Dispatch Twenty-five: April 18th, 2010 |
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Annapurna Expedition 2010 |
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Day Twenty-five: Preparation for Climb to Camp III; Summiteers in C2 Today, after yet another very recuperative good night’s sleep, I headed to the mess tent for breakfast with Jorge, Martin, Kinga, Horia, Evgheny, Serguey, and Auraleo (the Portuguese journalist). Afterwards, I finally got around to doing laundry, and the weather cooperated; I managed to dry all of my clothes by lunch time. At the noon radio call, we learned that the exhausted summiteers were resting in Camp II and were going to spend the night tonight rather than try and descend directly to base camp. I spent the afternoon investigating my food barrel. I now believe that the reason I got so sick following the arrival of the helicopter with our additional equipment might have to do with the chemical that was previously stored in my barrel before I acquired it in Thamel this year. As all of my high altitude food was stored inside in the heat for a few weeks, I believe it very likely that whatever the very toxic chemical is (it smells like paint stripper or the like) managed to get inside my high altitude food, and may be the culprit with regards to my stomach illness, rather than tainted water or food (as neither Jorge nor Martin got sick, and we’ve all eaten the same food since the start of the trek to base camp). It looks like I will try and scrap together alternatives for my next climb to higher camps and see if it makes any difference. Weather came in, as it always does, in the afternoon, and we all retired to our tents to read until dinner time.
Photos: Left: Base camp after snowfall; Right: Storm clouds rolling in at sunset viewed from Camp I a few days ago. Quite spectacular! |
