Day 5: summit day. In the morning my nausea was worse, and managed just tea for breakfast. At this point I knew I wouldn’t be able to make the peak, so made it my challenge to reach the base camp, Barafu, 4633m. Although the walk here was only 4 hours – again to reach the camp by lunchtime – this was an exceptionally tough 4 hours. The start was almost rock climbing – scrambling up very steep rocks with hands. Being quite short, I needed quite a few pushes to get up some of them! Once the first steep part was done, it was fairly flat until the final steep hurdle to the base camp. Every step was harder for me as I was totally exhausted and still not eating much; I managed a piece of toast with peanut butter on it for snack, and some soup for lunch when we eventually got there. I think this was the only day that I didn’t enjoy myself.

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