Everest Trek - Day 14

Sunrise on the way up Lobuche

Day 14 - 2nd attempt for the summit

"Wake up Didi!" Won shouted. Didi meant sister in Sherpa. He shouted at Christa.

"We're up! We're up!" Ian responded back.

Well, second attempt for the summit. Hours earlier we had as gourmet of a feast as our AMS would allow. It's funny, we'd thought we'd acclimitze faster. It's been one week already living at 4,900 meters ASL and we're still not fully acclimitized.

We head back up the same route as yesterday, but stronger. Less stops and shorter ones too. We scramble up boulders and pass sketchy roped sections and scramble some more. 

By day break, our pace has slowed significantly. That would be 4.5 hours into the hike up. We also passed the snow line and currently trudging on ice. Ian started using his ice axe as Christa gets helped up by the guide. What a gentleman he is.

"You have the biggest smile on your face" Christa said to Ian as she looked back. "And it's been such a huge smile since we've started this hike"

Looking ahead to the summit

Finally the guides stop on a sunny plateau where the sun was beating down the ice. We slapped on our boots and crampons, put on our harnesses and attached ourselves to the line that was set up. The longest rest so far on the trek up. About 30 minutes. We're at the 6 hour mark of just pure uphill hiking and scrambling. The climbing starts now.

We're attached to the main safety line by a jumar. Ice pick goes in, using the French Technique, Ian smacks up the side of the mountain. *SMACK SMACK SMACK Rest - slide jumar up* Breath for what feels like 10 minutes, sucking in oxygen through a straw. We are considered at the extreme end of lack of oxygen. At this altitude, we have 9.7% oxygen compared to 21% at sea level. That's less than half of the oxygen required to function normally.

At this point Christa has suffered as much as she could. 50 meters from the summit she decides to retreat. It's the smartest thing to do, to know your limits. Had she pushed her limit to keep going, dangerous situations may come sideswipe us blind sided. She turns to head down with her guide leaving Ian and Won to hit the summit.

Victory summit salute!

Ian sees Won run up to the top and decides he could do that too, for the last 5 meters of the climb. Worst idea ever. Oxygen never made it to the brain and his vision goes black. Comes to a split second later breathing his heart out of his throat and crawls up the rest of the 4 meters. 

Snap a few pictures, document the top, and retreat. Loaded up the ATC and started the rappell back down. End up at the plateau change into hiking boots and descended using the French Technique. 

3 hours later everyone arrives at camp. 3pm, we get to eat and pass out.

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