Bianca's Everest Climb

Standing on the summit of Everest, the main thing I could think about was coming down. I had only reached halfway (even less than halfway actually!). I had so far to go, including the tricky rocks that start almost immediately from the summit. I hugged Kris goodbye, who left as I was taking photos. It’s really special sharing the most significant life moments with good friends. I then headed down not long after.

It was too cold to just sit on the summit and appreciate the (non-existent) view, or to have a proper rest. I still hadn’t drunk or eaten since the balcony. Just off the summit Pemba changed my oxygen bottle, and I changed into some finger gloves, instead of mittens. I did this because I could not grab the rope tightly with the big mitts, and I would feel very nervous in the steep sections where this is crucial. My hands were okay, but I wasn’t sure if I was making a bad decision to change at the summit, when it was still very cold, and would be for many more hours. I knew I could change into the big mitts again at the South Summit (after the technical descent) if I needed. Due to the huge number of people I knew would be attempting the summit on the same day as me (20th of May), Dad had told me that I needed to get back to the South Summit before the long lines of people. We are all mostly on the same rope, ascending and descending. So it was important that I didn’t have to descend those trickier rocks, at the same time as others were climbing up.

Coming down the Hilary Step was technically easier than I had expected, after coming up it. However I would make fast movements climbing down, and instantly get very very out of breath, and needed to stop. It was easier to go accidentally too quick for what my breathing could handle, on the way down than going up.

Just as we were coming to the South Summit, I saw Regine and Jakob who were also in our group! Regine and I were chilling together at camp 3 (7100m), looking up at the huge mountain that we still had to go up. We were talking about how badly we wanted to summit, but also how nervous we were. At 8750m on my way down, and her way up, she gave me the hugest hug! She summited a couple of hours later!

At the South Summit, we climbed up the 8m section, and finally I could relax a tiny tiny bit, as I had passed the tricky section before all of the groups arrived. I didn’t need to rush anymore. Finally I could see some groups coming up. The lines were HUGE, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have left early and have had done the summit before the rest. Despite the lighter gloves, my fingers were doing great!

For those who don’t know, we are all wearing harnesses, with 3 ropes the length of our arm, coming off. 1 has a jumar attached (this bites onto the rope and slides up not down. This is how we ascend the rope), the other 2 ropes have carabiners that are for in case the jumar malfunctions (this is called a safety rope). It also allows us to have at least 1 point of contact with the fixed rope. Coming down, we don’t use the jumar, just the safety ropes. There is a special method to descend using the safety, called a Sherpa rappel – it is much quicker than a rappel, and multiple people can go at once. Through some sections of the icefall, it is too steep for this so I prefer to rappel/abseil normally.

Since we always want to be clipped to the fixed ropes, but people are coming up them, we need to clip around them, one carabiner/safety rope at a time so that we are always connected. It honestly is so annoying – even though it sounds like the most minuscule effort, doing it so many times after climbing for 10 hours at 8000m+ with almost no food or water, it is hard! But many accidents happen in that 1 second that people unclip, so it was worth the extra effort.

Coming down, I saw Emma!!! She’s so strong, and such a lovely person and I was so happy to see her doing well up there! I also saw Oliver! He’s from Australia, and was going for the record for the fastest time from sea level to the top of the world! He said something along the lines of “Yeah the Aussies!”, through his muffled voice. I know I’m talking a lot about other people, but its truly so special running into people who you have followed their journey training, and seen on the mountain. You know how much these people deserve to summit, and it was so special to hug them, knowing they would make it from this point onwards. We’re all struggling up there, but its nice to forget about it for a split second and enjoy those small moments.

Nearing the Balcony, Pemba, Ngudu and I were quite tired. We hadn’t rested since the Balcony on the way up (and kind of the summit). There was a small flat section and we plonked down. We were very tired. I went to get my bottle of water that was on the inside of my jacket, close to my chest. This was the warmest place I could put it, but it was frozen solid. I was sooooo thirsty but I was too tired to be mad. Luckily Pemba had a thermos of hot water! I was so grateful for that!

