Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Outline Schedule

The weather can play havoc with any plans, we have plenty of reserve days set aside to try and cover this but have to be very flexible.  We were ahead of schedule last year until the weather grounded us at base camp for two weeks and patience can be severely tested, especially as you need to save all your strength for the summit attempt.   


In 69 days there will only be around 26 "active" days.  The body doesn't recover very well above 5000m and begins to feed off itself so those rest and acclimatisation days are very improtant.  There are lots of tough long days, even before you factor in the weather, and on summit day alone you can burn around 15,000 calories and it is difficult to ingest more than a couple of thousand up there.

The outline of our itinerary is below (and now added to the route page):

Date
Day

2 Apr
1
Depart Heathrow
3 Apr
2
Arrive Kathmandu
4 Apr
3
Fly to Lukla (2800m); trek to Phakding (2640m)
5 Apr
4
Trek to Namche Bazaar (3446m)
6 Apr
5
Acclimatisation day
7 Apr
6
Trek to Pangboche (4000m)
8 Apr
7
Trek to Dingboche (4500m)
9 Apr
8
Trek to Ama Dablam base camp (4750m)
10 Apr
9
Trek to Namche Bazaar (3446m)
11 Apr
10
Trek to Lukla
12 Apr
11
Fly to Kathmandu
13 Apr
12
Drive to Chinese border; overnight in Tibet
14 Apr
13
Drive to Everest Base Camp (BC; 5200m)
15 Apr
14
Rest day
16 Apr
15
Acclimatisation walk up Frozen River (5700m)
17 Apr
16
Rest day
18 Apr
17
Acclimatisation Ridge walk (6000m)
19 Apr
18
Rest day
20 Apr
19
Move to Intermediate Camp (5700m)
21 Apr
20
Move to Advanced Base Camp (ABC; 6400m)
22-24 Apr
21-23
Rest and acclimatisation
25 Apr
24
Climb North Col (7000m)
26-29 Apr
25-28
North Col reserve weather day
30 Apr
29
Return to BC
1-4 May
29-33
Rest days
5 May
34
Return to ABC
6 May
35
Climb North Col and overnight at North Col
7 May
36
Move to 7500m; overnight at North Col
8 May
37
Return to ABC
9 May
38
Return to BC
10-13 May
39-42
Rest days
14 May
43
Return to ABC
15 May
44
Rest day
16 May
45
Move to North Col
17 May
46
Move to 7800m
18 May
47
Move to 8300m
19 May
48
Summit day
20-30 May
49-59
Reserve Summit days
31 May
60
Descent
1 Jun
61
Clear mountain
2 Jun
62
Clear mountain
3 Jun
63
Clear ABC
4 Jun
64
Return to BC
5 Jun
65
Clear BC
6 Jun
66
Drive to Nylam
7 Jun
67
Drive to Kathmandu
8 Jun
68
Kathmandu
9 Jun
69
Return to London

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