Day 5

Day 5 is over. It was a tough day but a fantastic one. Adjectives such as incredible, awesome, magnificent are flying around camp! A couple of people are suffering (see below) but we are all still standing and all 16 of us should be in a good enough condition to attempt the summit tomorrow night.

Day 4 night was cold and it rained in the night as well as quite windy. Allyson's tightness across her face and hands did not improve so we were monitoring this very closely. Also antonio's blood oxygen level fell to a low reading of 75% (should be mid 80's) and he developed a headache and temperature. A number of the group were also quite anxious at the prospect of climbing the pretty sheer looking 500m high barranco wall.

Day 5 dawned to another stunning blue sky morning. Antonio and I struggled with sleep again but we did manage to get some. At breakfast antonio's and allyson's condition had both improved and they felt much better.

We set off and set about this Goliath of a wall some 1,700 feet high. Now I as well as many in the group get vertigo so you can understand that we were a little nervous. Lisa in particular was on edge.

But we loved it. Every one of us. The young members of the team in dan radley (who is doing great) and mike Wilesmith (equally so) leapt up like mountain goats. Jumping over 4 gaps with pretty much nothing below is not something that any of us would normally be that comfortable with - but we did it and we loved it. Perhaps the most telling comment was from Andrew black (who is also doing great) who simply said "I just didn't know that I could do something like that". And that's really what this massive adventure is all about - scaling new heights both literally and within one's self.

After the barranco wall we then undulate up and down for a couple of hours and finally scaled a monster hill to enter camp.

At camp everyone is well. To help Allyson and Antonio acclimatise a little better the team leader has prescribed a small dose of diamox which should help. Both however remain strong and are walking and climbing well.

Well tomorrow is a massive day. We get up very early and climb another 2,000 feet to base camp. Arriving mid afternoon we then rest before we make our summit bid from 11pm through the night until around 9 in the morning.

All of us should be good enough to start which is a fantastic achievement in itself. I do not know when the next signal will be so please bear with us if we cannot update you until after we gave tried to summit.

Wish us luck!!

Sent from Nigel Payne's iPhone