My Everest Attempt is Over

Sorry for not posting anything for the last couple of days but the last couple of days have been very busy, sad and disappointing for me as I'm on my way home.

So what happened?

On the way to camp 2, for the second time, just as I was getting to the top of the step bit on the ice fall and before camp 1, I started with a migraine. This I didn't think too much of but within about 10-20 minutes I started to struggle to speak.  Everything else was normal but speaking wasn't easy.  I was walking with Jen and she noticed straight away that all wasn't right with me.  We stopped at camp 1 for a brew before carrying on to camp 2. I was able to function as normal except for the speaking.  Jen kept calling Tim on the radio to keep him up-to-date with how I was doing.  Shortly before camp 2, one of the climbing Sherpas came down with a drink and insisted on carrying my rucksack even though I could manage it myself.  

At camp 2 I took some paracetamol and ibuprofen to help with a bit of a headache, but the speak problem (dysphasia) was still evident.  I was really by now struggling to say more than errr or no.  But everything else seemed normal.  I could understand things and do things, I just couldn't speak.  Anyway, I was put on oxygen and some other drugs and in the morning I felt like normal again.

However, the Team doctor wanted me to descend back to base camp.  So the following day around lunch time, I descended with various people around me, Tim down to camp 1 and then Gnesh and Padour through the ice field.  I met Abi (our doctor) at base camp around 15:00 and she gave me a check up.  She had done some research with the Himalayan Research Association (HRA) doctors and all their advice was to go to Kathmandu for a scan.

So the day after I was in a helicopter being flown to Kathmandu where I had an MRI scan of the brain and a checkup with a doctor at the CIWEC clinic.  They couldn't find anything wrong with me but wouldn't recommend that I go back to base camp and try again.  This is the same opinion as our team doctor and the HRA doctors. 

 So ...  here I am on my way home!! 

The doctors think it was more than just a migraine, they think it was a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA).  Not sure where that leaves me for the future going to altitude.  I've been higher a few times than I was when I started to experience the speech problems.  So I don't understand it really.  There are quite a few cases of people with migraines having similar problems so I think it's linked but who knows?

Anyway, embarrassed, annoyed and very disappointed to be coming home without at least giving it a good try......

I start heading home tomorrow.

Chris

Rest and revision at Base Camp

The team is at base camp again today, looking at the drugs needed to treat high altitude problems and also looking at the oxygen system and mask which they'll be using higher up.

The plan seems to be to stay there again tomorrow, perhaps with a little leg stretch up to Camp 1, depending on the weather. Today started out with blue skies and sunshine but has now clouded over and is snowing once again.

More news as it comes in...

Tough few days, then return to Base Camp and hot showers!

The team are back at Base Camp for a rest after a gruelling couple of days. Two nights at Camp 1,  followed by a 5.00am wake-up call for the trek up to Camp 2 (at 6400 metres). Overnight stop at Camp 2, then all the way back down to Base for food, rest and hot showers. I understand there was a four-day storm forecast, so they will rest and see what weather the next few days bring.

These few pix give a flavour of the terrain en route to Camp 2.

Camp 1 when the team arrived in the snow

 

 Setting off from Camp 1 yesterday, with the entire Western Cwm visible 

and the Lhotse face and south col at the far end

 

 Typical upper ice fall terrain

 Giles crossing a four-ladder span crevasse on the way to Camp 1

Chris's tent at Camp 2 with the Lhotse face visible behind 

and the south col just out of site to the left

Arrived Camp 1

Team has arrived at Camp 1 after a tough day. Time to rehydrate and decide what to do next.

Foray to the Ice Fall

Short foray into the Ice Fall today – first quarter of the route up to Camp One – before we venture up there tomorrow. We only encountered one small ladder today but expect we'll encounter many more, and much larger ones, as we progress up the ice.

Might be off the air for a few days now – so here's a few more pix!

 

 Base camp from the ice fall.  It's huge!!

 

Giles on the only ladder we found in the first quarter of the route up to Camp 1. There will be many more ladders in the upper, more complicated part of the ice fall and much bigger ones at that.

Our team at the start of the ice fall.

Carry on up the Khumbu...

From Tim's Twitter feed... Just had a foray in to The Khumbu Icefall - what an amazingly AWESOME place. Off to Camp 1 tomorrow for 2 or 3 nights.

Unpacking boxes and a few snaps

Spent the day at Base Camp opening all the boxes and reacquainting ourselves with all the stuff we freighted over all those weeks ago. Off to look at the Khumbu Ice Fall tomorrow (news on the grapevine is it's in great condition - more detail about that on Tim's blog), then it's working our way up to the higher camps.

Here's a few piccies to be going on with!

 

Base Camp with comms tent centre – my tent is the one in the distance to the left of the comms tent

 

Kitchen tent with the Khumbu Ice Fall and Everest in the background

 Me on top of Pokalde

 

Our mess tent at Base Camp

Me on top of the Kongma La