JASON Black is attempting to be first Donegal man to conquer Mount Everest.
The Letterkenny nightclub owner has posted his latest blog.
Here’s his latest despatch from way up high!
BASECAMP to interim CAMP & onto ADVANCE base camp.
Up early-ish and had a good solid breakfast of porridge & fried eggs .. today I feel well rested and ready to restart back into Mt Everest.
Honestly I seriously feel that the correct decision few days back to drop down from 6450mts ABC to BC has been my saving grace in helping to conquer this most punishing experience of my entire sporting life.
I mean it’s not even the physical challenge which is at times painfully numbing on the body but physically trying to hold it all together; pain, cold sickness, despair, moments of depression, joy highs & lows. I mean it just sucks it out of you.
Anyway looking forward positively just left BC where Nima has fed me like mammy would have as a sick child at home at 5 years of age. His patience to get me well enough again must be commendable a true warrior of the wild and knows exactly how to bring you through it positivity.
So the climb up to interim camp was good and had a solid climb straight up the side of the ever relentless mountain, arrived in good form, no headaches, legs felt good got straight into my tent and chilled with a book – The Eiger obsession based on a climber called John Harlins’ life facing the mountain that killed him. It’s a good read.
Then cooked good dinner in the tent and off to bed early, restless enough night but caught enough zzz to do the job the next day as we set off early to ABC; it was a nervous enough day as the last time I got to ABC it’s where it all when horribly wrong.
But I must reminded myself last time on route I was recovering from a bad ear infection and still finishing a strong course of heavy antibiotics and gastro “stomach” issues; drugs for that also along with diomox for coping with altitude, all in all I was a walking Magees chemist!
Now I had dropped all that and flushed the system with tons of good hot water, only drug that was now working with was the Diamox which on its own is working pretty well for me.
So four and half hours later I rolled into ABC tired with the again relentless climb but in good spirits no headache and hungry, hot noodle soup & plate of hot beans veg & what looked like black & white pudding, didn’t asked just shovelled it down, damned tasty.
I got a call out to Sharon on the satellite phone to reassure her I’d arrived safe and well and in great form, I could tell by her voice she was relieved, not as much as I was..lol. It’s strange on this expedition, unlike others it’s different calling Sharon, hearing her voice & kids also leaves a lump in my throat …different but in a good way I still miss them as crazy as hell but I know I have to stay so focused on the job ahead & keep the positivity strong and they are helping. Sharon’s just unreal strong and I could have a better absent wing man, without her, it would be so much more harder.
I’m in my tent here now at ABC it’s 5pm on the and its probably -10 and the wind it just crazy hard I feel as if my tents just about to be ripped of the side of the mountain and I’m going to land in the glacier below.
There’s a guy beside me – Mike an American, in the next tent and he’s coughing so hard due to the altitude that he’s coughing up fresh blood from his lungs it sounds so Painful & his Sherpa Pemba is with him making sure he what, doesn’t cough a lung up, cause Jesus it sounds terrible bad. In a way I’m somewhat glad for a change its not me, as I’ve had a belly full of sickness. Ok in the last 10 mins writing this blog the winds have turned to proper gale force, the expedition tents are specially built for this type of conditions & worse.
Keep you updated.
Jason