Finally the sun started to rise! Whether its on the way up, on the summit, or on the way down, I’m sure the sunrise is one of the highlights for many people. Pemba, Ngudu and I were lying on the snow, exhausted, icicles on our eyelashes, and all of our gear. This was one of the most special moments of my life. I could see the curvature of the Earth, something I had long dreamed of seeing. I could see into Tibet on my right, and on my left, many mountains in Nepal. Including Ama Dablam which I had climb 1.5 years ago. At almost 7000m I could barely see it because it looked so small! In this moment I was so tired, I still had a while to go, but sitting there, I felt so content. For a moment, I could appreciate the sunrise, without worrying about the rest of the day. I knew I wasn’t going to be exactly there for a long while, so I took it all in.

With the sun rising, I had to put on my sunglasses. I had been climbing with goggles, but I prefer sunglasses for when it is sunny and goggles for night climbing. Keeping sunglasses off in the daytime in the high mountains, for even just 15-30 minutes can bring on snow blindness – where you go temporarily almost fully blind. It can be the difference between the descent taking 6 or 20 hours.

I had some more water and we set off again. As soon as I began to walk, my legs went back to that same exhausted state. The only thing I can remotely relate it to, is how my legs feel after a hard sprint, where you can feel the build up of lactic acid in them. I just tried to go slow and breath very heavily, to maximise the (very little) oxygen getting to my legs.

Finally, we arrived at the Balcony! Pemba, Ngudu and I plonked back down on the snow – as if we hadn’t just rested only an hour ago. I was so tired. I was too tired to eat a gel, and the three of us just laid there on the snow for 10 minutes or so. Pemba then changed my oxygen bottle into the half empty one I had used on the way up to the Balcony. (don’t ask how everyone’s bottles don’t get mixed up and how people don’t end up stealing others’ oxygen, because I have no clue!)

We continued on… Even recounting these memories of the descent is giving me flashbacks. I was so tired, and I had so far to go! My legs were jelly. I was so uncomfortable because my sunglasses kept fogging up – probably because my face was significantly warmer than the outside air. With the sun out, I was getting warm and could not easily do anything about it. I was still thirsty, I hadn’t eaten since the Balcony on the ascent, and I hadn’t slept more than 30 mins in 29 hours (so far).

We got off the Triangular face onto the “flatter” section. Pemba and I’s legs were soooo tired, so we stopped again. I’m not sure if I was walking too fast, and my leg muscles couldn’t keep up – but they were so dead.

**More TMI** – I had not been to the toilet in a long time. I really needed to go (number 2 :), but I was soooooo tired. We slowly arrived in camp 4, and all I wanted to do was lie down. The tent we had left from and left our sleeping bags and other unnecessary gear in, was taken. I was too tired to care. Pemba and I found an empty tent and he crawled in. I took my crampons and harness off, and then walked about 5m off the side of one of the tents and went to the toilet. I had to keep my pack on, (to stay attached to the oxygen bottle) and unzip the butt zip on my down suit. There’s no privacy as camp 4 is just a flat area with tents. We have to use “wag bags” to poop in and carry it down. It is a truly humbling experience: pooping in a bag whilst many people can see you. I saw a lot of people going to the toilet so we’re all even! – with my goggles and oxygen mask, it would’ve been hard to recognise my face anyways! People often ask if I get frostbite from going to the toilet up there, but its not long enough (or often cold enough) that we are exposed like this. Last year when it was really windy, I had to use the wag bag inside of the tent. Also very humbling. I share ALL about the expedition! 😄

It was such an effort to go to the toilet, but I stood up and stumbled back to my tent. I looked around at other tents, and seeing people’s lifeless legs poking out of their tents, with the zip doors still wide open, it looked as though they were bodies. They were just very tired people! I recognised Pemba’s legs, and crawled into that tent. I took my pack off, keeping it close to my head as the oxygen bottle was in it. I was SO tired. There was nothing in this tent, apart from Pemba and I’s packs that we had brought to the summit. Ngudu was in another tent.

