Another of David's rest days!

Some of you could probably tell from the length of yesterday's blog and it's rather matter of fact tone that I wasn't on best form. Well to be honest I felt dreadful. After lunch I had a splitting headache which a paracetamol would hide so late afternoon I had an Acetazolamide which thankfully by mid evening had done the trick.

We were due to have a rest day today, which I was most grateful for given the way I felt. So my heart sank when David announced after dinner that we would be going back up the glacier! The good news was that the 'ice doctors' have re-opened the route through the icefall.

Apparently after his trip last year a number of the team had said that they found getting used to the oxygen masks at Camp Three and above quite difficult despite having tried them on at BC.

At breakfast Mingma, one of our climbing sherpa's popped his head around the door of the mess tent to say hello. He had just climbed up from BC in four and a half hours carrying six 4 kg oxygen cylinders plus his own personal kit! Ten minutes later he was on his way back down again. Just staggering.

So David's plan was that this morning we would first put our oxygen masks and goggles on prior to putting on our harnesses and crampons. When wearing both of these your field of vision is severley restricted not just for the horizontal but more importantantly for the vertical plane. This makes it very difficult to do up your harness. Then to make it more realistic he gave us a 4 kg oxygen cylinder to carry in our packs! To be fair the additional weight didn't make that much difference.

We did get some very odd looks as we walked though camp. I'm sure they'll be some websites reporting that Jagged Globe are using oxygen from Camp Two! I wish.

We walked for about two thirds of the distance yesterday and I actually felt good which is encouraging. I'm not out in front but I'm very happy to be in the latter half as I know from past experience that climbing this mountain is a bit like a war of attrition. Everyday you are above 5500m your body is getting weaker and I intend to conserve my energy for the only day that counts - summit day.

So all in all a much better day than yesterday and I'm feeling good. Perhaps that's because we are back down to BC tomorrow. Next time we are back here we will be on our way to Camp Three. 

Yesterday I finally found my toothbrush. Lesl, my sister in law and a dentist, will be horrified to learn that this afternoon will be the first time I've cleaned them since BC. Sorry to say personal hygiene is low on the list of priorities up here - at least it's cold!

Ps you didn't really want to know about yet another avalanche sweeping across the entire width of the glacier below us.