Fi Ramsden

After a feast of eggs on toast a la barbeque, Stuart and I set off on the tandem leaving Mark and Beth to struggle with the washing up and the pop-up tents and to stock up on essentials. We pedaled along merrily congratulating ourselves on the dent we had already made in the 120km journey blissfully unaware of the disaster about to unfold.

Early departure

At around 2pm I was granted permission by captain Block to stop stoking in order that I might find a suitable hedge/treestump to hide behind. Seeing a small cafe/fruit stall over the road we crossed over. Just as we rested our bikes against the fence we heard the beeping of horns and screeching of tyres only to witness an accident involving the Landrover and a combi van which resulted in poor Beth and Mark being rolled over, narrowly missing a tree. The truck was on its side and the windscreen was shattered so we couldn’t see in.  As I sprinted over the road and started pulling at the windscreen a number of worse-case ATLS scenarios were whizzing through my mind, most of which were going to require more than tubigrips and a couple of bandaids.  Thankfully Mark, Beth and all of the Combi passengers walked away unscathed. Contained in the back had been my bike which, apart from a slightly bent wheel and a coating of smashed eggs, got off pretty lightly also.

A few cups of tea and a couple of police reports later we found ourselves at the roadside with a 2 bikes and a broken landrover and a ton of gear.  Thankfully help was on its way in the form of Sir Humesy the Gallant, Knight in shining armour, our Northern Irishman in his shiny pea-green Kia.

As luck would have it Humesy, who was making his way towards Mokopane from Johannesburg airport,  was only half an hour away from us when the crash happened.  We piled all our valuables in to the Kia. Mark went with the tow truck to Mokopane.    From the passenger seat of the Kia Beth sprang in to action, calling in favours left right and centre from her blackberry contacts, trying to get hold of a support vehicle to continue onwards through SA and in to Botswana.  They continues towards Mokopane to find a base for us to sleep, regroup and make a plan.

Minor setback!

Stu and I carried on pedalling, both feeling  a little overwhelmed I think, unsure as to how the journey was going to continue from here,  but breathing a sigh of relief that no one was seriously hurt.  So we took our minds off things by discussing the basics of Life support and first aid.

About 25k out of Mokopane we saw the little green car coming back towards us.  Accommodation was sorted for us up ahead, and all kit from the truck had been reassembled. Beth and I swapped over so she could at least get some cycling in.  I completed the journey with Richard (Humesy) in the Kia, trying to ensure that my conversation was lively enough to stop him falling asleep (after all this was not what he’d envisaged for his first day in South Africa having taken the Red-eye London that morning).

The pedalling was meant to help Beth take her mind off the shocker of a day she’d had, but of course as a multi-tasking pro, she had was able to pedal and email her vast network of contacts simultaneously from the back of the tandem. Plans for a rescue operation were already beginning to take shape as they rolled in to the hostel in Mokopane.

Beth and Stuart set off from Irene B&B

Stuart and Beth set off on the tandem whilst Mark and I did a bit of faffing and ironed out some bike issues. I succeeded in making it to Day 3 before becoming affectionately (?) known as “Faff Fi” (ok, ok, point taken, skiing buddies)

Pit-stop

We caught up with them about 50km from Bela-Bela and I was able to continue the journey on my newly fixed bike.

Wing mirror action

Checking out the local bike shop in Bela bela

The South Africans don’t just outstrip the Brits at barbeques. They also know how to camp in style. I was fully expecting to spend most of this trip sleeping in tents at the roadside, babywiping, and peeing in the bushes. Instead we slept in a campsite whose bathroom facilities rivalled those at the Ritz (not that I’ve ever stayed at the Ritz…).  So after a relaxing bath in a marble bathroom we cooked up a feast of tuna mush and got stuck in to the local beer.

Camp

Beer

Well, sorry that the updates have been thus-far non-existent.  Internet access has been hard to come by to say the least, but let me tell you the story so far…..I do hope you are sitting comfortably

Days 0-2: After a relaxing flight in business class courtesy of an oversubscribed service and a marginally tardy check-in on the part of yours truly, I was greeted by Stuart, Mark and Old Cranleighan Steve Braham.  Steve and Sal, with their daughters Tori and Emma and son Jamie, were to be our hosts for the first two nights in Johannesburg. I was absolutely blown away by their kindness and generosity.  Needless to say we stayed up far too late prior to our departure to Pretoria, enjoying a Brai of beef fillet before getting stuck-in at Steve’s bar.

Fresh-faced with Sal, Tori and Emma

Also in Johannesburg we had the pleasure of dinner at home with Nobantu Mbeki, grand-daughter of Thabo. Nobantu is an Economics lecturer at the University of Witswatersrand, with an interest in the project. Stuart was able to ply Nobantu’s husband, Rusanor, with enough booze at dinner to convince him to stoke the tandem from Johannesburg to Pretoria. This was an impressive effort for a man who’d never ridden a bike before!