I laid in the tent, before I decided I needed to start preparing for the way down. We didn’t have enough oxygen to stay in camp 4 for another night, so no matter how long it would take, we had to move to at least camp 3. My phone and satellite tracker/messenger had died from the cold but I remembered that I brought a small battery so I plugged my tracker in first. Even from just sitting upright from lying down, I needed to catch my breath. I knew this was due to the lack of food and water. My bottle was still frozen, and so were most of my gels. I had a few that had thawed, and I force fed myself as much as I physically could.

This is not a place where you listen to your body’s signals (unless very severe of course). It is not a place where humans are meant to be, so our bodies lose hunger signals, and we just want to sleep and sleep forever. We just need to do what we know is the right thing.

Once my phone and the tracker had some battety, I texted my mum and dad. They kept asking me so many questions via text, and I was way too tired to type. I just let them know I was okay, and in camp 4.

Mum kept sending me satellite messages about how many media channels were talking about me, and how many people were doing interviews about me. But I still had so far to go, and I was far from being in a safe position. I myself couldn’t celebrate the fact that I had summited, in fact, I had barely even thought about it. I was so grateful for all of the support from back home and all around the world, but I felt like I had the hardest part to go still, and everyone thought I was done.

I then rested for a long time, I’m not sure if I slept much, but it was nice to lie down. Although it didn’t feel long, from looking at the timing of videos I arrived at camp 4 at 6:30am, and I woke up at 11am!! When I woke up, Pemba was gone (he was just in another tent with his gear that he had left in c4). I felt better than when we had arrived, but still exhausted. I wasn’t going to get any better, as we were still in the death zone, and our bodies were slowly deteriorating. I rested some more, and woke up to someone hitting my foot in my boot (that was still lying outside of the tent). Other climbers had just arrived back to camp 4, and all the tents were taken so they asked me to get out. It was fair, since I had rested for a few hours, and I knew exactly how they felt. But I still didn’t feel much better.

I gathered the gels I had eaten, my still frozen water bottle, my phone, battery, and garmin device. I put my pack on and headed out of the tent. I found Pemba, and we now just had to sit outside. It wasn’t too cold, but pretty uncomfortable and awkward just sitting on a rock – as is everything at 8000m. Ngudu had made some water (melted snow) and I could drink a bit. I ate more gels, and all I could think was: “how the hell am I going to get down this”. We packed our bags up with the gear from our tent, and put our crampons and harnesses back on. I was soooo tired and dreading the descent so much. Right before we left, I saw Kia, a great friend who was in our dining tent at base camp! I also saw River who was about to become the first Afghan woman to summit Everest!!! She lives in Melbourne too! And…I saw Regine just as she was arriving back in camp 4, it was so nice to mutually know that we had both summited, even if we couldn’t really talk.

As soon as we started moving, I felt surprisingly much better. We moved slow and steady, and I didn’t feel like a needed a break too often. Carbohydrates are magical! We came down the steep and rocky Geneva Spur, and towards Lhotse camp 4. We rested near one of those tents, and I had a caffeine lolly, which woke me up more than the long nap and other non-caffeinated gels. I then recognised Kristen’s Sherpa (Mingtemba), further down the steep Lhotse face I spotted Kristen!!! I was so incredibly happy to see her! She feels like family to me, and at a point where I was going through so many emotions, it was lovely to see someone I knew. She was climbing with no oxygen, from camp 3 to Lhotse camp 4. She gave me the biggest hug, and checked if I was wearing sunscreen (I was!). She’s really like my super cool mountain aunty! We obviously couldn’t chat for long but seeing her gave me so much motivation.

