Move to High Camp! (February 23rd)

So our lead guide Jacob came up from Base Camp late yesterday with good news and bad news. The bad news is that a massive storm with very high winds (NOT good) was coming in starting the 25^th (in two days) and lasting for five days after that. The good news is that we have options. He gave us two options: first, to wait out the storm at Camp II and try to summit after. This would mean that at least one of our group would probably miss her flight. The second option—which he recommended—was that we expedite our itinerary, move up to High Camp then summit the next day, on the 24^th. The group decided on the latter option unanimously. We are all very excited to be moving up and to summit, but we are also kind of nervous because this means we will not have as much time to acclimatize. We are up at High Camp now and already one of our teammates has to go down in the morning and a couple more are not feeling 100%. I myself am paranoid about getting altitude headaches. None yet, so hopefully I’ll be ok. 9 of the 12 of us that started are pushing up to the summit at 5am tomorrow.

The going starts to get tougher... 

Rest Day at Camp II (February 22nd)

We’re really getting into a rythmn now. We moved up to Camp I, carried half our gear up to Camp II, then moved up to Camp II with the rest of our gear yesterday. Now we’re taking a rest day here because one of our teammates—a great Aussie guy named Chris—had to go down to Base Camp last night. He had serious facial edema (swelling) and his blood-oxygen levels were very low, meaning he was not acclimatizing to the altitude. We are very sad to see him go down. We have now lost 2 of our group of 12. Hopefully no one else will get injured or sick! On an entirely different note, the view from Camp II is unreal. It’s at times like this where I feel the majesty of nature and the extraordinary beauty of our earth. I can’t wait to upload pics.

The group taking a break mid-mountain. I'm in blue second from right.