Tuesday 23 October 2012

Everest Climb Update: Chip's Blog

Chip is now well into his charity climb and enjoying every minute of it. He has made new friends and so far avoided any problems except migraines at night. In this update we have more images from chip and a report in his own words.

Dear all

5pm Friday, kit check for everybody outside in the garden. Was very enlightening, the head Sherpa came over gave us a brief outline about tomorrow then took us all for tea in Tamul traditional food ( rice) quick beer and in bed at 9.30pm. night xx


Sat Morning

6am feeling totally refreshed after a good night sleep, jumped in taxi to airport and boarded our propeller plane, had 16 seats and was very cramped, it was like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark!! Landing at Lukla Was out of this world, flying through a valley heading straight for a rock face with a short Tarmac runway in front of it . (No room for error) the pilot landed us safely and we all met our team of Sherpas or as they looked to us young boys, with yaks (cow looking donkeys) the Yaks were soon loaded and the trek began. Dusty rocky pathways that you would not believe cattle could navigate wind through small villages over rivers and past clusters of small stone houses (shelters) dotted around the valleys. Weather has been glorious every day clear blue sky’s with slight cloud cover in the afternoon. I have not experienced sunlight quite like this its so intense and bright, altitude has been proven to bring on migraines (for those who suffer) and i cannot be outside in the sunlight without sunglasses. Kemee our head porter told us that he experienced a man loose his sight at the top of Everest because he took his sun glasses off. (Scary) Food in the T houses at lunch time is garlic soup followed by noodles or rice, evening meal, again soup (tonight was mushroom and garlic ) such variety!!! followed by dim sum or yak meat curry and veg, actually very nice!! breakfast is porridge. Everybody is feeling the altitude which is a very strange experience and am not going to try and explain it now. My fellow trekkers are mixed ages and i’m an average age, but far from being average. We are all getting along very well and i have bonded very well with Vic Reeves, such an odd individual much like myself, lol.


Monday Morning

Not sleeping well at all, jet lag and high altitude are messing around with sleep patterns, on a good night I got 4 hours sleep . The team are all suffering with different problems as the days go on, my only issue at present are migraines. Not been sick with them and they hit me at night during the day I’m fighting fit. I don’t claim to be super man but nothing we have done so far has challenged my physical ability. Clearly far fitter than I gave myself credit for. Very surprised to find wi-fi connection at 3850 m where these Nepalese people live such a simple life.
Today we had a acclimatisation day where we climbed up during the day but have returned back down to the T house that we stayed at last night . This will help us achieve greater heights tomorrow . Night night xx

You can still donate to chips charity at
http://www.justgiving.com/PMD-Everest-Challenge

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