Well as usual; I came up with another stupid idea this time one which nearly cost me big time.
There is opposite everest a peak where there is a webcam and metrological equiptment to measure data of any global warming effects on Mount Everest. It has spectacular views of everest and the Khumbo glacier below and the surrounding area as shown by the pic below I took this morning.
Anyway I talked the scouse taffy and the aussie into see if we could beat the record time by western tourists upto the peak, this of course did not include locals as they can whoop us as they live out here and altitude is the major issue with over 50% less oxygen to replenish your lungs when your doing any form of exercise at 19000ft.
The record which is only for fun was set at 1 hr and 15 mins to the summit. We got up at 4am to see the sunrise over everest or that was the idea anyway.
I FOOLISHLY went for lite clothes and my salomon cross trail trainers for speed. In hind sight a stupid decision as it was minus 25 degrees outside. I should have put my heavier warm gear on for the sub zero temps, but thought go for speed forget the warmth, how I regretted that decision as I got closer to the summit.
We had our 2 main sherpas up there with us screaming abuse and encouragement at us with our head torches on. It is correct when they say due to the lack of oxygen you can only put one foot in front of the other and your out of breath as I tried every trick in the book to get oxygen into m,y lungs as my lungs were simply screaming out for more oxygen where as my legs were fine. At one point I could see that the scouse taffy and the aussie were making a gap between them and me but there was not I could as I simply could not get the oxygen into my lungs and system fast enough, well they are both a fair bit younger than me. At this point Kalden my fav sherpa came rushing down to me and pulled the joker out of the hat, when he got the small oxygen bottle and mask for emergencies and went to put it on my face laughing. That was the kick up the arse I needed.
Approx 300 meters from the summit mark the aussie pulled out with altitude headache, which is meant to be worse than a migraine and can be fatal if left untreated.
By now we had both sherpas with us and both were franticly rubbing both my arms as I really was running on will power and determination as was the scouse taffy except he had thermals on and a proper sub zero jacket. I thought the were going to force me to stop as my arms felt like they were dropping off and I had frost nip on my nose. Its the stage before frost bite jst makes your nose go blacky brown like sunburn.
Anyway we both dropped at the summit trig point and not a word was spoken for approx 5 mins as the sherpas nima who has summitted everest and kalden covered us in them silver survival bags to keep warm as they both jumped for joy.
We later found out that Nimas arch enemy sherpa who also takes everest treks held this for fun record for some of his clients a few years back, who set the record and nima could not wait to get down and let him know we had beat it by nearly 8 mins.
We had a few photos taken up there but to be honest it was so cold like Ive never experianced before ie minus 25 plus the wind shill I was in no mood for posing as I never had the correct warmgear.
Lesson learnt from today curly,
Dont risk speed over safety as Ive never felt pain like that before, undoubtably the hardest physical thing Im ever likely to try not too mention I had 3 cans of lager the night before as well at that altitude is never a good idea he he he.
One of the girl;s sarah came up as well and did it in approx 1 hr 40 mins, she made me laugh later as nima the main sherpa was with her watching us above her and him and said Im going to have to leave you sarah as that idiot Roy is really suffering look at him beating his arms and rushed up to help me. Them lads are super fit at them altitudes though and certainly know what they are doing.
The pic below was me dead beat trying to smile but in no mood or capable of smiling properly after reaching the top, all I had under that wind breaker top was a help for heroes tshirt and instant idiot just add alcohol tshirt on top of the HFH tshirt.
Below me again on the summit just dead no interest in anything as the sherpas are jumping about for joy shouting smile roy
The peak we did WASNT the big one, it was the one on the left, but this was from approx half way up I would guess, taken on the way down.
The one below shows us on way down with the aussie in the centre
There is opposite everest a peak where there is a webcam and metrological equiptment to measure data of any global warming effects on Mount Everest. It has spectacular views of everest and the Khumbo glacier below and the surrounding area as shown by the pic below I took this morning.
The record which is only for fun was set at 1 hr and 15 mins to the summit. We got up at 4am to see the sunrise over everest or that was the idea anyway.
I FOOLISHLY went for lite clothes and my salomon cross trail trainers for speed. In hind sight a stupid decision as it was minus 25 degrees outside. I should have put my heavier warm gear on for the sub zero temps, but thought go for speed forget the warmth, how I regretted that decision as I got closer to the summit.
We had our 2 main sherpas up there with us screaming abuse and encouragement at us with our head torches on. It is correct when they say due to the lack of oxygen you can only put one foot in front of the other and your out of breath as I tried every trick in the book to get oxygen into m,y lungs as my lungs were simply screaming out for more oxygen where as my legs were fine. At one point I could see that the scouse taffy and the aussie were making a gap between them and me but there was not I could as I simply could not get the oxygen into my lungs and system fast enough, well they are both a fair bit younger than me. At this point Kalden my fav sherpa came rushing down to me and pulled the joker out of the hat, when he got the small oxygen bottle and mask for emergencies and went to put it on my face laughing. That was the kick up the arse I needed.
Approx 300 meters from the summit mark the aussie pulled out with altitude headache, which is meant to be worse than a migraine and can be fatal if left untreated.
By now we had both sherpas with us and both were franticly rubbing both my arms as I really was running on will power and determination as was the scouse taffy except he had thermals on and a proper sub zero jacket. I thought the were going to force me to stop as my arms felt like they were dropping off and I had frost nip on my nose. Its the stage before frost bite jst makes your nose go blacky brown like sunburn.
Anyway we both dropped at the summit trig point and not a word was spoken for approx 5 mins as the sherpas nima who has summitted everest and kalden covered us in them silver survival bags to keep warm as they both jumped for joy.
We later found out that Nimas arch enemy sherpa who also takes everest treks held this for fun record for some of his clients a few years back, who set the record and nima could not wait to get down and let him know we had beat it by nearly 8 mins.
We had a few photos taken up there but to be honest it was so cold like Ive never experianced before ie minus 25 plus the wind shill I was in no mood for posing as I never had the correct warmgear.
Lesson learnt from today curly,
Dont risk speed over safety as Ive never felt pain like that before, undoubtably the hardest physical thing Im ever likely to try not too mention I had 3 cans of lager the night before as well at that altitude is never a good idea he he he.
One of the girl;s sarah came up as well and did it in approx 1 hr 40 mins, she made me laugh later as nima the main sherpa was with her watching us above her and him and said Im going to have to leave you sarah as that idiot Roy is really suffering look at him beating his arms and rushed up to help me. Them lads are super fit at them altitudes though and certainly know what they are doing.
The pic below was me dead beat trying to smile but in no mood or capable of smiling properly after reaching the top, all I had under that wind breaker top was a help for heroes tshirt and instant idiot just add alcohol tshirt on top of the HFH tshirt.
Below me again on the summit just dead no interest in anything as the sherpas are jumping about for joy shouting smile roy
