After a great sleep, I had been raring to go to Kala Pattar.

We set off at around 7 am. It was extremely gruelling. I had had Diamox yesterday and more this morning. I had, I thought, enough energy to get to the top, but nothing like as much energy as I felt I ought to have!

After we got over the dry lakebed, the initial slopes up Kala Pattar were very steep. Steep slopes at 17,000 feet exhaust you very quickly.

Near the beginning of our climb, we met two parties of people who had turned back when they were halfway up the slopes.

I couldn’t believe people turning back on the last hill. Well, I’m not giving up, and nor is Colin.

Part-way there, but needing a rest

But it would need all our determination to get there.

We could also see more and more of Everest revealing itself. Spectacular views. Not just in the direction of Everest and Lhotse/Nuptse, but all the way around the horizon.

That’s what had been promised for this ascent, but I couldn’t enjoy the views yet. There was the small matter of getting to the top first.

Mt Everest from halfway up Kala Pattar

The climbing/walking would get a bit easier in the middle section, I was told.

Perhaps the level of discomfort did decrease a little, although the level of comfort didn’t seem to change at all, if you can imagine the two things as separate.

The climb was not as I had imagined it. I had expected lung-bursting effort at the limit of my endurance, a clean and open battle between the mountain and me which I would win by superior fitness and determination. 

In fact much of the battle took place in the mind and was indirect. The lack of oxygen at this altitude subtly saps your determination and focus.

Thankfully there were three of us doing the climb (Colin, Dawa and I) - and the energy required to give up and explain it to the others was always a bit higher than that required to put up with the discomfort and carry on.

The middle stage did seem to be going on for an awfully long time without us getting much nearer to the top.

Then I had a stroke of luck. We were traversing, left to right, across the face of a slope where there were two hillocks and a saddle between them. I ‘knew’ that the summit was behind the one on the left and I began to get really upset why we were going the wrong way. I fumed about the unfairness of this (but kept moving).

Then I learned that the summit we wanted was in fact just behind the right hand hillock, now fairly close. It was as if someone had taken five miles off the journey.

Colin and I at the top of Kala Pattar

Not quite as steep as this!

I remember thinking. ‘My God, a sting in the tail. I have to do some (scary) hands-and-feet climbing for this last bit’. There were in fact plenty of easy hand- and foot-holds and it only took a few seconds more to reach the summit with its flags and poles.