Being away from home and on the mountain or in Kathmandu for so long it’s inevitable that some days will be better than others, today’s a shit day.

We’ve finally had the call we are heading back up to basecamp tomorrow, weather permitting. Hopefully because we are being transported in helicopters even slightly bad weather we can go in, the fixed wing planes won’t go but hopefully a few of the more maverick pilots will get us up to where we need to be and then once in basecamp we await the brief for the final stage of the expedition to stand on top of the world!

Morning! All going well and the rest break in Kathmandu is allowing me to get some proper sleep, recharge with an abundance of fresh food and reset my body batteries ready for the ultimate finish to this expedition.

Rest going well, we’re getting our money’s worth at the breakfast buffet each day and making excellent use of the pool and the spa but rather than this now be a blog of me on holiday within an expedition I’m going to take the next few days to just give you a little more information about what’s involved in climbing Mt Everest and its adjacent mountain Lhotse and today I’ll start with ‘Permits & Rope Fixing’.

It’s not entirely conventional to return to Kathmandu mid-way through an expedition to climb Mt Everest, probably more due to cost and logistics than anything else but I’ve never been one to particularly follow convention. I feel we have had a good successful run in basecamp upto now completing our rotation upto Camp 3 but it’s a hard existence in basecamp, its extremely cold, food and nutrition is debatable and its demoralising so  to get the opportunity to get away during the rest period is an opportunity I didn’t want to miss, it gives me the chance to rest, recuperate and recharge and, for me, is the best option rather than deteriorating for a week or more in base camp and then attempting the biggest challenge of my life.

My alarm goes off at 5.15am and I peek my head out of my sleeping bag feeling the icy tent temperature immediately cool my cheeks and nose, yep freezing again! I roll around a bit in my sleeping bag freeing my gloved hands and pull my hat and buff off to feel the air on my face better, I’ve got thermals on, a hooded warmer, socks and down booties  and start to get ready for the quick change into day clothes in the freezing tent, I know we are on a heli in an hour so I’m not that bothered today as I’m looking forward to getting to Kathmandu and a little warmth and comfort. My back reminds me it’s still not happy and I drop another super strength painkiller.

I slept well and have to chance to reflect on the previous few days rotation climb to camp 3 as I get myself ready for breakfast today, amazingly I feel surprisingly ok (my back aside which I’m keeping in check with some super strength painkillers), I’ve been doing fluids since I got back to try and re-hydrate as much as I can do and I think I’m starting to balance up again, I must remember to drink more during the summit push or I’ll be in all sorts of trouble.

We’re up at 7am packing our stuff away, separating what needs to go in our backpacks to go down and what can stay in Camp 2 ready for the summit push when it comes - higher rated sleeping bag, mats, summit suits, spare thermals/socks, snacks if we have them, its a slow difficult process for me in our tent, my back is letting me know the previous days exertion isn’t going unpunished and I’m finding it very hard to move around - the trek down is going to be fun!

Time to step up, the hard work is starts as we aim to reach the max height of our rotation climb today by ‘touching’ Camp 3 spending a hour or so at the high altitude and then returning to Camp 2.

An oxymoron if ever there was one ‘active rest day’!

Slept ok, being so exhausted from the climb through the icefall probably helped but I managed to get comfortable and warm in my sleeping bag and get a few good hours sleep, the restorative powers of sleep being very welcome as I start to think about the next hike to Camp 2.

We left basecamp at 2.30am after a breakfast of porridge and boiled eggs, it was icy cold but fortunately the wind  had died down and the snow that had been falling when we went to bed had stopped.