Karanga Camp to Barafu Base Camp

Woke up today and noticed there were a couple of messages on my phone. We hadn’t had any connectivity since the beginning, but today we were blessed with a little 3G service, so I texted Grant a late Valentines Day message and heard back from him! This has been the longest we have ever gone without talking to each other so it really lifted my spirits.
In getting ready for the day, I absently took what I intended to be my morning pills- Diamox and chlorophyll but immediately realized that what I had taken were my evening meds, which included a Unisom tablet that I take for sleep. Oops! Not a great move on the morning before summit!
We had a 3 hour hike up to base camp and my butt was dragging. When I look back at my med check from that morning, my heart rate which had been running in the mid seventies was 56. The Unisom was depressing my heart’s ability to pump the way it needed to. So that put me behind the 8 ball for the day. Once at base camp we immediately embarked on an acclimatization hike. It was really killer! It was the first part of the summit climb and it was all steep slippery rocks. I tripped at one time and was just unable to get my breath without stopping every few steps. And all I wanted to do was sleep. After descending we ate lunch and were told to go and rest in preparation for summit.Read more