Stu and Rusanor on the tandem

Me...full of beans...before my bike broke

We were also joined in Joburg by old friend of Stu’s, Beth Passey, aka “Pap”, “Paparazzi”, aka “the Organiser”, (all will be revealed)

So off we set. The group for leg 1 had expanded to include members of the Pirates Rugby Club and some lycra-clad, mountain-biking, south african work colleagues of Beth’s who were able to show us the back-routes to Pretoria. Support vehicles included members of both the Braham and Mbeki clans. Sal came to my rescue when my chain came off, shearing off a spoke and breaking my spirit temporarily until lunch arrived at Irene farm. My derailleur must have been knocked slightly in transit from London. Thankfully the guys at Epic Cycles in Irene were able to save my Biltong by realigning my derailleur and sorting me out with some new spokes.

We had another fantastic brai that evening at Thinus and M Thinus is a surgical registar in Pretoria and an old friend of Stu’s. We slept in a luxurious B&B in Irene run by Sue’s friend Sal. The cold night was no match for the warm blankets and hotties that’s she’d provided for us in our comfy beds when we arrived back form dinner.

On the balcony with Sue at her B&B in Irene (just outside Pretoria)

Rob, Namgil, Lakpa and I reached the summit of Mount Everest at 8.00am on Tuesday 25th May, not far behind our fantastic team-mates Brandon, Kristine, James and the two Riches. It turned out to be quite an epic adventure with two nights at the South Col and one failed attempt on the night of 23rd.  I  will be updating the blog shortly with all the details and pics as soon as I can get my hands on Rob’s camera.  He is trekking out via Lama Geshe’s house who needs to have his elbow drained!

I am now back in Kathmandu with Brandon and Kristine, after taking a chopper from base camp yesterday. We were amongst the last few on the mountain, so we left behind a pretty much deserted base camp.  We are enjoying the poolside, cold beers and decent food and look forward Rum Doodle’s tonight with some of the other climbers.

Well, it’s my birthday, and we are heading up from Pangboche back to base camp, and hoping that next time we’re back here we’ll have something bigger to celebrate than my increasing age.

I got a great card from Charlie with an angel on the front saying “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE”. Very apt! ;-).  If anyone wants to send a text, my mobile is back on!

Birthday cake and wine. Happy Fi

Apparently "anything is possible" even if my knickers are on show

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments.  Sitting it out in pangboche watching DVD’s, scoffing face and waiting for weather window.  Please condiser making a donation to the Kenyan Orphan Project.  I’m still way off my target!!  Link to KOP website is on my homepage and in the right hand column.

Click here to donate safely online:

CLICK ON THIS LOGO TO DONATE TO KOP!!!

Thanks, Fi xxx

I have stopped for the night in Pheriche on our trek down to Pangboche so that I can get some emailing done, and finally post a few snaps from Everest.  I will post more tomorrow from Pangboche which is a further hour’s walk away from here.  Rob and Bonita (from Kenton’s group) have continued on.  James was meant to come with us, but last night something disagreed with him and he turned the colour of dahl bhat before proceeding to be sick out of his tent. ”Better out than in” quote, unquote. He is feeling much better now, 99.9% back to his normal self, but has decided to come down tomorrow instead. (Please don’t worry family Stearns, he’s a tough nut, really.)

I was overjoyed last night to discover that they’ve erected a new antenna in Gorak Shep, which means we have mobile signal at base camp.  All text messages gratefully received!!!

Right, I’m off for some dhal bhat…..

F xx

"Sundog" over Everest. Phenomenon heralding precipitation. Taken 5 days ago from basecamp, impressive example, rarely seen.

Sundog, my tent in foreground

Rob leads the way from Camp 1 to Camp 2

Me about to abseil at the top of the icefall

Blog – May 4^st 2010

It’s been 2 weeks since I wrote my last blog, but it now seems we have the BGAN working.

On 22^nd April we left around 5:30am for Camp 2.  I made much better time through the icefall, arriving at camp1 at around 11am, about 30 minutes behind the others (Brandon, Kristine and James).  A quick nibble on some cheese and crackers and some rehydration there and we set off for camp 2.  Weirdly, the relatively straightforward journey through the Western Cwm, that I had found a breeze a few days earlier, I really struggled with. The GI upset which had reared its ugly head that morning was more than just a minor inconvenience along the way….  Mountain Machine Rob insisted on carrying my pack, as well as his, for part of the way, for which I was extremely grateful, albeit somewhat humiliated.

I was pretty wrecked by the time we got to camp 2.  We were greeted by Victor Saunders’ group who’d arrived a little while ahead of us.  I struggled to have much sensible conversation with anyone until I’d forced down copious amounts of fluid and made myself eat the meal put on by Lakpa, the camp 2 cook. We spent the next day trying to rest, rehydrate and get to grips with the altitude (6300m).

The next day we rested at camp 2, then the day after that we went to touch the Lhotse Face which leads up to camp 3 and to take a closer look at what we were going to have to haul ourselves up the next day.  Three words came to mind…..icy, long and steep.

