This was it – the day of our summit attempt. All that we have worked hard for since May 2012 was now a reality. We woke up feeling groggy but ready to go. We all wondered if we could make it to the summit, as the estimated time for the summit attempt would be 8…
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At 0200 hours in the morning, we heard a flurry of muttering in Hindi and the crunching of snow boots on rock – was it time already? We knew we were supposed to wake at 0230 – maybe they were packing/preparing for our summit attempt. All of a sudden, Edwin poked his head into our…
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We had our acclimatisation trek from Camp I (5256m) to Summit Camp (5490m) and back yesterday. We will be moving from Camp I to Summit Camp today. Summit Camp is just below the pass (which we can name) and ridge that we are aiming to climb. Our initial plan was to leave Camp I at…
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Last night was one of the most uncomfortable nights we’ve had in a camp thus far. We did our best to lay flat rocks beneath our tents to make the ground as even as possible, but we could still feel rocks poking against our backs. Needless to say, the sleep was not peaceful, but given…
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I woke up to the sound of “Chai?” with great anticipation. Our porters dutifully served us chai every morning. This served as our wake up call as well. A beautiful morning The initial plan was for us to trek two hours, approximately 2Km, from ABC (5006m) to Camp I (5256m) and back to ABC (5006m).…
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Edwin, Raymond, Wei Zhen and I met with the guides last night to discuss the schedule. We were one day behind schedule as we stayed an extra day at Base Camp to allow Yi Qian to acclimatise. That extra day did him good as he was feeling a lot of better after that. All of…
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A full day of rest yesterday precedes our movement up to Advanced Base Camp (5006m). The ABC is just 100m (in altitude) away from the Intermediate Camp where we left our equipment. Compared to the previous trip, the climb up to IC today was a breeze. We took just one hour and thirty minutes, which…
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As we all know by now, Yi Qian had Diamox the night before. As a result, he was peeing non-stop throughout the night. Non-stop is an exaggeration, but yeah, you know what I mean. Thankfully, Yi Qian woke up with a minor headache and his Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) was largely cured. It was great…
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Like little hatchlings leaving the comfort of our nest for the first time, today was the day that we left the relative comfort of our Base Camp and began our first cycle of acclimatization; a trip to Intermediate Camp (4898m) and back. Rise and shine Javier Samuel packing his stuff Yi Qian placing his technical…
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This was our second day in Base Camp. It was a rest day for us to acclimatize as we had ascended very quickly over the past 3 days with no rest days at all. There was no wake up call today! Most of us enjoyed a good 12 hours of sleep. Some of us had…
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The day started a little earlier than the last, By 0600 hours, most of us were already awake. After a good meal of pancakes and cereal, we went back to do some last minute packing. When we were finally ready to set off, Anil led us out of Batal and we headed for Base Camp…
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The first night sleeping outdoors was peaceful. We woke up to a bright and sunny morning. Today, our objective was to pack everything up and move to another camp just before the base camp. We took a two hour jeep ride to Batal, put down our stuff and left for an acclimatization walk at a…
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We woke up at 0400 hours and headed to the lobby with our belongings. The vehicles arrived shortly and we loaded our equipment onto the roofs of the vehicles. We were excited and reluctant at the same time. Excited because this marked the commencement of our expedition; reluctant because we had to leave behind the…
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It’s our second day at Manali and we were housed at a supposedly luxurious hotel that costs USD 400 per night (EDIT by Samuel: It’s a package for 3 nights). Of course, we did not pay that much money to stay there, as our India counterparts are able to get a discounted price, as they…
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Chandigarh is a crowded and highly polluted city. We were all looking forward to going to Manali for the fresh air and cool weather. We departed at 0900 hours from the hotel and took the same old route to Manali. We passed familiar landmarks en route and the journey seemed to be a lot shorter…
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Today we embark on our journey. We journey to India from Singapore. We met at Changi Airport at 0630 hours. After checking in, we were pleasantly surprised by Provost’s appearance at the airport. He specially went down to send us off and wish us a safe journey. We took a picture with our expedition banner,…
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