Day 5 - Rest Day at Lava Tower Camp

Friday 31/08/2012

15,000 ft

2.33 km

3 hrs 49 mins

854 Calories

"Rest Day" who dreamt that one up? It should be called "Practice Lap Day" or "No Progress Day".

We are to spend a second night at Lava Tower Camp to help with acclimatisation, however this is no day of rest. We have to keep to the practice of climb high and sleep low to successfully acclimatise, so our options are climb the Lava Tower which is a 1,600 ft meanacing looking rock tower - No Way! My vertigo would not cope with that and Nick agrees as he doesn't like heights either. So we opt for a climb to Arrow Glacier Camp, which is also the next camp we will stay at, so I call this our "Practice Lap Day" and of course it will be longer and harder than tomorrow's climb because we also have to come back to this camp.

As today is a "rest day" we get to sleep in until 7.00 - normal days have a 6.00AM wake up call, with a cup of tea or your brew of choice.

The climb to Arrow Glacier and our return to Lava Tower Camp, takes longer than I expect and this shows us how the altitude is now affecting how our bodies can cope with the elevation.

There are at least three iced over streams that we crossed this morning and three ridges to get over before reaching Arrow Glacier Camp.

I hate those tricky ridges- they fool you into thinking, I just have to reach the top of this ridge and it will flatten out. But guess what? Once you reach the top of the ridge, another one awaits you....damn The last of the three ridges was the hardest, with rock scrambling over some pretty scary boulders but Hosea helped me through it.

It was very cold at Arrow Glacier Camp but we had to stay there for at least 30 minutes to acclimatise to this elevation - remember, climb high, sleep low.

I needed to use the toilet and as our support team had not done the "Rest Day Hike", we didn't have our portable loo. So I decided to use the Public Toilets at this camp. Now, remember that one of my selection criteria had been portable toilets because I had read about the disgusting state of Public ones on the mountain.....well I was about to experience one such horror story. I kid you not! I walked in, took one look and backed out super quick. The excreatment was piled up into a peak at least 6 inches above the rim of the drop hole....I almost threw up! And suddenly, didn't need to go anymore!

By the time we got back to Lava Tower Camp, I again had a headache, about 3/10 and my right hip was still hurting heaps.

Nick did some Trigger Point Therapy on my head to help with the headache....how lucky was I to get this man as my climbing partner....thanks Nick :)

I also took some Digesics for good measure and spent the arvo laying down and updating notes for my blog.

Nick and I agree that everything at this height is a challenge - in fact I reckon it was at the last Camp as well. The simple act of getting in or out of the tent is exhausting. Getting in, you have to first unzip the vestibule and half pie crawl into it or at least fold yourself into it, then rezip it to keep the cold wind out. Then unzip the actual tent entrance by which time you tend to throw yourself forward onto the mattress where you lay panting for a few minutes while you get your breath - I kid you not, all that bending and manouvering at this elevation is totally energy sapping. And the reverse to get out also leaves you standing outside trying to get your breath before moving on to whatever you were going to do - not good if that happens to be a middle of the night dash to the toilet!

That night, at 11.00PM, I get up for a toilet dash and see that my tent is again frozen. I took this picture of the ice from the inside of the tent.

 

 Whilst it was obviously very cold, it was also a Full Moon - and not only full, but also a Blue Moon as it was the second Full Moon this month. Despite the cold, I found I just had to stand in the moon light (during another toilet dash) and just soak up the amazing sight of Kibo bathed in the moonlight.  Her peak capped in snow and ice that stretched in long streaks down her many crevices and breaches.  The moonlight perfectly highlighting the contours of this beautiful mountain and the silence of the night was one very special and spiritual moment I will never forget.