A Day of rest at Base Camp
12th April Had the best nights sleep so far, tucked up in the sleeping bag. Woke about 7 ìsh, before the sun was on the tent. I unzipped the door to see the North Face of Everest in full sun. What an incredible sight, it looked very still up there. If today was summit day and I was going well, I would be somewhere close to the top.The weather pattern seems similar each day, with it Unfortunately Mat has got worse throught the night.Nigel and Barry, the two docs tret him throught he night for Pulmonary Odema. He has been on oxygen all night and has got steadly better. They took him off the oxygen but his saturation level dropped off quickly and then they diagnosed Pneumonia. It has been agreed that he will be driven out as this could become very serious. It is a real disappointment for Mat who is a really fit motivated guy. We all said our goodbyes to Mat and consoled his partner on the trip Pete. They are good mates and have not only lived together for the last year but trained together. They had managed to get a number of sponsors involved. I must be incredibly hard for such a strong guy to leave at such an early stage. He had the worst sickness and dihrea of everybody and he didn`t shake it off. Looking back it could have any one of us that went down like that. They had made a pack that if one got sick the other one would carry on. Pete`s a strong guy and he`ll be there on summit day. Mat was only 24 so he`ll get another shot. I`ve felt a little bit rough today. Mainly no energy and a bit of a cough. It`s got better as the day has gone on though. Got the bgan sert up today, which allowed me to update the blog. The equipment thta Excelerate and Thales have provided is working great. We`ve got a walk tommorow, gaing 5 or 600m, so going to get my haed down.

A Tough Day Under Everest
13th April Last night was a bad night. I woke in the middle of the night coughing qiute badly and a rattley chest. I kept coughing for quite a while before I proped myself up and waited until the morning. It was the first really lonely night. My mind spent what seemed like hours back with Beth and Isla all safe in Helmsley. Once i was up the cough didn`t seem to bad so I set off on the group walk. As we gained height the cough became more regular, as I struggled to get air in. Simon, the other dad picked up on this and stopped me and asked Nigel, the doc to check me out. He couldn`t do a lot where we were but I decided to go down a wait for them to come back and get checked out. I was exhausted once I got back and I`d only been on the go for 2 and half hours. Once I stopped I didn`t feel to bad. I could feel my heart was beating fast and my chest tight. I suspected the worst and it would be the start of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. This can be treat and doesn`t definately mean the end of my trip but its a problem thet may lead that way. I lay in my tent just pondering the potential outcome of my illness. There was part of me that would love to buzz home and see the girls, but then in the grand scheme of things a few more weeks and I`ll be back anyway. Once the party was back and we`d had lunch Nigel gave me full MOT. He checked me over and using his stethascope he couldn`t hear any rattling on my chest. My heart rate is high and my oxygen saturation is a liitle low but it`s a lot of snot on my chest. I have just had my head over a bowl of hot water with Vics in it. It`s definately feeling a bit better so we`ll see tommorow. The main thing is it`s not HAPE. and I`ll be abe to shrug it off. I`m taking things day by day so we`ll see what happens tommorow.