April 22: Altitude, attitude and mythical Bollywood girls.

[Romke]

Most people slept badly and had to go out many times to pee due to the extra intake of fluids to prevent AMS, Acute Mountain sickness.

We are certainly not alone in ABC, during the next days there will be few moments with less than 30 climbers on the fixed ropes leading up to North Col at 7060m, visible in the distance. It is important to stay awake and get at least some light exercise to continue the acclimatisation process, though your body and mind rather crawl into a corner and wait for a better day..

I take Noel, Lynne and Lorenzo to the topcamp, about 80 vertical meters above ours and every step feels like a 5 mile jog..

Karo, the Armenian American and an important part of our team as he speaks Russian as well as English, is not looking good and I can convince him to go up to Noth col as planned but to stay in ABC or even go down to BC to recuperate. In ABC, you slowly deteriorate and if you are not 100% fit, it is wiser to take a rest at lower altitude and try again later.

Even here, the kitchen crew works hard and our 3 meals per day are excellent, helping us through the hard day and keeping or spirits positive, the most important successfactor for high altitude mountaineering. This is helped further with the deck of cards James brought up: a full deck of classic Marilyn Monroe images to continue our endless series of 'Pesten', going on until the generator switches off at midnight. But the lack of girlfriends and other women makes this deck a welcome change of the routine :-)

Talking of women, there is still no sign of the fabled Indian female team, that supposedly changed from climbing the Nepali side to 'our' Northern side. As our entire FBC has seen plenty of Bollywood movies on the miscellaneaous flights in, the image of shoulder shaking, long haired, dark eyed, belly pierced gorgeous women combined with an interest in climbing Everest, is slowly gaining mythical proportions. The team is even considered by some to just be a figment of my distorted mind!

Song of the day:
Iron Maiden - Run to the hills
"Run to the Hills, run for your life"

[MournesMan]

Ha Ha!! 

Harry, hypoxia must be setting in!!  Your mind is working overtime on the Indian ladies - if they have switched to climbing the Tibetan side then they will need some protection from Harry 

But hey Harry, how can you find the energy?? At 6400m, if you ever met up with any of the ladies, Lorenzo's audio blog may reveal even heavier breathing, drowning out all sounds from the glacier!!!  :lol)

Great laugh Harry!!  Take care mate - you are leading well by the sound of it!!

Colin