Full Moon over Lhotse. The night crawlers are out climbing again!
This is going to be a great year!
Almost half the climbing permits of previous years which will mean very little wait, the conditions are the best they have been in 10 years. Just enough snowfalls to cover the ice of a very dry year. The Hillary step should be a breeze to climb.
The stars are also lining up. The 21st May is a full moon and one of the four great events of Buddhism: the birth of Buddha. Alternatively my summit day should be the 22nd of May, the day my father died 2 years ago. Either way I will be happy!
We might get lucky and have a full moon to guide us through the summit climb.
Our expedition leaders have timed the summit ascents to avoid the foreseen crowd in 2-3 days of over 150 climbers all leaving together like Lemmings, as this sounds like a recipe for disaster…
So far so good, after praying at the Stupa before leaving, Nima and I started slowly and still made good time through the icefall. I had a bit of hypo in the second half of the climb and was grateful we stopped at C1 tonight instead of going to C2 in one push, like some of the climbers did.
Let’s see how the recovery goes for the rest of the climb…