We were well on the steep Lhotse face, and were “Sherpa rappelling” down. Ngudu had gone ahead, but Pemba and I would rest every second or third rope length (each is 50m). I should also mention how hot it was! Similar to the ascent of the Lhotse Face, coming down with the sun beaming down on us, made it very very unpleasantly warm. I had unzipped the zippers down the side of my legs, (exposing my leggings underneath), opened my armpit zips, and opened the jacket as much as I could. I still had to keep my gloves on as I had to grip the rope tightly, and I couldn’t take my jacket off, since it was too steep and we would risk dropping something. At least my glasses weren’t fogging up anymore!

My legs were still turning to jelly, but not quite as bad as up high. We were still in the death zone. Finally after a couple of hours, we reached camp 3. I was so happy to be there! Pemba and I found some tents to sit by, and some kind people gave us some water. I had more gels, and caffeine lollies and we sat there for quite a while. I could feel the lower altitude, and how much nicer it felt to breathe. Even though we were still at 7100m! We still had a long way to go, but we were at a safe altitude and I didn’t need to rely on the oxygen anymore, but I had some left so I could turn it up! After about 30 minutes spent resting in camp 3, I messaged Dad that we would be in camp 2 that night, then we headed off.

We were still on the steep face, but we could move much faster. After about 40 minutes of descending, we ended the Lhotse face descent with the very steep bergschrund. This brought us to the almost flat Western Cwm. At the bottom of the Lhotse face, there was a man who was descending, and had what seemed to be severe HAPE. He couldn’t speak English well, and I’m not sure where his Sherpa guide had gone, but Pemba gave him his oxygen bottle as he went to camp 2. We were close to camp 2, and made sure this man had help and oxygen.

We could now walk quite fast, without stopping. Pemba was talking on the radio quite a bit, which was weird since we had no problems. About 5 minutes later, man who worked in the cook tent in camp 2 came walking up with a small backpack full of coke bottles! I was SO happy! I had actually gone ahead of Pemba as he was with a friend of his, (who happened to be climbing down too) so I just stopped alone on the slope. It was very safe (if you stay on the path), in fact there were no ropes at all here.

This was an absolute highlight of the entire expedition. Lying on the snow, drinking a much deserved coke, and finally letting the summit feeling soak in. It was warm, my legs were drained, but we had done the hardest part, and I had climbed Everest. I looked out at the view in front of me, where we still had to go tomorrow, and behind me, what we had just climbed down. I was so grateful to be in a place as special as this, with so much beauty, yet so much suffering. I didn’t know when I would be back, but I knew I would.

After about 15 minutes of me lying there, I realised I actually had to walk to camp 2 in order to be there :)). And Dad was there! I set back off, Pemba was chatting away with his friends – he needs a rest too! Finally, I arrived back to camp 2 at about 6:30pm. This was 24 hours after we had left for our summit bid from camp 4. Dad had walked up to the end of the camp, about 10 minutes away from ours, to meet me. I was sooooo happy to see him! At the same time, I didn’t feel like my safety was at a huge risk (it still was, but it didn’t feel like it) as long as I felt in control of myself. So it wasn’t as emotional as many may think. I also was still dreading the further descent!

It felt soooooo good to arrive in camp 2 – it was about 5:40pm. I saw Louise, (the super cool doctor) and she made me a tea and the three of us chatted in the dining tent. I hadn’t noticed on the descent too much, but my eyes were very sore from the wind blowing in them in the night as we were approaching the summit – so Louise put so drops in :)). Kris who I was on the summit with, was also in camp 2!!! We got given dinner, but I wasn’t really hungry. Even though I had pretty much eaten nothing in the past 24h and had been climbing for almost that whole time, it really messed with my body and I did not feel like eating. Dad had set up my mat and sleeping bag, and I laid down in my tent. I managed to get my boots off, and crawled right into my sleeping bag, without taking anything off because I was too zonked.

