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Questions & Answers

• Kay
• 10 Sep 06, 12:13 PM

Hello again

You may have noticed that a few more members of the team are contributing to the blog now. The expedition team are settling down now, which gives people more time to contribute. We are also starting to hear from people at home that they are enjoying the updates. Thank you for all your encouragement. It really makes a difference to know that there is so much support out there for what we are trying to achieve. We have had a number of questions over the last few days, and I apologise for not getting to them earlier. We continue to have communication issues which makes downloading emails and connecting to an up to date version of the blog difficult. We are hoping to improve communications greatly in time for Everest.

So to the questions and comments: we have been asked if any of the team have had problems with blisters yet. The answer is no, as we have not been doing any real climbing yet, and acclimatisation walks have been short, due to breathlessness. This may become an issue when we start climbing proper, and wear our 8000m boots. I got really bad blisters on my heels in Chamonix in July from rented climbing boots on the way up the Gran Paradiso, and ended up having to cover my feet in gaffer tape every day. The problem with getting blisters at altitude is that nothing heals as well, because of low oxygen levels in the tissues, and if the feet get cold, poor circulation prevents healing.

Somenone else noted that I have got confused with my months, referring to September as November. Whilst my lovely sister has suggested it is my age that is catching up with me, I prefer to suggest that it is the problem of lower oxygen levels to the brain. My oxygen saturations have fluctuated between 83% and 89%. This is better than some of the rest of the team, who have recorded saturations in the 60s and 70s at times. A healthy adult would expect to have saturations greater than 95%.

Another individual asked us about apnoeic breathing (periodic breathing). This refers to an irregular breathing pattern that individuals develop at night when sleeping. It is very common at altitude, and many members of the team have had problems with this. Last night, Sundeep had interruptions in his breathing that lasted up to 30 seconds. These were followed by three or four rapid snorts.

I have mixed feelings about moving up the mountain. I have started to feel at home at this lower base camp, and feel pretty acclimatised. I am not looking forward to getting headaches in the morning on waking. This is another problem related to moving to higher altitudes before one acclimatises. It will be colder, and the weather is more difficult to deal with on the mountains. Our camp got drenched by a rainstorm last night, and I suspect that those teams that are already at advanced base camp had a much more unpleasant night than us. Still, the team has lots of techincal clothing specially designed for exactly these conditions, so I must not complain.