Summit Night Part 2

The plan for the night was for Lorraine, John John and myself to leave around 10.00pm with the others following in initially one group around 11.00pm. So it was around 9.30pm I found myself outside our mess tent eagerly waiting our departure as Lorraine made her final preparations and the others emerged for a small bite to eat and something to drink.

Finally, with little or no ceremony we slipped off into the night, anticipating the others departing around an hour or so behind us. The first hour and a half I was terrible, all over the place, struggling to plant my feet. If it wasn't for lorraine herself providing me with a figurative tow, I'm not sure just how much further I could have gone. This was unexpected, but I resolved to see it through, and so it was around 5000m my head began to clear and my sense of purpose return.

Lorraine all this time was amazing. She appeared strong and capable of virtually anything. Glancing back we could see the lights of others below, but still some considerable distance away, and after 3 hours it seemed we were making good progress. It had started to snow as we departed, and although this had now stopped the icy wind howling around us was beginning to bite hard. I became aware of the ice forming on my jacket and Lorraines water feed pipe froze so we reverted to her bottle supply.
Still no sign of the others!

Groups were finally begining to pass us on our way. Time had become irrelevant now, it was just a matter of getting Lorraine to the top as her fatigue began to hammer home.. The cold was now a real factor and unfortunately everytime we stopped the cold got worse. John John & I did our best to keep Lorraines spirits up, and in a practical sense I managed to give Lorraine my extra set of gloves and some buscuits for energy.

Just when we were starting to consider our options the first of our group, Stewart, Jim, Jules, Ben, Pete and Charlie W caught up with us. I think the fact this happened so deep into the climb acted as another spur for Lorraine and for the next hour or so as the others came and passed us, Lorraine found new strength.

We rested again in a narrrow passageway, crambed with other climbers. I saw Charlie K and Lajia huddled together not 3m's away sipping hot tea, and realised just how much this climb and the cold was taking out of all of us. These were the last two people from our group we would see for the rest of our climb!!