The day had been so long that I had forgotten that I had summited! I still didn’t want to celebrate because I had arguably the most dangerous part of the climb to go: the Khumbu Icefall. As much as I wanted (and needed) to sleep for a million hours after summiting that morning, Dad and I had to set our alarms for 3am – so that we could leave by 4am to hit the dangerous Icefall before the sun hit.

… I fell asleep before I could have another exhausting thought. This now 44 hours since I had slept more than 30 minutes properly. Wow. But I only could get 5 hours of sleep before we got up again! We chatted with friends at camp 2 until quite late!

Sorry it’s taken me so long to write/finish this blog!

I woke up from camp 4, along with Pemba and Ngudu. It was starting to get colder so I put all of my layers back on. We then had to make more water, and eat a shared dehydrated meal.

I organised my gear and checked off things from my list. Up there, we are tired and with the low oxygen levels, it’s easy to forget key items – like sunglasses – that may seem less obvious when we are leaving at sunset. I put my electric socks on, ate an energy gel, activated my hand warmers, and triple checked I hadn’t forgotten anything.

Finally, it was time to leave! I put my boots on from inside the tent, then awkwardly crawled out with my pack, as I had to stay attached to my oxygen bottle. I quickly unzipped my rainbow zip (butt zip) and went to pee very close to the tent, to avoid getting tired walking too far. Nobody cares at all up there about things like privacy! I geared up, checked my oxygen flow rate again (to ensure I hadn’t bumped the regulator into a higher or lower flow, which could cause major problems) and Pemba, Ngudu and I set off. I was very happy to see not many other people, just 10 or so, heading off in front of us.

We set off, walking slow and steady. The start is a pretty tame gradient for about 30 ish minutes (I think?), before getting quite steep on the Triangular Face.

It’s a weird lot of emotions that I felt at this moment. Knowing that the next 15 or so hours will be some of the hardest in my life, and will change my life – positively or negatively – forever. This one day is so different to the rest of the climb. It is so much mentally and physically harder, more intense, and more dangerous than any of the other climbing days – by a long way. Accidents to do with hypoxia, frostbite, people falling from forgetting to clip into the rope (due to exhaustion) all happen on this day.

All of this was going through my head before leaving, and as I was walking out of camp. It’s emotions unlike anything I’ve experienced elsewhere, but after an hour or so, I realised that whilst it is easy for something awful to happen, it is in my control to keep myself safe and prevent accidents. I was going to go and give this summit night my best shot, so I might as well enjoy it. And I did! The sun was still out when we left camp, but slowly set down over Mt Makalu (5th highest peak that I now have my eyes set on) and other surrounding peaks. As we would be climbing all through the night, to preserve battery, all climbers waited until the last moment before we turned on our head torches.

Pemba, Ngudu and I overtook a few people, until we were the second group that we could see (more were further ahead). It’s very hard to pass people at this altitude as we are all going slowly, some just less slow than others. Some people are going at 5 steps a minute, and if I’m going at 10 steps a minute, it still takes me a lot of effort in order to overtake.

Climbing up the Triangular Face is steep, and even a bit rocky at sections. It’s hard mentally because you have sooooo long ahead, but I just focused on getting to the Balcony. I find it easier with it being pitch black, so you can’t see what’s ahead :). I felt physically pretty good, and it was nice to be some of the first people on the mountain that day (night). We stayed in the rhythm of those in front of us, and even though they were going at a slightly slower pace, it wasn’t slow enough for me to be able to pass with ease – and there was no point in pushing too far ahead.

I was also singing the song “Angels” by Robbie Williams (don’t ask why I chose this song) in my head over and over hahahaha

The bottled oxygen is extremely dry and makes you extremely thirsty. Even though it’s -20 to -30°C outside, all I wanted was an ice cold sprite, coke or beer (I normally hate beer). After speaking to friends afterwards I’m glad to know that others also had the exact same extreme thirst!

