Mera Peak day 9 – Acclimatisation part two
I had a fitful nights sleep. I felt like I woke up many times. I had to pee in the middle of the night. No idea of the time, it's a mission to go to the loo - I may have mentioned this before. It takes about 10 minutes after you get back to bed for your breathing to return to normal.
I had an pretty unusual dream last night. I was Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her. I was dressed in a ball gown and I was whacking people with a spade so they fell down a giant staircase. Well they say attitude makes you have strange dreams!
Today is an acclimatisation day. We spent the morning getting fitted with our harnesses and climbing bits - ascenders and descenders. Ice axes, carabiners and stuff. Nigel and I both hired our boots, here we are looking like Torvil and Dean!
We went about 50 yards away to where there were some fixed ropes on the hill. We practiced going up the rope using a jumar and abseiling in our plastic boots. They are pretty uncomfortable, not because they are hired, just because you can't move properly in them. You can't bend your foot or move your ankle, but hopefully they will stop my feet from getting frostbite! So far I am ok with all the hired kit. I would hire it again.
We came back to the lodge for lunch, done for the day. I had a disappointing noodle soup and some chips. We stocked up on some out of date chocolate for the next few days. Again it was just a matter of wasting time this afternoon. It got really cold and started snowing. It started out really clear this morning with the cloud sitting low in the valley, but the clouds rose throughout the morning and never left. The snow became quite heavy and settled. Most of us went to bed for a little nap but mainly just to keep warm. It feels like we are wasting time but hopefully it's all helping with acclimatisation. You can only sleep until certain people have got up though. Once the loud people are up you have no chance on any more sleeping.
Bit worried about the weather. The forecast was supposed to be nice and clear for the next few days but that is questionable now! With the limited patchy wifi someone managed to see a forecast which said more snow is predicted. But mountain weather is very changeable.
We did our dinner order. I still write down all the food orders, I found my job fun to start with but like most jobs it soon gets boring! This doesn't bode well for going back to 'real' life!
I'm not sure how I feel. I feel quite tired all the time, quite breathless, any sudden movements like going to the toilet require a recovery period. I have a thick head, no pain as such but there feels like there is pressure there. I have been taking diamox for a few days now. It's difficult to tell whether it's helping or not, I don't know how I would have been feeling had I not taken it. Maybe worse, maybe the same? But at the moment I think things are as good as they can be at nearly 5000m. I get regular tingling in my finger tips and toes, sometimes in my nose and cheeks. But ultimately I think I'm doing alright.
The food here takes a lot of getting used to, it's bunged me up. I'm definitely not two poos a day like I was on the trail!
I find the second guessing about everything difficult to deal with. The trial teaches you to go with the flow a lot more and just see what happens. Most of the time it is what it is, second guessing won't make it any different.
Bed time at a rather late 9pm! But breakfast isn't until 8 tomorrow so we get a lie in.