My travel diaries
Saturday 12 May, 2007 - Advanced Base Camp, Everest North Side
I have another unpleasant peeing experience during the night, when I open my pee bottle to have shards of frozen pee go flying across the tent. We lie in till 8am after our long, exhausting day yesterday. I realise that despite the snow and the clouds, I've somehow managed to get sunburned on my nose, mouth and chin - the bits that weren't shielded by my sunglasses and balaclava.
While waiting for breakfast Mark and I talk about the relative toughness of yesterday's climb. While for me it was certainly one of my top 3 tough climbs and I found it extremely hard work, Mark observes that I still seemed to be climbing a little within myself. He's done tougher climbs himself, and for him the problem usually seems to be more with illness than toughness. We talk about whether the North Col tomorrow will be easier or harder. He has already discussed this with Mic, and they both agreed from personal experience that going to high altitude for a second time is always easier, providing you've had sufficient rest in between. It's also going to be a shorter day tomorrow, and we might even arrive back during daylight this time.
I arrive at breakfast to discover that I'm not the only person who managed to get sunburned yesterday. To a man we all have, and we're a bedraggled looking lot as we solemnly eat breakfast. "Haggard" would be an accurate, if polite, way to describe us. You can certainly tell that we've climbed a mountain.
I spend the day resting. In the morning it's sunny, and the tent is warm as the sun hits it. But I never look forward to lunch because it's always cold when I climb back into the tent in the afternoon. It's very windy today and I spend long periods outside getting my fingers cold, such as when I get my kit sorted out for tomorrow. I'm glad to get back inside the tent again after it's done.
My face seems to have been oozing some sort of waxy substance all day. I've no idea what it is, but even after I clean it with wet wipes it begins oozing again immediately. Weird.
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