Day 2: Day of Torture

28/5/2011

Distance 14 km, 8.5 hrs, 5611 calories burnt, and level of difficulty: survival mode

Day 2 was warned as the toughest day. Andrew wasn’t joking, hearing the seriousness of his tone, I felt really nervous and silenced for a while. The first group of 5 set off at 7am leaving the rest and the supporting group behind.

The first hour was a gentle climb to an unmarked Camp 2. From there it was a 900 m climb that took a solid 3 hours to reach Camp 3 at 1270 m. We were a determined group, hardly stopping except for some intermittent short pauses to sip some water to quench the thirst.

The problem with the track was the lack of signboard showing distance or location. So it was like walking endlessly not knowing when the climb will end to reach our destination.

We reached Camp 3 after 4 hours. Totally drenched, we waited for another hour before Andrew turned up. The words from Andrew weren’t something that we expected. He was saying not only two in our group were struggling but all the porters were making very slow progress going up the 900 m climb.

After two hours at the camp, none of the porters managed to reach the camp yet. Andrew mentioned that it will take 5 to 6 hours to reach Camp 4 at 1800m. So five of us set off again at 1 pm. The first hour was again a steep climb before going onto an undulating plateau which seems to go on forever.

We reached Camp 4 after 4.5 hours at 5.30 pm. Although our sole leader was well ahead - reaching 50 minutes earlier! The place was quite cold and we were deperate for fresh clothing and food. Our fear was that the porters would totally abandon the climb to Camp 4. But after a long wait, it was such a joyful sight to see the first set of porters arriving at around 7.30 pm. The last one arrived at 9 pm.