Larke Pass, 5130m

We woke up at 3am, ate breakfast (somehow) and set off with crampons and torches at 4am for the big push up to the top of the pass. The first couple of hours were in the dark and we could hardly see a thing. Beautiful as the light started to appear and our water bladders gradually froze despite our best efforts to keep them liquid.

The first few hours went without too many problems but it got harder and harder as we got higher. We did 700m ascent and as we got closer to 5000m every step became harder - like walking through treacle. We'd stopped trying to have conversations while trekking several days ago but at this point we were stopping every 20 paces to breathe and encourage each other to the next boulder / post.

A sense of achievement partly eclipsed by exhaustion when we finally got to the top, by 9.30am (as we commented, some days we haven't even got out of bed by then).Read more