Namaste everyone! After an unsuccessful second rotation towards Everest Camp 2 (6500m), we spent around 4 to 5 days on Base Camp recovering. The weather up in the mountains had gotten worse and we were waiting for it to clear up.
We were planning to leave for the third and final rotation on 1st May. This time, the goal was to push on to Camp 2 directly from Base Camp and next day on to Camp 3 (7300m). The success or failure of this rotation would decide if I am going for the summit push or back home!
I could not sleep a night before leaving for the rotation. There was a lot at stake and I had to perform well up on the mountains. It was a do or die moment for me. Honestly, I was a bit worried about pushing directly to Camp 2 crossing Khumbu Icefall, Camp 1 and the massive Western CWM.
I got out of the tent with my rucksack packed at 3:30am. I was not talking much with anyone, keeping it to myself. I had gotten into a very focused zone. We left the Base Camp at 4am and ventured off into the Icefall. This time the entire Icefall passed by with the blink of an eye. I was very fast.
I arrived at Camp 1 in just 4 hours. We were the first ones to make it. I had some tea while waiting for others to catch up. It was getting sunnier and hotter by the minute. I had to start moving through the Western CWM valley before the sun reached above our heads. This valley gets unusually hot as the sun rays are reflected from all three sides into the valley, on us, dehydrating us very quickly. Though it is not very steep, the challenges are different. This was the place where I had given up during my previous rotation.
As soon as our team members arrived, we started marching towards camp 2. Everyone had made it in good timing but we were only half way there yet. The valley was getting hotter and hotter. We come across a few huge crevasses in the western CWM; some of those are so wide that we had to connect 5 ladders to get across them. The sun was just too strong. I was starting to feel weak yet again but I was damn sure I was not giving up this time.
Slowly and steadily, at my pace, one step at a time and nothing more; the pinnacle of Everest was visible throughout on my left side. I was constantly staring at the summit knowing the fact that with each step; I was getting closer to my goal.
Half way through the CWM, I could see the yellow tents in far distance. It was still a fair distance to the camp. Everything around is so white that it is impossible to judge the distance by just looking. The weakness and dizziness was getting worse. There were a couple of people around me and that always helped mentally. The camp 2 is located just below the huge western face of Everest.
We made it to Camp 2 by 1pm. It was such a relief to finally be here. I was feeling so much more confident about myself and about the expedition in general. Camp 2 is located on a small opening full of rocks and boulders on the edge of the glacier. Towering from one side is the huge black western face of Everest and on the other side towering over the valley is the massive Lhotse Face which we would be climbing the next day to reach Camp 3.
The Lhotse face looked bigger than I had ever imagined. It stood vertically 4000 feet between me and Everest laden with hard blue ice. It was a scary sight though at the same time extremely beautiful!
During the night time, winds suddenly picked up. The tents started to flutter violently. I opened the tent zipper and peeked out and realized it was snowing heavily. I went back in the comfort of my sleeping bag with the hope that the weather would clear up; but it didn’t. It kept on snowing throughout the night and continued on to the next day. We had to stay back at camp 2 postponing our plan to go up to Camp 3 today. We knew if we headed out, the winds high up on Lhotse Wall would kill us for sure so we decided to wait the bad weather out; besides spending another night at camp 2 would be really good for acclimatization.
It was a really cold day. I woke up pretty late. The day was well spent inside the cozy dinning tent chatting with the team, playing some card games and clicking pictures etc. The cooks at the camp decided to make some delicious meal apart from daal bhaat (curry and rice) and it was such a morale booster up there. Apart from that, I had some delicious homemade snacks mom had sent along with me. I realized the value of homemade food away in the mountains.
The next morning I woke up at 6am and the sky was crystal clear. It was like nothing ever happened. I rushed out of tent and woke everyone up. The team got ready to move up the Lhotse face by 8am. I was so pumped!
We started our hike towards the base of the wall which took us around an hour. With each step we took towards the wall, the face seemed to grow bigger and bigger. It was going to be one hell of a climb up to camp 3. We arrived at the base of the wall. This is the point where the Khumbu glacier begins. There was a huge gap between the wall and glacier known as Bergschrund. It is also the biggest crevasse on the glacier and is usually found at the beginning of the glacier.
We crossed the Bergschrund, clipped our anchors and our Jumars (ascender) on to the fixed rope and started inching up the ice wall.
Lhotse wall is a 4000 feet wall with an inclination of 60 to 70 degree throughout. It is covered with hard blue ice which is very tough to walk on. Only a few centimeters of my crampons actually bit into the ice. It would take us around 4 hours to reach the Camp 3 gaining an altitude of 2500 feet today which is located on a small ledge on the Lhotse wall itself.
After every 10 steps, I had to stop and breathe! I started to feel the high altitude and the lack of oxygen here; it was getting really difficult by the minute. Because this face is so steep, we gain altitude really fast. Climbing up this face was probably the most difficult task I had ever done. Climbing in thin air is almost as if someone was pinching my nose, depriving me of oxygen and telling me to climb a mountain; that’s how it feels to walk in high altitudes!
After an hour or so, I got into a very good rhythm; sliding my jumar up the rope and taking two steps and doing it all over again, that was it! I started speaking to myself trying to get some motivation. The one thing I kept telling myself is ‘this is where you wanted to be and this is what you wanted to do, now you are living it so don’t you dare give up. Take that one more step!’ this really worked out for me! One tiring step after other; I looked back and realized how high I had already climbed! The whole of western CWM was below me. I could see Camp 2 below us as a few tiny yellow dots. I knew I will make it to camp 3 today!
The camp was visible up in the distance, still very far. I had this sudden boost of energy towards the end and I was the first one to reach Everest Camp 3 that day. I was so happy! Camp 3 was one of the craziest camps I had ever seen. It was located on a small ledge on the Lhotse wall itself. Even to move around the camp, one had to be anchored to the rope; one slip and you will fall straight to the base of the wall. There have been many cases of deaths here where people are trying to venture around the camp and they slip. To our left was Everest! The summit was still being blasted by jet stream winds. It looked so close now!
I settled into my tent. I was instructed by my Sherpa to use supplementary oxygen for my stay at camp 3 as we were at 7300m after all. Though I was feeling absolutely fine without bottled oxygen, I started using it; just in case!
We started to make some water out of ice in the tent on our butane stoves. It was taking even longer for the ice to melt with the rising altitude. We lay back, watching the ice slowly melt away into water. Behind that we could see the entire western CWM up to Khumbu Icefall. What a view! What a privilege it was to be here. As they say, great views are EARNED only after a gruelling climb.
The night here was particularly difficult. This was the first time I had ever used an oxygen mask and sleeping with it was very uncomfortable and extremely irritating. I somehow got through the night. The next morning we packed up and started heading down.
The third rotation on Everest was a great success; we had acclimatized well and we were heading back to base camp to rest and prepare for our final summit push. All we had to do at base camp was to wait for some news from weather guys about the possibilities of jet stream winds lifting off from the summit giving us a small weather window to sneak up to the summit and back! Stay tuned as I inch my way up to the top of the world!