I made it to Camp 3 at 1:00 PM after leaving camp at 6:30 AM—just over two miles of climbing and a grueling 2,700 vertical feet, topping out at 23,000 ft on the Lhotse Face. Thank God for bottled oxygen. I started with a flow rate of ½ liter per hour and gradually increased it to 2 liters as we climbed.
Camp 3 is literally carved into the side of the mountain. It’s dangerously exposed, so you can’t go outside without being clipped into a rope. As soon as I arrived, I got to work rearranging the inside of the tent to lay out our sleeping pads along the slope of the grade. My tentmate, Matt, helped shift everything 90 degrees, and that made a huge difference in comfort.
Matt’s an interesting guy—he has a Ph.D. in Governmental Leadership, but also took a civil engineering grading class back in architecture school. Handy knowledge to have up here.
The weather today is perfect—sunny, calm, and surprisingly warm. We’ve been watching dozens of climbers descending from Camp 4. If all goes well, we’ll be up early tomorrow aiming to reach C4 before lunch, just like today.
I’m feeling strong and well-rested. Wake-up is set for 3:30 AM, with breakfast at 4:30 AM and begin the second half of the Lhotse Face. It’s a long, steep climb over snow, ice, and rock, and should take about six hours. We aim to reach Camp 4 by lunchtime.
From there, it’s all about recovery. I’ll drink four liters of electrolytes, stay bundled in my sleeping bag, and try to conserve energy.
At 10:00 PM, we begin our SUMMIT PUSH. The climb will be long and brutally cold (-30°F), and it’s tough to eat or drink once we’re moving.
If all goes well, we’ll reach the summit sometime between 8:00 and 10:00 AM on TUESDAY, take photos, raise the Hopecam flag, and then descend back to Camp 4 (hopefully by 3:00 PM). I’ll send a text once I’m safely back at Camp 4.
Thanks for following along on this journey.