May 21, 2008 - 8:35pm — MountEverest2008
I Love Oxygen!
7400 m
(Camp III) We did indeed leave for Camp III as planned- and we made it! This is a long, hard, steep, and potentially dangerous ascent. Today, I was huffing puffing so much, my throat has been rubbed raw.
Today too, most of the team wore their spiffy (and often new) down suits. We really looked like hard core high altitude climbers. My down suit is orange and mega warm- it was advertised as the warmest suit in the world... and after a day in it, I'm a believer. I have a cool Massage Heights (my sponsor) patch on the lapel and a picture of my wife Hlee in the clear plastic pocket on my right arm. When you have full gear on inclusive of oxygen mask, you actually have a hard time distinguishing climbers wearing the same suit (there are only a few manufacturers, so this happens quite a bit). Little personal touches like mine help- others simply write their name on duct tape and stick it to their suit.
Anyway, the carrot waiting at Camp III was supplemental oxygen. And what a carrot it was! We were each issued two tanks and a mask and told to set the flow to 0.5 liters / min. This is quite light, but what a difference it made. In fact, I'm blogging with the oxy mask on right now (is this blogging history in the making?). A few teammates got sick shortly after arriving at the camp, but 20 minutes or so the bottled gas seemed to set them right.
Of course, oxygen use comes with some understanding- namely that once you start the oxygen game, you are committed. We are officially on our summit push with no reset button. There is a finite amount of oxygen supply up here- and once you start burning through it, there is really no turning back.
Tomorrow morning we depart for Camp IV (high camp, the final one). I think this one is at 26,500ft... and officially in the so called 'dead zone.' Our bodies and minds really are taking a beating up here. It's hard. Oddly enough though, as I'm warm in my trusty bag and extra oxygen is consumed with every breath I take, I'm having a reasonably okay night.
A couple side notes: from what I can tell, the horrible earthquake in China is not impacting attempts on the summit. Secondly, your comments are super and really motivational. I share many of them with teammates. It's so great to have such a strong support base, particularly given the challenging days ahead. Thank you!
Off to sleep now. And yes, we do sleep with the masks on! Goodnight all...