ml Nalgene of water and tried my best not to chug it all. It was ice-cold and just what I wanted. I had brought 1.5L for the whole night and day above Camp 4, and I knew I would only get more thirsty, so I had to save it. This thirst is so funny looking back on it (at the time it definitely wasn’t), and other climbing friends told me how they would look around at other people coming up, and they wanted to steal all of their water!! I had similar thoughts too haha. I also had an energy gel (maybe two), and felt so much better.

It was very confusing with my phone having changed to the Beijing time zone, which is 2 hours and 15 minutes ahead of Nepal. I knew I had left at 6:20 p.m. and saw the time on my phone was 12:00 a.m. I was a little disappointed because the time I supposedly took from c4 to the Balcony was the same as I did last year. I didn’t realise at the time, but it was actually 9:30pm, and I was over 2 hours faster than last year! Pemba changed my oxygen bottle, and we left the partially full one that I had been using, at the Balcony, for me to use on my way down.

The three of us continued on, getting ahead of the other group who were at the Balcony. We now were walking on a ridge – on my right side the mountain dropped into Tibet, and on my left it dropped into Nepal. It was also much more exposed to the wind, but luckily I had my big mittens on. Actually, these were the same mittens my Mum used on her Everest expedition, exactly 20 years ago! These mittens (everyone has very similar ones) are HUGE and it is very hard even to hold the rope tightly with them. Because I had seen my friend the day before with very bad frostbite from similar weather, I was a bit worried about my own hands. Luckily, I stayed very diligent and did not take my big mittens off (even though I had liner gloves and chemical hand warmers underneath) to do any unclipping of my jumar (rope ascender). Pemba, Ngudu and I were now almost on our own, without a view of anyone in front or behind us – I loved it so much!

We had now passed the section on which I had turned back, last year. At that time, it was incredibly windy and snow was blowing so much that I didn’t have any idea what I was walking on. Even though it was pitch black (around 11pm by now), I could see that we were on a nice ridge.

We finally arrived at the “rocks” that my mum had told me about. Its surprisingly technical, seeing as it is not an iconic part of summit day. Anything technical becomes 1000x harder above 8000m. Big step ups, or sudden quick movements due to unstable footing become exhausting, and we needed to move quite slow.

After this section we continued on the snowy slope, that became increasingly steep as we approached the South Summit. I was soooooooooooo thirsty by then and was really looking forward to that delicious sip of water, when we would have a break at the South Summit. This would be our last rest before the summit. Before the South Summit is actually a short descent only about 8m or so, which felt weird to do on our way up. However…. when we got to the South Summit, the wind picked up a lot! So we could not stop to rest, or drink. I was soooo thirsty and fully expecting a little bit of hydration, and I was so sad to not have the rest I was so mentally prepared for – it had been about 3.5 hours (I think) since our last rest.

But now we were on the last stretch to the summit! It was still extremely dark, I had no idea what time it was, but I knew we only had about 140 vertical metres to the top. And I knew I would make it!

As you can see, it is quite rocky. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but there was quite a bit of up and down here. The footwork definitely needed a lot more concentration than the other sections. Honestly, after seeing so many photos like this one, I thought I knew exactly what it would look like, but it was a little harder than I thought! We caught up to some people that were ahead (that we couldn’t see from the start), and I could see the team ahead of me (because people were lit up by others’ head torches) were doing some big movements climbing up the steep rocks. I did get nervous for when I would reach that section, but I remembered to just focus on myself.

The climbing was okay, it was just the altitude that makes it astronomically harder. I climbed up a steep part, and I got very out of breath and needed to stop at the top. However when we did, I looked down and I saw a body to my left. It was a pretty horrible feeling, when in that moment I was tired, and was trying to control my breathing – seeing this, honestly stressed me out, and evoked many emotions. Even though I was climbing well, it was a real reminder of how dangerous the mountain is. On the other hand, after seeing similar awful things last year, I am content that I am not desensitised to this harsh reality of the mountain. And that I was physically feeling ok enough to experience these emotions, and not too exhausted to care.

Later I realised that this was the Hilary Step – a famous section of Everest. It’s not as difficult as it used to be, due to most of it collapsing in the Earthquake in 2015, but it was still rocky scrambling – which is hard at 8800m.

Finally we passed the rocks! Pemba said through his muffled oxygen mask: “now its easy to the top”

It had been windy since the South Summit, but now it REALLY picked up. Mum had told me it was forcasted to be strong gusts, but not continous wind. These were some very long gusts! We had caught up to the people in front of us, and all of us had to stop and crouch into the mountain because the wind was insanely strong. I was nervous about the summit, because of course there is nothing higher to shelter us from the weather. Whilst crouching, I looked behind me and, crouching with us, I recognised my good friend Kris!!! (who I had climbed from camp 3-4 with!) Most of us look like yellow/orange/red blobs, but I remembered his down suit and his Sherpa’s down suit – so I was pretty sure! I was so so happy in that moment, to see someone I had spent a long time in base camp with and on the mountain. Even though I had no family with me, Kris felt like real family in that moment.

I fist bumped Kris, and we continued on once the wind lowered down a bit. Only 10 minutes later…

WE REACHED THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT EVEREST!!!

I first hugged Pemba and Ngudu, and thanked them. Everyone finds it very tough up there, Sherpa or not, and its a real accomplishment for everyone. I hugged Kris too! It is a bit of an emotional moment, knowing that you are the highest person in the world. I thought about all of the training I had done, all of the people supporting me (and following my tracker), and I thought of 11 year old Bianca who knew she’d climb Everest one day.

Luckily the wind died down, so it felt okay to take some photos. We waited for the team above us to take theirs – it was funny because we recognised right there on the summit that we were following each other on Instagram! (we later spoke properly in Kathmandu). Whilst we were waiting, I was able to radio to Dad who was in camp 2! Honestly I was feeling pretty good physically (whilst standing still!), and felt in good control of my body and actions. On the radio call (that Dad videoed), I am not super responsive – this is because I had my big mittens on and it was Pemba who was pressing the button on the radio to talk, and we were about 1.5m apart (its not a flat summit!). As good as it felt to be on top, I could mainly just think about the way down.

I took some photos with some flags, and made a couple videos. This was the first time I took my big gloves off. I was very diligent with keeping the mittens on (as much as I dislike them, because its so hard to do anything in them), and that was a huge factor as to why I didn’t get any frostbite or frostnip. Even though, I climbed through all hours of the night, when it was coldest. I checked my phone for the time when I took some pics, and it said 4:30am – weird because it was pitch black, and the sun should’ve started to rise by then. Later I realised it was 2:20am!! (I had forgotten again about being in Beijing time zone).

I was nervous about the descent, because I knew that most of the accidents above camp 4 happen on the descent. This only made me more cautious which was a great thing!

I’ll do another post for the descent from the summit!