After a few hours of steep climbing, we finally reached the balcony. I sat down on the flat-ish snow and immediately took out my 500ml Nalgene of water and tried my best not to chug it all. It was ice-cold and just what I wanted. I had brought 1.5L for the whole night and day above Camp 4, and I knew I would only get more thirsty, so I had to save it. This thirst is so funny looking back on it (at the time it definitely wasn’t), and other climbing friends told me how they would look around at other people coming up, and they wanted to steal all of their water!! I had similar thoughts too haha. I also had an energy gel (maybe two), and felt so much better.

It was very confusing with my phone having changed to the Beijing time zone, which is 2 hours and 15 minutes ahead of Nepal. I knew I had left at 6:20 p.m. and saw the time on my phone was 12:00 a.m. I was a little disappointed because the time I supposedly took from c4 to the Balcony was the same as I did last year. I didn’t realise at the time, but it was actually 9:30pm, and I was over 2 hours faster than last year! Pemba changed my oxygen bottle, and we left the partially full one that I had been using, at the Balcony, for me to use on my way down.

The three of us continued on, getting ahead of the other group who were at the Balcony. We now were walking on a ridge – on my right side the mountain dropped into Tibet, and on my left it dropped into Nepal. It was also much more exposed to the wind, but luckily I had my big mittens on. Actually, these were the same mittens my Mum used on her Everest expedition, exactly 20 years ago! These mittens (everyone has very similar ones) are HUGE and it is very hard even to hold the rope tightly with them. Because I had seen my friend the day before with very bad frostbite from similar weather, I was a bit worried about my own hands. Luckily, I stayed very diligent and did not take my big mittens off (even though I had liner gloves and chemical hand warmers underneath) to do any unclipping of my jumar (rope ascender). Pemba, Ngudu and I were now almost on our own, without a view of anyone in front or behind us – I loved it so much!

We had now passed the section on which I had turned back, last year. At that time, it was incredibly windy and snow was blowing so much that I didn’t have any idea what I was walking on. Even though it was pitch black (around 11pm by now), I could see that we were on a nice ridge.

We finally arrived at the “rocks” that my mum had told me about. Its surprisingly technical, seeing as it is not an iconic part of summit day. Anything technical becomes 1000x harder above 8000m. Big step ups, or sudden quick movements due to unstable footing become exhausting, and we needed to move quite slow.

After this section we continued on the snowy slope, that became increasingly steep as we approached the South Summit. I was soooooooooooo thirsty by then and was really looking forward to that delicious sip of water, when we would have a break at the South Summit. This would be our last rest before the summit. Before the South Summit is actually a short descent only about 8m or so, which felt weird to do on our way up. However…. when we got to the South Summit, the wind picked up a lot! So we could not stop to rest, or drink. I was soooo thirsty and fully expecting a little bit of hydration, and I was so sad to not have the rest I was so mentally prepared for – it had been about 3.5 hours (I think) since our last rest.

But now we were on the last stretch to the summit! It was still extremely dark, I had no idea what time it was, but I knew we only had about 140 vertical metres to the top. And I knew I would make it!

As you can see, it is quite rocky. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but there was quite a bit of up and down here. The footwork definitely needed a lot more concentration than the other sections. Honestly, after seeing so many photos like this one, I thought I knew exactly what it would look like, but it was a little harder than I thought! We caught up to some people that were ahead (that we couldn’t see from the start), and I could see the team ahead of me (because people were lit up by others’ head torches) were doing some big movements climbing up the steep rocks. I did get nervous for when I would reach that section, but I remembered to just focus on myself.

The climbing was okay, it was just the altitude that makes it astronomically harder. I climbed up a steep part, and I got very out of breath and needed to stop at the top. However when we did, I looked down and I saw a body to my left. It was a pretty horrible feeling, when in that moment I was tired, and was trying to control my breathing – seeing this, honestly stressed me out, and evoked many emotions. Even though I was climbing well, it was a real reminder of how dangerous the mountain is. On the other hand, after seeing similar awful things last year, I am content that I am not desensitised to this harsh reality of the mountain. And that I was physically feeling ok enough to experience these emotions, and not too exhausted to care.

