So finally, after nearly two weeks in Tibet, we have arrived at the foot of the Turquoise Goddess, when we arrived at Cho Oyu Base Camp yesterday. It has been a rapid ascent. Less than 2 weeks after leaving the UK, here I am sleeping at around 5700m. I don’t recall ever having ascended to this altitude so quickly before, and not surprisingly, there were a few headaches and mild nausea in the party, myself included, but this is par for the course and really nothing to be worried about. Liberal quantities of aspirin and diamox are being taken to keep us all shipshape, and spirits are good.
We seem to have a pretty fit and experienced team here. As well as our two international athletes Steve Williams and Richard Parks, we have ‘Four Jokes’ Mark (known as such because he only knows 4 jokes which he keeps repeating), who has run over 30 marathons, and Stuart, who has run no fewer than 87. But I’m sure neither Steve nor Richard will mind me saying that the star of the show on our team is Mingma Sherpa, who has climbed Everest no fewer than 16 times, which puts him 4th on the all time list of Everest Summiteers. In common with all Sherpas, he is extremely cheerful and constantly smiling.
Time to move over for Four Jokes to have his turn on the email. A relaxing rest day today. Everyone good, and tomorrow we go a little higher up the mountain to acclimatise. Next time I’ll give a bit more description of the amazing landscape here at base camp.
