Only four or five dwellings, that double as lodges in order to add to an otherwise very meagre subsistence existence, make up Chukung (pictured) at 4743m. This is a godforsaken place with holes in the ground for toilets and no hot water. However, the lodges are clean and the people always ready with a smile. How on earth they manage to be so cheerful in this place is a mystery to me and an example to all the miseries in the cities of the western world bemoaning their situation - they have no idea!We arrived around noon, having left Pheriche at 08.30 in the mist - again! Pete is suffering and pretty ill having picked up a bug from our designated cook (Sucre Sherpa) - who will not be going any further with us and who is quarantined at the end of the building! After a light lunch we got all our climbing gear together and headed out to the nearby hillside for a quick 'crash' course on using the 'gris gris' and other equipment we would need on the ice and snow of the final ascent.
Pete is an already accomplished climber so chose to go to bed to try to get rid of his 'cold'. The rest of us were shown the ropes - quite literally - and then after about an hour of huffing puffing and climbing up and down a steep scree slope the head guide (Singi Sherpa) pronounced himself satisfied with our cack handed efforts and said he thought we would "probably not fall off the mountain"! With this reassurance we all tramped back to the lodge across the swollen river for a cup of lemon tea and to reflect that the next time we had the bits of equipment to use it would be on the mountain and at 5800m!
The rest of the afternoon was spend resting and reading before we had an early meal and turned into the sleeping bags. Tomorrow we would go to 'Attack Camp' at almost 5500m!
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