Summit Lobuche East Peak 6119m

People started getting up around 1am. I had my alarm set for 1:10am and snoozed it to 1:20am. I packed my gear which took longer than I imagined, and even putting the sleeping bag in my sleeping bag holder was hard work. Getting stuff ready takes time, you have to be prepared, and make sure you have everything you need for the summit push. That includes high altitude boots, head torch, thick gloves, thin gloves, extra layers, crampons, summit coat, balaclava, sun cream, lip salve, blister pads, etc.

I put on the blister pads and decided to skip breakfast. I didn’t want to get my bowels going. I got some boiling water in my Nalgene’s and got everything ready. Gelbuu came to my tent and offered to take my crampons and water bottle – that was incredibly helpful. We got going at 2am, but Dharnu was eating breakfast. I called him and said we were going. I then asked Gelbu to go and get him, but he was still eating. We left at 2:04am and right from the start I could tell Gelbu Sherpa was pushing quite hard. We caught up with a team who must have left around 5 mins before us. Gelbu quite quickly wanted to pass them, while I was happy just tailing them. He also offered to take my whole rucksack which was amazing but I declined as I didn’t think that would be right.

We pushed past them, and I could see some head torches about 10-15 mins ahead. We caught up with them, despite it being snowy from low down and slippery. Some people had put on crampons way before crampon point. Gelbu decided no for us, and I pushed up in my hiking boots but slipping quite a lot. Luckily I used one Leki pole to stabilise.

We overtook another team, and then pushed on more. Gelbu was going a fast pace and I was breathing hard, and getting tired. We caught up the front team, a guy called Francisco who I had lunch with the previous day in high camp. A very experienced mid-30s mountaineer who lives in the US but was from Brazil, and had climbed Denali and Mansalu. He had been talking about training by climbing mountains with 35kg back packs! He told me he had done extensive training and also altitude training. I felt very inferior.

However, we caught him up (probably because we were going too fast and they were pacing better). Then we got stuck behind him at a steep rocky section with an almost sheer rock face that required the jumar. At that point, an even faster team of 4 had caught us up, and they overtook us. We then overtook Francisco and his sherpa.

We reached crampon point about 4am, still dark, and Gelbu was great. After I had put on my La Sportiva B3’s, he put on my crampons for me. By this time, Dhanu had caught us up, but was about 15 mins behind as we were ready to go up. He stayed and put on his crampons and had a rest while we pushed on up the steep snow.

Going up the last 200-300m of Lobuche East is hard going. Don’t believe anything you read about it being a beginner friendly mountain, it’s really not. It’s a super-tough mountain which challenges your body and mind in a way that you will be surprised. It was very tough going. The ice walls are steep and you need to rest regularly. I would rest every 10 steps or so.

We saw the first team at the summit, around 20 mins ahead of us, and we were the second team. Dhanu had caught us up and overtaken us, but he didn’t take many videos or photos. He pushed on to the summit. At 6:06am, we summitted. I was tired. Gelbu and I had some selfies. Dhanu got the drone out. It was just starting to get light. After around 15 mins on the summit, Gelbu and I headed down but Dhanu wanted to stay and fly the drone some more. That was fine by me as he was much faster.

The route down was long and exhausting. I was very tired. I went at a reasonable pace but not fast. Gelbu was ahead going quite a lot quicker. We rappelled down some steeper sections, and held on to ropes on other sections that did not require the figure of 8.

We got down towards high camp, but we had agreed our porters would come to High Camp, and take our kit bags back to Lobuche. I decided not to go all the way back down to High Camp and instead turn left to head back to Lobuche on my own. Dhanu was some way up as I could hear the drone. Gelbu went down to get breakfast.

One thing about sherpas is they won’t climb or trek unless they have eaten. It’s a big deal for them. I find that eating and climbing stimulates my bowels, which is not something you want on a mountain!

The mountain path back down was steep, and my big toes were really hurting. I was moving slowly now, mostly because I was tired, but also so Gelbu could catch up. Dhanu also caught up too.

They let me lead the pace and I was tired, and we got back to Lobuche base camp level, and then had another uphill followed by a downhill back to Lobuche. We arrived back at Lobuche at 10am. A very successful summit, but I was tired.

At Lobuche I got internet, and was able to liase with my home team as it was London Marathon day! I would normally be Lead Course Physio but being in Nepal, I passed that down to Tayla, one of my team.

The day was mostly spent on and off the internet. I also went to the local shop in Lobuche which was well stocked for a small shop. I bought some pringles, and some dried mango. I would not normally eat crips as I gave them up a few years back, but I’ve had so little appetite that I decided to buy them. And I actually started eating crisps about 3-4 weeks before coming to Nepal in an effort to put on weight.

We had dinner (Dal Bhat) and had a meeting with Dhanu. He requested a $200 summit bonus. I agreed. But we had a strong chat about the quality of the footage from Lobuche East Peak. He had started 25 mins later than us, and he missed a lot of video footage, and did not take a summit photo. He agreed and we moved on. We transferred some footage on the laptop and Dropbox.

I went to bed with an electric blanket on all night. It was so nice. It was not the strongest electric blanket but gave just enough heat to make a very comfortable night’s sleep.

Stats:

Weight: 66.95kg

Fat: 11.7%

Muscle: 83.8%

Visceral fat: 2.1

Resting heart rate: 75

Nerve health: 88

SpO2: 77%

Altitude: 6119m (Summit of Lobuche East)

Sleep last night: 4hr 03

Elevation gain: 1271m