I was feeling considerably worse than I had done at a similar altitude on Cho Oyu in 2006, and just like on Cho Oyu I’ve had a nasty case of high altitude bronchitis. Stepping in from, or outside in to, the cold or moving about at all set me off in to horrendous coughing fits. I’ve been afraid that I’d separate off ribs as I had done in 2006, which had been excruciating and had almost ended the expedition for me. My poor tent-mate James, not to mention the rest of the camp, were kept awake by the coughing for 5 nights at camp 2.  I was taking everything in my medical kit I could think of but the cough was so bad at the end I was barely sleeping at all and restricted to positioning myself upright at night. This made the trip up to camp 3 interesting.  However I was determined to get there, knowing that this was the only way I could be “ready” for a summit attempt. I was damned if I was going to have to make a second trip though the icefall just so I could touch camp 3.

So we got up early to make our way to camp 3. It was still dark and freezing cold.  We’d all figured that once the sun hit things would warm up, but there was an icy wind and it kept on blowing after the sun rose.  Riches Sr and Jr bailed early whilst James, Brandon, Kritsine, Rob and I persevered.  We had to wait for a while in the shade for some of Victors’ group to get over the overhanging icewall at the bottom of the Lhotse Face.  This was the beginning of the end.  I was cursing myself for leaving my Powertraveller boot warming system at camp, thinking I wouldn’t need them. Rob kept telling me to thump my thighs to get the blood going and to kick my feet hard with every step.  We started to make our way up the steep blue ice at the bottom of the Lhotse Face.  Whatever snow may have been there had been whipped off by the wind so we were toe pointing the whole way.  It was really tiring.  There was no option of stopping, not least because we just had to keep moving to stay warm.  I made the decision to turn round after about an hour on the face.  I wasn’t prepared to accept any more absence of feeling in my toes.  I’ve had frost nip in my big toes before so the sensation is never quite normal there so it was hard to know how cold was too cold but one thing was for sure, they certainly weren’t getting any warmer.  It was like dominoes after that, and the other three guys followed suit.  I felt really bad, because I knew that if I hadn’t turned round the others probably would have carried on.  We returned to camp feeling deflated, but the next day we had another crack at it.

We left slightly later and conditions were much milder with barely a breath of wind. The face was still blue ice most of the way but we were able to take things easier.  I coped well until about the final 100m when I could feel myself running out of steam. This was still a very long way at that altitude. James did his best to encourage me to push on and we all made it to camp 3, with the two Riches following not too far behind.  Again I felt pretty spent, and it took me a good half an hour to recover. Camp 3 on Everest is at a similar altitude to camp 2 on Cho Oyu (7100m) . I can remember finding the last 100metres pretty tough back then also, but then finding it much easier the second time around. I am hoping for something similar when we go to camp 3 prior to our summit push.  From that point on I’ll be on oxygen.

The way down was quick for the most part.  Again, I got tired just on the approach back in to camp 2 and could feel myself beginning to stumble a bit on the moraine .  I dreaded to think what the climb up to 3 had done to my chest which felt pretty raw by this point.  I knew that the only definitive treatment was going to be to get down to base camp, and perhaps beyond, the next day.

The next day Brandon, Kristine, James and I made our way back down to base camp with a spring in our steps.  Rob had left early to look after one of the other clients who was unwell.  The icefall had changed somewhat since we’d been through it 5 days’ earlier.  Some places looked more stable.  Others looked like they were ready to go,  so we wasted no time getting past them.  The other guys said they had never seen me move so swiftly.   I couldn’t wait to get to base camp to get some relatively oxygen-rich air in to my lungs, to wash my hair, and to have a decent nights’ sleep.  I was looking forward to making contact with home too, which I managed the next day from the sat phone.

The last few nights we’ve been in base camp waiting to see what the weather’s been going to do.  We’ve had a couple of nights of heavy snow.  Last night I lost a bet that I could not go a whole day without swearing  when I commentented that the lights in the mess tent weren’t f**king working….  As punishment every other member of the team gets to throw a snowball at me (wearing only undies) from ten yards.

I plan to go down to Pangboche tomorrow to recuperate. I will post some photographs from here. Thankfully my chest is much better. I am taking a cocktail of meds to try to suppress the cough, and have mastered the art of self-administering menthol inhalations out of a Nalgene bottle.  But I suspect I wont be fully recovered until I am back down at sea level in milder temperatures. I am dreaming of picnics in Hyde Park in the sunshine, strawberries and Pimm’s.  Can’t wait.

Bye for now xxx

Hi everyone,

Just spoke with Fi who is back down at base camp after an epic climb up to camp 3.  They had to make two attempts after the first was abandoned due to the severe cold.  She is about to head down to Pangboche for a few days of recovery in preparation for hopefully an early Summit bid.  She sounded great and sends her love to all, although is extremely jealous that I’m off to see Temper Trap tonight!  With any luck she will have internet access at some stage in next few days and she can provide a full update then.

Cheers,

Charlie