24-25th April
BACK IN BASE CAMP VERY SICK TONIGHT.
OH HOW MT EVEREST CAN THROW YOU A CURVE BALL .. When you least expect it.
So as you Know I arrived into ABC in great form and oh how that changed over night. I woke up yesterday the 24th ” I apologise to you all as I can’t get any connection beyond base camp”.. So yes you have guest it I’m back were it all started at base camp .
As I said woke up with slight headache which I brushed aside with the most awesome view from my tent sitting looking up the north Col only a few hundred meters to my right & straight out in front the Snow White field of the Rombuk glacier. I had lost my apatite and again I put it down to the altitude of approx 6.500 mts of ABC if you were to draw parallels that’s the equivalent of high camp 2 on the south side Climb of mt Everest. What’s that mean I hear you , we’ll that. Means that there south side ABC is much lower than the north and the north sides altitude gains per camp are much tougher on the body.
So then I decided to take a walk up towards the north Col & crampon point at approx 6.650mts slow & steady. The views were breathtaking as now I was looking right up the north ridge line & the summit I could see so clearly.
I spent 20mins up there just helping the body adjusting to the lack of air.
Conditions in ABC are very cold , headed back for some lunch but decided to lay down for an hour before hand and man when Nima woke me for lunch i thought I had just been run over by a bus – my head at the back was pounding ,I mean pounding proper and when I crawled out of the tent eventually I was dizzy and a feeling of throwing up ” which I didn’t thank god”.
Couldn’t eat anything at all , and in discussing the symptoms with Nima the obvious & the sickness I didn’t want to appear looked like it had struck.
The dizziness tough headache pointed toward full blown altitude sickness . I won’t go into the details as kids are viewing the blog, so we said at this stage as it was late we would monitor things overnight with a view to the only remedy GETTING DOWN IN ALTITUDE ASAP … Before things goes horribly wrong.
So I was happy with that and crazy as it seams had a great nights sleep ” Nima was checking me all night he informed me ” I awoke again to this crazy headache at the back of my brain traveling down back of my neck and into my spine. So no time to waste we gathered up our stuff and headed for base camp , I honestly didn’t know how I was going to get down to base camp it was 20 kilometers away and I was I’m pretty bad shape – the illness had left me lifeless & weak and putting one foot in front of the other was about all I could do. The route been steep with my head dizzy was interesting & Nima knew by my body movements things needed to happen As soon as.
Nima kept pushing to get as low as possible , next think the vomiting started & then the back door started both as green as fairy liquid washing up stuff. With flushing of water I got that under control and got a delorite in to my drinking jar to help replace lost minerals & electrolytes ..
Even though I was loosing my mind I still had a great laugh to myself on the way down, I was recalling this time myself & my cousin Micky Russell were racing this bike race called the ras and we both were sick as pigs coming into Enniscorthy town it was wet & miserable and we were so dosed with the flu & as we we paddling back to the B&B we stopped at a chemist and got the biggest amount of night & day tablet form and liquid form and when washed up we banged the whole lot into us , next morning still had the cold & flu but the legs felt fantastic , we were so far back in general classification that we didn’t fear drug tested” drug ban is codeine found then i in night & day hahaha – sorry for rambling but that sums up the day I had .
Anyway 8 hours staggering it took us reach base camp back were I started , yes I was disheartened but happy to be out of danger ,by now I’m feeling better with some hot food into my belly “as all I had in two days was a mars bar” and head pains was practically gone , with front end Nd back end dried up I now felt with out a shadow of doubt the right call was made at exactly the right time.
We are staying at base camp now for 4 day to recoup and get well again and then I’m heading back to ABC.
It’s just unbelievable how this mountain which just a few days ago I was calling majestic & jaw dropping , “today I have a few new words for it , but not for the online airwaves but I’m sure you can figure them out yourselves”
Can throw the maddest curve balls at you when you least expect it , one day your flying next your dying , then that’s the crazy nature of the expedition to the top of the worlds most highest mountain Mt Everest 8848mt.
So after all the drama over the last 48hours I’m still positive and focused on my summit bid.
I have to say Mt Everest is living up to its incredible leg-essay in its toughness to concur , tonight I feel she has dished me up starters and main course & desert has yet to follow.
So again thank you for all your kind comment there so encouraging at times like this.Positive & focused more thank ever tonight from everest base camp round 2
Love
Jason
