TIME GOES BY, SLOWLY

There is no doubt, time in Katmandu has another dimension than in our normal life. Days are long, eternal, exhausting. You have to look for entertainments to alleviate this situation, although to be honest, we do not find any. At the beginning the change from being in the base camp to being in the city was incredible and made us feel so good. Luxury and comfort made us forget the hard times in altitude. Even some injuries we had, we have been able to cure them here, and it would have been impossible to do so in altitude. We have just spent few nice days in Kathmandu together with all our Spanish mates. We chatted, remembered deep moments of the expedition or were just simply together, as a group. Now, they all went home and Javier and I were left alone. We are ok, but watching how all our friends were going home made us feel nostalgic and homesick. Anyway, it is just a sensation and we need to look ahead. We still have a big expedition in front of us. Two more days in this chaotic city and we will head off to the altitude world again. Tomorrow we will short out the permits and will do the last shopping. We have already sent our light cargo (we only take four drums with us to the base camp) and we trust they will be at the base camp by 14th of May. There, we will find a lot of friends from other expeditions and they will tell us how the situation is. Our tactic will be very simple. Only one attempt, only one chance, but we will wait for the good one. We are not in a hurry. We have acclimatized and we only want to find the good weather window which allows us to reach the summit of the mountain. From other seasons’ experience, I think this opportunity will come from 20 to 27th of May. We will have very intense five days, but if we compare them with a regular expedition, they are just very few days. Our bodies are already adapted to the high altitude. I was at 8.167 meters and my body had to change to keep me alive at that inhuman altitude. Therefore, after these recovering days in Kathmandu, acclimatizing will not be a problem. As always, the conditions of the mountain will have the last word, but honestly, we are very motivated and we are really looking forward to change these days of inactivity to summit days, sunny Himalayan days. Soon, very soon, we will be face to face with our great target: Lhotse.
Carlos Pauner