Chukung to Island Peak High Camp

We set off around 0845am and heading to Island Peak base camp. It had snowed that night, and there was about an inch of snow on the ground, although some of it was melting as the sun was getting stronger.

The walk to Island Peak base camp was lovely, partly along a ridge, and then through the Imja valley. It was uphill but gentle, and we gained elevation of 340m to 5090m.

At Island Peak base camp, the plan suddenly changed, and it looked like we would be spending the day and night at base camp and then doing the summit push the following day. I gently protested, and said it was too much to do 1100m elevation gain and then get back to Dingboche. After a lot of discussion with the base camp team, they agreed to let us go up to high camp at 5480m, but they told us there were no tents. Geljen was also worried about food. While we were waiting I was chatting to a few people at base camp, most of them had not made it. They said they stopped before the snow wall as the snow was thick due to the snow fall last night and it had sapped their energy.

At around 2:30pm, we decided it would be a much better idea to get up to 5480m and acclimatise up there, and push for summit from high camp rather than from base camp, making it a much easier summit push. After some negotiation, they found a porter (the cook) who brought a bag and tent up to high camp for us.

The trek from Island Peak base camp to high camp took us 1 hour 45 minutes. Apparently a fast porter pace is 1 hour 30m, and a normal pace would be 2 hours. The trek up was fairly tough – a gain of 400m in under 2 hours. We arrived there to find some empty tents, but apparently they were being used. Dhanu and myself lay down in one of the unused tents while we waited for our own tent to come up. When it arrived, we moved into our own tent. Dhanu and Geljen had some food and tea, and then we nestled into sleeping bags 3 up in the tent.

Unfortunately Geljen snores, not badly, but enough to keep you awake. He also had a cold which was not ideal. With three up in a tent, it was snug. After a couple of hours of barely any sleep, I nudged Geljen, he woke up and moved to another tent which had not been used.