A very early start to the day and I tried to force down more breakfast without much luck. The "road" to Cho La Pass was long and wet, with slippery rocks and makeshift bridges that Gez struggled over, to my amusement (actually I think that was yesterday but it's still funny). We reached Cho La Pass after setting out at around 6:30am as the last group on the trail. Attempting it after 11am is suicide, apparently. The path narrowed and steepened until we had to cl...

Today I felt utterly destroyed, awed and depressed in equal measure. We woke at some ungodly hour before 4am to start climbing at 5:30am (what were we doing?!). Gez and I struggled in the darkness with our headtorches and then in the morning light. We had to resort to doing 200 steps at a time in order to get to the 5550m peak of Kala Patthar in time for sunrise, if at all. The view at the top was spectacular and at sunrise - the most beautiful point - Warren pro...

I told you there'd be lows... My night's sleep in Lobuche was is a small dark room that stank of paraffin and had no lights or windows to the outside world. I noticed I was coughing a lot and my breathing was wheezy. This was a possible onset of pulmonary oedema, which is essentially when your lungs fill up with fluid and you drown from the inside. I was doing fine until yesterday but now it seemed everything was going wrong. My head thumped and I couldn't take a...

I was about to set off from Dingboche in high spirits along with team Aus/US until another nosebleed stopped me in my tracks. I hadn't taken aspirin this time so it surprised me. We started 15mims later and promptly stopped again when Gez's Camelbak started leaking into his bag. What a great start. Kicking on, we passed team NZ and caught up with Aus/US for tea in Duglha. And then it happened again... This time, my 3rd nose bleed in 36 hours started on its own - ...

We eagerly(?) woke up extra early this morning for our beautiful view of Everest. Only the weather did not play ball. We walked around in the bitter cold from around 5:30am until after 7. No spectacular view, and late for starting walking we pushed on to catch up the Aussie and US couples before bumping into welsh boys Gareth and Simon for a spot of tea in Pangboche. If you think the names are confusing you should try writing about them a week later without a map...