Camp 3 reached?.but only for a short while

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Yesterday we arrived back at basecamp after a busy 7 days above the ice-fall. Once again we moved up through the ice-fall to camp 1, this time an hour faster than before (a sign that we are acclimatizing) and then the next day on up to camp 2 which is situated at approximately 6400metres. The walk up from camp 1 is in a wide, glaciated and crevassed valley known as the Western Cwm (named by Mallory in the 1920s). We set out at first light to avoid the searing heat of the day.

On arrival at camp1 we set about establishing our lab complete with power, an exercise bike and a gas analyzer ? quite an achievement in itself at this altitude. At camp 2 the temperature can vary from -20 up to +30 so conducting our experiments can be quite a challenge. We all worked very hard for about 5 days and in this time managed to complete all of the planned work conducting experiments which have never been done at this altitude.

Camp 2 is a beautiful setting surrounded on all sides by walls of mountains that have witnessed many historic ventures over the last 100 years. The photograph I have attached is taken at night looking up the Western Cwm at Lhotse with the south col and Everest on the left.

There is more science to do at camp 4 (the south col ? approx 7900m) and in preparation for going this high it was decided that 4 of us should head up to camp 3 for an overnight stay. Mike, Sundeep, Chris and myself left early on Sunday 29th April to move up the Lhotse face (an ice face) to camp 3 ? around 7100m. The limits of the hypoxia (low oxygen) at this altitude are very apparent as each step up the face is punctuated by numerous breaths before the next step can be taken. Whilst climbing Slieve Donard at home (880m) might take a strong climber about 1.5 - 2 hours (being close to sea level) our climb of 700m took us approximately 7 hours (hopefully next time we will be faster!).

On arrival at camp we got ourselves established and quickly started melting snow for a brew ? always the first priority. Usually the stove runs continuously until the dehydration which builds up is corrected. After 1.5 hours we were just getting round to think about food when we received a message on our radios to tell us about a storm that was forecast that was likely to bring fairly heavy snow. After a short discussion between ourselves and our climbing Sirdar Mingma back at camp 2 (with 11 Everest ascents to his name) we felt that it was in our interest to return to camp 2 as soon as possible. As light was fading we moved swiftly, descending the face in 40 minutes and back in camp 1 in one and a quarter hours. In acclimatization terms the journey is still worthwhile as we will have benefited from the higher altitude exposure for the next leg of the journey. For now we are back at base camp and in fact we will go lower for a few days to let our bodies recuperate and to feed up, trying to gain weight for going high again for more science on the south col and hopefully a successful summit bid.

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Blog by Nigel Hart