Mon 16^th April 2012  Lobuche Camp One 5250m to Summit of  Lobuche 6,000m and down to Lobuche Base Camp 4820m

Up at 4.10am as we understood we are leaving for the summit at 5.30am. It seems like a lot of time but we have to boil enough snow for about 4 litres of drink between us and also some for our breakfast of ‘porridge oats in the bag’. Get dressed, pack our kit, clean the tent, morning ‘ablutions’ (teeth clean, definitely No 1’s, hopefully not, but possibly No 2s!) its just about enough.

We actually think we are doing really well, having eaten, got dressed and I am cleaning the cooking and eating utensils at 4.55am when Adrian the lead guide hollers...’5 mins to go....lets have you ready to go!’. What the blazes? Who? What? Where?..... We seem to have misheard the brief. We were the furthest tent away and the brief was given last night between tents. Not 5.30am departure but 5am!! Seems like a case of ‘Send Three and Four Pence we are going to a Dance’ (rather than ‘Send Reinforcements we are going to Advance’).

A scramble ensues. Something akin from the opening scene of Four Weddings and a Funeral the dialogue between Dan and I is....’F***.......F***.......F***,F***........F*** !!!!!!

20 minutes later we on our way. Crampons now affixed to these ‘Muck locks’ so they are even more unwieldy. We start on rock, thinly covered with snow and ice. Scratching and Scritching over this terrain is not easy....’F***......F***.....F***!!!’

The snow starts to get a bit deeper, which makes it easier and the first 45 minutes pass quite well as we calm down. We then start to encounter some more harder or technical parts accompanied with fixed ropes. Outside the glare of the guides I am much more efficient with my ‘Jumar’ and security.

It starts to get harder and we encounter an 80ft cliff which is almost vertical and I struggle up it with my two good arms and legs. Way above me Martin and Jaco from WWTW have scaled this piece much more easily than me with just ‘One’ arm!! Unbelievable.

Now after an hour and a half, as we get higher the terrain changes so that we are travelling just on compacted snow, which is better underfoot, but it starts to get steeper and harder to breath as we are at almost 20,000 ft.

It’s all about getting into a rhythm. As it gets to about 45% incline I am reduced to a breath in and out for 2 steps, as it gets to 50% it’s a breath in and out for one step (try it...its slow...I am old...I am 50...and feeling every single year)...at 55% its 2 whole breaths per step...at 60% its 3 breaths per step......to all intents and purposes stationary to the naked eye!

Thankfully and almost incredibly someone else from our team is going even slower than me. I am invited to pass them, I decline gracefully, thankful for some sort of respite for my cough ravaged lungs..

Eventually the summit is in sight and then reached. Cameras and welcoming smiles, manly hugs (it’s the done thing these days....not Gay at all). The view is truly breathtaking. We can see Everest, Nuptse, Ama Dablam, the whole of Everest Base Camp and the surrounding glaciers. The Himalayas in its full glory, there is surely no better, more beautiful natural spectacle on Earth.

Once again I am completely overcome with emotion, I step slightly to the side, drop to my knees and cry uncontrollably and unashamedly. It happened on Kilimanjaro, the Cosmic Arêtes, Mont Blanc. My thoughts always go to that sad night over 11 years ago, in Great Ormond Street Hospital, when we had to let go of our son Ben. He was only two months old, never got out of hospital but somehow his passing taught me to value everything and every day so much more.

From that day on I looked for the ‘Champagne Moment’ in every day. The moment something wonderful happened. It might be a herd of deer jumping fences in the dawn light, a flock of Canada Geese flying low over the garden in the twilight, the laughter of children playing football or an afternoon walk with friends.

He taught me to appreciate the moment, to cut away and forget about the mistakes, inequities and unfairness of the past. Not to worry about the future.  Do whatever you can now, this moment, this day, about anything that is worrying you.......then forget about those worries totally until the next day or the next action is needed. Focus on this moment in time, writing (or reading this blog), the conversation with your friend, savouring a great meal, reading to your child at night, fielding at long leg on a hazy, warm Sunday afternoon, appreciating the setting when you have been out first ball and have been taken off after one over having been hit for 28......... (I have had plenty of practise of this one !)

Ben’s death made me appreciate Annabelle who was two at the time. Taking time to listen to her, read those bedtime stories (which are always so bloody long) with care, patience and without rushing......especially when you are so tired at the end of a long office day and ache for a glass of wine a and a slob in front of the TV. Asking and listening to what she has been thinking, how she is feeling, what she is worried about, what she been delighted about....... of course Annabelle’s reading this thinking.........he’s been at the Whiskey again !!

I also think of the miracle of Alfie, born 5 years to the day after Ben was born. Now six years old and a boy’s boy. Besotted with balls, upsetting his sister, Bear Grylls, guns, the smell of petrol and the dissection of animals.

‘Jeez’ what sort of nonsense will I write if I ever get to the top of Everest....Stand by!!

After 40 mins at the top we then have to descend, which I haven’t done on a fixed line before. A request for a reminder of how to use a belay is met by a look to the heavens by one of the guides... I blame the altitude!

Going down is almost as hard as going up. Petter and Alexis go down with me, stifling giggles at my rubbish technique but I am very thankful of their help.

It has taken about 3 and a half hours to get up, I think it takes me almost 3 hours to get down.

I am exhausted. I am still coughing up green at the bottom and this infection has materially affected my performance which is quite frustrating and annoying. Normally at home in this condition I would only partake in very light tick over exercise, here I am going to the bottom of my lungs for almost 7 hours!

I sleep soundly for over 8 hours after a long volley of coughing and at one point fall asleep with a cough sweet in my mouth.....not such a good idea and probably as bad a way to go as in the Kathmandu International Airport Car park!