Later I realised that this was the Hilary Step – a famous section of Everest. It’s not as difficult as it used to be, due to most of it collapsing in the Earthquake in 2015, but it was still rocky scrambling – which is hard at 8800m.

Finally we passed the rocks! Pemba said through his muffled oxygen mask: “now its easy to the top”

It had been windy since the South Summit, but now it REALLY picked up. Mum had told me it was forcasted to be strong gusts, but not continous wind. These were some very long gusts! We had caught up to the people in front of us, and all of us had to stop and crouch into the mountain because the wind was insanely strong. I was nervous about the summit, because of course there is nothing higher to shelter us from the weather. Whilst crouching, I looked behind me and, crouching with us, I recognised my good friend Kris!!! (who I had climbed from camp 3-4 with!) Most of us look like yellow/orange/red blobs, but I remembered his down suit and his Sherpa’s down suit – so I was pretty sure! I was so so happy in that moment, to see someone I had spent a long time in base camp with and on the mountain. Even though I had no family with me, Kris felt like real family in that moment.

I fist bumped Kris, and we continued on once the wind lowered down a bit. Only 10 minutes later…

WE REACHED THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT EVEREST!!!

I first hugged Pemba and Ngudu, and thanked them. Everyone finds it very tough up there, Sherpa or not, and its a real accomplishment for everyone. I hugged Kris too! It is a bit of an emotional moment, knowing that you are the highest person in the world. I thought about all of the training I had done, all of the people supporting me (and following my tracker), and I thought of 11 year old Bianca who knew she’d climb Everest one day.

Luckily the wind died down, so it felt okay to take some photos. We waited for the team above us to take theirs – it was funny because we recognised right there on the summit that we were following each other on Instagram! (we later spoke properly in Kathmandu). Whilst we were waiting, I was able to radio to Dad who was in camp 2! Honestly I was feeling pretty good physically (whilst standing still!), and felt in good control of my body and actions. On the radio call (that Dad videoed), I am not super responsive – this is because I had my big mittens on and it was Pemba who was pressing the button on the radio to talk, and we were about 1.5m apart (its not a flat summit!). As good as it felt to be on top, I could mainly just think about the way down.

I took some photos with some flags, and made a couple videos. This was the first time I took my big gloves off. I was very diligent with keeping the mittens on (as much as I dislike them, because its so hard to do anything in them), and that was a huge factor as to why I didn’t get any frostbite or frostnip. Even though, I climbed through all hours of the night, when it was coldest. I checked my phone for the time when I took some pics, and it said 4:30am – weird because it was pitch black, and the sun should’ve started to rise by then. Later I realised it was 2:20am!! (I had forgotten again about being in Beijing time zone).

I was nervous about the descent, because I knew that most of the accidents above camp 4 happen on the descent. This only made me more cautious which was a great thing!

I’ll do another post for the descent from the summit!

Hi everyone, Just a quick note here to let you know that Bianca is SAFE. She and Paul came down from Camp 2 and through the icefall yesterday morning. It was so great to give them both a HUGE hug.

Now that Bianca is down safely, we can finally say, she really made it! (And I can breathe out!)

Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind actually, as not long after they came down through the icefall, we managed to organise flights back to Kathmandu. So we scrambled to pack up all of our stuff, Bianca did a couple of quick interviews, we said our goodbyes, and then left.

In Kathmandu, we checked into our hotel and also caught up with a few climbers from the same group. It was sooo nice to sleep in a real bed and have a shower – and I haven’t even been away for nearly as long as Bianca or Paul.

Today also ended up really busy as Bianca was in demand for media interviews!

But in case anyone here hasn’t seen on the media or her Instagram, she is definitely down and safe. She is very tired and has a bit of a cough and blisters on her feet, but otherwise is fine. She’ll post more about her perspective on the climb in the next few days once she has a bit more energy 🙂