PUJA BLESSING at Basecamp
Altitude acclimatisation is super tough on the body ,signed off from writing the blog and lay down to sleep & my heart starting racing to approx 120bpm and my blood oxygen levels were at 62% which was a hell of a difference from where I was able to maintain them in the 80s% anyway as I explained yesterday I had switched “stupidly now in reflection” from an altitude drug aid called Diamox to a new vitamin called alti vit ,and man was I sorry it joust wasn’t working for my body at all, so last night late into the night I switched back to my trusted friend at altitude Diamox & with a twisting & turning night in the Tent woke up a new person thankfully with blood oxygen levels recovering to 85% and higher.
So up at 8am and breakfast was porridge & fried eggs & hot tea .. Beautiful morning clear sky’s & a hot sun to heat base camp up from sub zero overnight.
This morning many of the big teams from china & Russia were collapsing there base camp heading to advance base camp 21.300ft at the foot of the north col 23.100ft on Mt Everest . So base camps beginning to really thin out with only about 5 teams left to head up to ABC. We’re staying put here at BC for another two days to stabilise acclimatisation .
Today was step 2 out of three in our blessing on the road to Everest.
Earlier in Kathmandu & today in basecamp quite a special one called Puja blessing where Nima & fellow Sherpas built an alter and dressed & draped it with beautiful coloured material with bowls of rice & water, fruits & biscuits prayer flags flew from a Center placed pole in the middle of this alter & a strong burning of insense all offerings & paying homage to the mountain god residing in mt Everest ” who I now know is a sister of Buddha he has five sisters all residing on the five big peaks surrounding Everest ” so Sherpa Pemba “and all Sherpas are named on the day of the week there born ,like Nima for Monday & Pemba for Sunday etc ” so Pemba carried out the blessing making the homage and requesting permission to enter the mountain & a safe passage. We all sat around as they chanted and thru rice on the alter & burned loads of insense it took about 2 hours on total and it was celebrated by a drink to the god when finished with a scattering of what looked to me like flour god knows ? But know what it was very peaceful and respectful .so with the permission granted we now can move from base camp in two days time. Following some lunch I headed up the Rombu valley leading to ABC for a look around and further help in altitude gains to 5300mts , it was so beautiful as I entered the active glacier with the ice blue as I’ve ever seen peaking through from under the stony surface above. From back camp to advance base camp is 14 kms of a walk with a substantial gain in height & temperatures. Again looking up at Mt Everest is just magical because its just there in your face today again winds looked very active up top on the summit . So that was my day today exciting in a different way & that’s what I’m getting for this expedition it’s got so much to offer by way of the culture & altitude preparation ,the sickness & isolation ,the blessing required to move forward & finally the spirituality of these giants of mountain .
tomorrow we climb up to 5600mts again to help prepare the body & breathing .tonights really cold in north base camp with winds whipped up chilling it to -10deg .. Thank god for down clothing ..
Dinner tonight we had yak “bit tough & chewy” with potatoes .. Tasty up here I can assure you – no menu in the mountains.
Prayers for you all from basecamp Tonight ..
Hold me in yours also.
Jason.
