Thursday 24th November
Sarah’s birthday!
Woke up at 4am to leave at 4:30am to walk up Kala Patthar to see sunrise. There was a lot of faffing about and Anil motioned for me to follow him - I guess he was getting a tad impatient. The others would follow with Ashori in a short while.
Wore all layers, walking in the dark with headtorch, and stopping so very often. Anil was quite forgiving - letting me rest when I stopped. I became very conscious of how often I was stopping but there was nothing for it - the cold and lack of air was energy-sapping. The route up melted into one long blur of cold and dark and endless plodding, with nothing to see but the rocks at your feet.
We eventually reached Kala Patthar (5,545m) and carried on higher to the ‘new’ Kala Patthar (5,550m) right as the sun was due to rise. The cold, which was sort of bearable while we were walking, suddenly became intolerable. My water bottle froze inside my down jacket and we couldn’t wait for the others to reach us. If my guide thought it was cold, there was no way I was going to be able to last much longer!
I took a few photos and headed back down, passing the others en route. Anil must’ve rushed down as I remember walking on my own as I reached the bottom. The sun was up by that point and I was sweating - I’d already stripped off a few layers even before the bottom. I got back to Gorak Shep around 7am to meet Conan (who elected to miss Kala Patthar and have a lie-in instead) and the guides.
I was beyond shattered. Not so tired as simply exhausted - I remember sitting there for a long, long time, staring into space.
Had breakfast and headed down to Tengboche, I think … ? I forget. My notes went to crap around this point.
We set off from Gorak Shep, but I’ve no idea where we stayed this night.