Island Peak High Camp to Summit to Dingboche

We were up at 1:30am, although others were up earlier, around 1am and were being rather noisy. The cook had brought up some porridge and tea for Dhanu and Geljen, but my stomach really didn’t feel like eating it. As we packed our bags, Geljen took my crampons and water bottle which was amazing, just to lighten my load.

We set off, in the dark, and my battery on my head torch had died (even though I had charged it before we left for KTM). That was stupid, but Geljen is so amazing he did not say anything just gave me his and used his phone. In the meantime, I charged mine in my pocket using a power bank. After an hour or so, it had enough charge to use and I gave Geljen’s back.

By this time, Geljen was not feeling too well, and his cold was getting worse. He seemed slower than us and was stopping fairly regularly. We got to crampon point after two or three hours. He caught up and was about 10 minutes behind. He was still so attentive, helping me to put my crampons on.

We pushed on to the next part which was a tough part of Island Peak. Once crampons were on, it was mostly snow and we stepped over a couple of crevasses. Then the hard bit. A steep uphill section was upon us. And then I saw Geljen lying down on the snow. I was about 30-40 meters ahead, and I turned around and went back to see him, and asked him if he was ok. He said he was ok. I asked him what he wanted to do and I don’t think he really understood me but he gestured me on and was coherent and not breathless, although he looked tired. I went ahead. Dhanu held back to fly the drone. I pushed up about 50-60m up the slope, looked back, and Geljen was lying on the slope I guess around 250m from the summit. Dhanu was with him. Dhanu left him and pushed up, and Geljen got up and headed down.

Dahnu and I pushed up the steep snow wall. It was very slow, and people ahead of us were struggling. We went past them and continued up, and had to stop every minute or so. I was counting in steps of 4 and tried to keep going until I had to stop. I then started doing 10 steps, rest 30 seconds, 10 steps, rest 30 seconds. That seemed to work quite well.

We finally made it to the summit of Island Peak, 6189m. Dhanu flew the drone. I made some videos and took some photos. We stayed up there for about 15-20 minutes and then headed down. I got stuck with a line of about 6 climbers all trying to get up that steep section. I wanted to belay down but was not sure which rope to use, as they were all using ropes. That meant a 15 minute wait for them to come up.

Dhanu was fast, and he was already down. I abseiled down the 200m or so wall and got the hang of my figure of 8. We went down at a reasonable speed as I tried to keep up with Dhanu who was very fast.

We got back to campon point, took off the crampons, and went down to high camp which took about an hour or maybe 1.5 hours. At high camp, Geljen was sitting in the tent and seemed ok and said he was ok, but did not look great. His face looked puffy and red. Even though he was feeling rough, he still found the energy to take my sleeping bag and put it in my bag holder, We then descrended down. Geljen stopped every 15-20 minutes. Towards the bottom of the mountain, I looked back and he was not there. I carried on for about 5 mins and then sat on a rock and did some back stretches. My back was feeling very jarred.

Then Glejen came along with Dhanu and was bleeding badly from both nostrils. I got some toilet paper and plugged them but he was pouring blood. I kept plugging them and one side stopped, but the other side carried on. He told me to continue on to base camp, but I said no I would wait. We continued plugging his nose and the blood was still seeping through and he walked to base camp. I had sent Dhanu earlier and said to him to order a horse so we can get him lower down.

When we arrived at base camp, they had requested a horse but it was not the horse we saw just higher up from base camp. They then decided to call for an evacuation. About 2 hours later, a heli arrived and he was helivac’d out. He was able to walk and he said he was ok, but he had said that right from the start. When he got on the heli and left, I cried my eyes out for about an hour, on and off, as Dhanu and I did the long 4 hour walk back to Dingboche from Island Peak base camp.

I felt so emotional, I was not sure the main reason, but perhaps it was that I let him take my crampons and water bottle even though he didn’t look great. Maybe it was because I pushed us to stay higher last night at 5480m rather than at base camp for a night. Maybe it was because I might not see him again and what would I do for Everest. Or was it because last time we were both in a chopper I balled my eyes out…

That was 18 months ago, November 2024, and we had summitted Lobouche East and Ama Dablam. At Ama Dablam base camp I was wrecked, and paid for a heli to take me back to Lukla and KTM. The summitclimb team told me sherpas would walk back to Lukla (3 days away). When the chopper landed, we were rushed to the heli super-fast. I noticed a spare seat in the heli, and asked the pilot of we could take Geljen and he said yes. Geljen bolted with his stuff and got in, and about 10 seconds later, we were airborn. I remember being overwhelmed that we were both together getting out of Ama Dablam base camp and I balled my eyes out, being emotionally and physically exhausted.

After a 4-hour hike back mostly gently downhill from Island Peak base camp to Chukung and then Dingboche, we did not arrive back until 7:15pm in the dark, porters following us with the bags. I offered to take the porters for dinner but they said they wanted to do their own thing, so I gave them 2000 NPR which was gratefully received. I give them at least 1-2k NPR per day for food as a gesture. Today I had actually given them 5k NPR and one of them gave me a warm hug. They work so hard.

I had a lovely shower and washed every part of my stinky body. Dhanu and I went out for food and then I got into bed, put on the electric blanked which was like heaven, and went to bed.

Stats:

SpO2: 68%

Resting heart rate 68

Sleep: 4 hours 21

Altitude: 5470m to 6180m