Tuesday 22nd November
I’m 30!
My willingness to write in my notebook seems to have taken a nosedive here, with big blank spaces where my notes should be. I also start getting a bit tardy with taking photos - some of the photos around this point are courtesy of Sonja, one of our team.
I vaguely remember doing lots of walking and feeling crap attributed to AMS.
The other thing I remember is trying to use one of those squat toilets for the first time, and pissing all over the back of my trousers. Good way to start your 30th. (Although one of our group had bad diarrhoea which result in a nasty accident in the trouser department - way worse than me, haha.)
Met (Tashi, I think) Tshering Sherpa from Into Thin Air of Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness - he gave me a Mars bar for my birthday, and the guys baked me a cake (which was flat and didn’t rise much during baking as the air was a bit thinner up there) and I got few other presents, a card and a silk scarf!
So, inbetween summits to Everest, Mr Sherpa appears to man the local shop, which is a hut the size of a toilet stall. These are pretty common wherever there are lodges and teahouses - they sell all manner of goodies and essentials, from chocolate bars, to bottles of water, to toilet roll and tampons (probably - I wasn’t looking specifically).
Feeling so crap tonight had convinced me to pop pills and medication like a monster. It would be paracetamol to help me get over my headache tonight, and onto the Diamox for tomorrow push onto Basecamp!