Tues 1^st May 2012 Camp 1 6500m

Not feeling great. Greg is talking to me ...just. I suggest he might like to relay his floor to avoid any more personal injury! Meaning the rocks of course.

We all go for a hike up to the bottom of the Lhotse Face. It’s supposed to be an hour and a half yomp with 200m vertical height gain but I seem to be able to keep up with the lead group and do it within an hour. Good for confidence. Photos and down within 30 mins.

Lunch and the news that yet more people have been injured on the Lhotse Face and we are definitely not going up to Camp 3. Apparently one of the world’s most famous female climbers, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and her husband had spent the previous night at Camp 3 and suffered one of their most frightening nights on a mountain due to the hail of rocks smashing onto and around their tent. This is a woman who has summated all the worlds’ 8,000m peaks without Oxygen.

Another enormously boring afternoon. I am joined in the tent by Greg. It is stiflingly hot even with the vents and doors open. Then when the wind gusts its icy cold.

Still three nights to go.

With the news that we are not going to Camp 3 my morale fades.

Whilst there are some really taxing physical days I know I can do 8 and 9 hour days. On Mont Blanc my summit day was 14 hours. I always go at a pace that I can sustain for 8 or 9 hours. It’s a mental thing because this is where I want to be, this is what I want to be doing.

It’s easier at 50 than it was at 21 years old because you have chosen to be here and don’t want to be elsewhere, to be in a pub, by a pool or making money however the mental strain of the lack of cerebral stimulation is clearly something that is getting to me.

Some people are good at spending day after day with the same group of people in the same place essentially waiting. Yes we are acclimatising but there are so many hours of emptiness. I have no communication, no worries, no book, and no stimulation.

These are my issues. From seeking periods of peace and quiet in my ‘normal’ busy life to this. This, rather than anything else may provide the limitation to my mountaineering aspirations. It just takes too long!

Tonight the wind is really up and I sleep is again poor although Greg’s ‘ground works’ have improved our sleeping inter contact.