REPORT | When the sun falls, life dies
If we really want to go up there, we have to act when life dies. It is then, when we must be the good team that we are and only then will we know if we are sufficiently prepared and if we will measure up, will we be able to overcome our fears?
7.30 in the morning and despite the fact i love sleeping, I feel bored of being inside the sleeping bag. I look forward to confronting the day and solving the problems that are emerging, of feeling alive.
Life starts at 9.30 with the first sun shining, which warm our numb bodies. But only for some of us, since Aitor and Pablo don’t come out of their sleeping bags before 10 or 10.30. By that time I am more than awake. I make everyday some mischief to them to get them out of their tents: This goes for long, I’m going to have to recycle. Haha!
We have breakfast all together and we plan the day and the activities we are going to perform. Days go by very fast. We spend an average of 12 hours inside our personal tents, trying to mantain our bodies warm.
Pablo likes taking a nap, but it takes two days without taking it because I have forbbiden him to (and he doesn´t miss it at all). We have already spent too much time in isolation to work overtime!
Bea, Roger and Adrian have come to visit us. Thank you for your help and for sharing unrepeatable moments with all of us. Friends are an essential part of our lives.
Mornings are unproductive because they gather breakfast with meals. We have lunch always at 13.00 and i would say it is then when we start. There is work everyday. We are usually overwhelmed but we seldom bothered. We are always smiling to each other.
Pablo loves joking with Chhepal and Norbu and I spend the day making jokes to Aitor and Pablo. To poor Pablo I hide the phone and we play to “hot and cold”. However, we spill from tabasco to pepper into Aitor´s tea. What patience they have!!
I have to say that I am so proud of both of them and the work they are doing. Both Pablo and Aitor are such a good person. They are from those people difficult to find. I am very grateful for their participation in this expedition and above all for their patience.
Aitor has a 9 month old girl. Her name is Erika and there is not a day that does not tell us about her. He misses her, very much. But along with Aitor we follow day by day her evolution. Today she got off the bed herself, soon she will start walking!
As Erika, anxious to get into the unknown, to take her first steps, we die of wanting to go up again and going through those first 25,000 steps that separate us from Field 2.
When the sun goes down, they are the hardest moments of the day. Once again I have to acknowledge/understand that the Sagarmatha (Everest) knew we were coming. The ideals are peaceful but the story is violent and cruel.
Before leaving the expedition, my intuition told me that this year was going to have many complications. So far, my intuition has not failed to me.
But this time a simple soup has made me change that premonitory feeling. Although in this profession you never know.
I must clarify that for some strange reason that I do not know, the simple fact of taking a soup in a base camp I have always associated with very negative feelings. Deep in my subconscious will be the key to why this association.
I want to believe that I am not crazy, but for the first time, the soups I have taken during this expedition have given me a positive and optimistic feeling about the future of this adventure.
Alex
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