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Australian Professional Cyclist

Mount Everest Base Camp: Day by Day…..

Day Six Trekking: Friday 1st November.

Morning Hike:

Machhermo to Gokyo Lake: 7km.

Starting Altitude: 4470m.

Finishing Altitude: 4704m.

Elevation Gain (Not Difference): 428m.

Moving/Trekking Time: 2hr25min

Average Heart Rate: 98bpm.

Max Heart Rate: 139bpm.

Blood Saturation 1hr Pre Trek: 80%

Blood Saturation 1hr Post Trek: 80%

Afternoon climb up to a Glacier:

Distance: 0.7km.

Elevation Gain (Not Difference): 54m.

Moving/Trekking Time: 18min

Average Heart Rate: 92bpm.

Max Heart Rate: 106bpm.

Blood Saturation 1hr Pre Trek: 80%

Blood Saturation 1hr Post Trek: 80%

Today’s trek from Machhermo to Gokyo Lake was by far the best day yet – regarding the stunning views and trails.

When we started off there was ice on the trails – which quickly turned to muddy slush and it’s so important to keep off that stuff! It fills in the soles of your shoes/boots and not only does it make your feet really heavy – it’s super slippery too!

Last night after dinner I was so tired and couldn’t wait to get into bed. Fortunately I was quite warm in my sleeping bag however I actually got ZERO sleep last night. As you can imagine, I was panicking by 3am that my body had not shut down! In the end I just waited for the sun to come up and went to breakfast early. I felt a little more relaxed about it when a few of the world-class athletes here experienced exactly the same thing. I wasn’t mentally stressed – I’m as relaxed as I think I’ve ever been so I was concerned however, I’ll now just put it down to the high altitude and hope I can sleep this evening!

I heard a helicopter fly in at 6am and found out when everyone came to breakfast that one of our team (David) had to be helicoptered back down to Lukla and then taken by plane directly to Kathmandu. After our hike yesterday he looked fine and had energy to socialise and have a laugh before and after dinner. He must have had a really rough night and this is a reminder of how quickly health can turn at these high levels of altitude.

I think a good indicator of health up here is how much each of us are eating. You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve eaten in the past 3 days…. It’s just crazy! My metabolism must be pumping! Food, food, food, and more food please!

My body felt ok on today’s hike however I’m starting to feel REALLY tired now waiting for dinner! My feet, joints and muscles are ok, they’re not sore but they’re getting tired.

Also, trekking so far has taken an immense amount of concentration. You need to be consistently so focused on your foot placement because it only takes one lapse of concentration and you could twist an ankle, blow a knee, trip over etc…. so the trekking is taking a lot of mental energy too!

I think I’m experiencing some allergies today – which can be enhanced by my lack of sleep. In theory – there shouldn’t be too many trees, grass, dust etc up here to flare up my allergies. My eyes are swollen, I have a rash and my chest is giving a dry cough.

I’m now starting to run low on High5 energy and protein bars too so I’m on rations with everything! There will be no more laundry for at least 6 days so I think I’m going to have to wear dirty socks at some point! I’m paying for a hot shower after dinner so I’ll wash my underwear (along with my body) within the max time limit of 10 minutes.

I’m a little nervous about the big challenge tomorrow morning. A few of us (the fittest of our group) will wake up at 4:45am and depart at 5am to climb a very steep mountain up to Gokyo Ri (5,483m) before breakfast – to see the most amazing views of the Gokyo Lakes and the BEST view of Mount Everest. I can see the mountain outside my window, it looks so steep and it will be FREEZING at that hour of the morning!

After we climb this monster mountain we’ll be back at 7am to pack our bags, refresh, have breakfast and leave with the rest of our group for tomorrow’s trek to Thangnak (it’s only a short trek and 100m higher than where we’re staying tonight (acclimitisation day) but no doubt we’ll be going up and down all day and have some significant altitude ‘gain’.

Let’s cross our fingers that I get some sleep tonight! I’m heading up to my freezing cold room now to lay everything out for the early start tomorrow morning, then it will be time to eat again – dinner!

I’ll be able to pay for electricity tonight so hopefully I can keep everything charged.

The wifi here at Gokyo Lake is killing me…. it’s taking hours to do things that should take a couple of minutes – you know the feeling!

More tomorrow!

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