A special thank you note to:

1 month has passed since the return to base camp and the end of our expedition. I wish to give thanks to all the friends and family that have supported me in this climb and unique life experience.

Thank you to:

Jean-Claude and Marie-Helene, my parents, for sponsoring my gear and expedition, it was a wonderful 40th birthday present. Your support and love have been invaluable.

Delphine and Camille, my sisters, for sending me countless support emails and messages along the way.

Lorraine for coping with all my hours of preparation, for the numerous messages of support and the beautiful email you wrote to all of us after the expedition.  

Patrick for becoming a very good friend during the 8 months of preparation, being such a detailed organiser, sharing your passion for the mountain and recommending the perfect gear. I look forward to our coming climbs.

Xavier & Glenn for being always available to chat and support each other during the days of climbing and for welcoming me back to base camp on November 11th, it warmed my heart to see you guys at the edge of the moraine. What's next?

Florence for making us laugh during the whole trip and for sharing with me the experience of reaching the Himlung summit. You are the toughest woman I have met in my life. 8000?

Lars for being a friend I can count on at anytime. You were part of this expedition even if you couldn't make the actual trip. I hope to share more expeditions with you in the years to come.

Thierry Echemann for always encouraging me to do the things that are so important to me. For being a listener and supporter no matter what.

Laurent for all your support in 2015 and your genuine interest in following the climb prep and blog postings.

Jean-Louis and Christophe for throwing me a memorable send-off party in DB.

Ivan and Jacques for the delicious Sheko dinner send-off and for your great friendship. 

The tritons triathlon club of Hong Kong and namely: Damo, Ross, Dave, Stuart, Mandy, Edwin, Nick, Toby for sharing so many training rides and runs, a determining factor of our expedition success.

The shanghai connection boys Ambroise, David, Thierry for cheering for me.

Daniel for your guidance and on-going support. They were a determining factor of this expedition's success.

Michel for your adorable letter following our successful ascent.

And to all of you who have messaged me to show your support.

Thank you so much!

Benjamin

13 Nov - Kathmandu, re-adapting to modern world and caring for my feet

We meet for breakfast at 9am. Glenn and Xavier come down and join me for some nice & fresh coffee - a luxury we haven't had for 3 weeks - some pastries and hot breakfast. The air is cool but just the right temperature. It's delightful to be clean, rested and enjoying the service and food of the beautiful Dalai-La hotel - Pat's recommendation, spot on!

Plan for the morning:

- Shaving and loosing the thick beard that has grown over the past 2 months

- Checking out flight tickets for Xav

- Arranging to see a doctor for my frozen feet

Before

During

after

Lunch at the New Orleans cafe in Thamel owned by a Québécois who lives in Kathamandu, it's peculiar to hear this accent in Nepal. It reminds me of my childhood in Canada. Most places are closed due to the end of the Festival of Lights holiday, people are dancing in the streets. This place is packed and we wait for our food forever, but who cares when you can enjoy a nice Everest beer with friends after a long and tough expedition?

After lunch, I meet the doctor at the hotel. In the middle of the lobby, with my bare feet on the coffee table, he checks them and tells me I have been lucky as the blood circulation is good. The nerves, however, have been damaged and my feeling is still close to none. I close my eyes and he tests each foot toe after toe, asking whether I can feel it or not. At times I can barely discern if he is actually touching my toe or pretending, but I manage to pass the test with flying colours.

It doesn't change the fact that my feet are totally numb, painful, and that I loose my balance when I walk due to lack of feeling in my toes. It's a scary experience but at least I feel better now that I saw him. Not much I can do except for massaging aloe vera cream into my feet everyday to help blood flow. (I will later see doctor Tim Cheung in Hong Kong who will confirm that I was lucky not to get serious frostbite and he prescribes anti-inflammatory + vitamin B for support of nerves re-growth)

Glenn is leaving us tonight, it is the only flight he could get and going back to Qatar to resume 777 intercontinental flying. A great friendship has developed, very nice guy, passionate mountaineer, able to cope with all tough aspects of an expedition without the slightest complaint, and always here to help his teammates when needed. Thanks Glenn for your friendship and for always being here when needed.

Xav and I hang out in the city sad to have lost one more of our team members. We walk from Thamel to Durbar Square, the old town where I had first been with Lorraine in 2011, to discover the devastating aftermath of the earthquake. A huge portion of the old town structures, temples have been flattened and some partially destroyed. We feel for Nepal. On the way back from the old town we hitch a ride with a local bicycle-taxi. After a few minutes of riding in the dark streets of Kathamdu, the man starts sobbing and crying loudly explaining that his life has been ruined by the earthquake, house flattened, some family disappeared and killed. He hands us a little personal journal where he has written some of his story. He is unstoppable, tears run down his cheeks, we are terribly saddened by the story he is telling us. We are quiet and unable to say much and try to slightly calm him down and comfort him: 'you are a strong and good man and you must keep fighting for your son,you will make it...' We get off the bike in Thamel, the happening & party district of Kathmandu. We grab a last beer at the hotel puzzled by what just happened to us.

12 Nov - Helicopter back to Kathmandu

Busy bees packing, the duffles get filled up by all our climbing & mountaineering gear. Glenn, Xav and I are leaving today. Florence is walking back and considering taking a few days trek on the Annapurna circuit crossing thorong-la pass.

It's 830am when we get out of the tent for our last breakfast. The mood is light and all 3 of us are looking forward to the helicopter ride of our life around 7-8000m mountains!

We take final group pictures with towering Himlung behind us.

At 1230 lunch is served. And soon after we can hear some helicopter sounds echoing in the valley. We rush out of the tent, look up and see a yellow helicopter flying down the wrong side of the mountain. A few minutes later and a satellite phone call from Junga and the Eurocopter B3 is back in sight.

Over lunch we heard that Purba (head Sherpa) wanted to fly with us back to KTM. Nobody told us officially and we confront Junga and Purba to ask what is the reason and why they have not asked us. We are fine to take Purba if he has an emergency but would have preferred to be informed. I guess they did not consider us and it's one more bad point for Makalu Adventure (the local agents from adventure peaks) seems like these guys totally ignore us and do their thing without considering that we might have a say in this expedition that we are funding 100%.

We hop on the helicopter - and, in passing, save us 5 days of trekking - all our duffle bad and backpacks after the helicopter is at max weight for takeoff at this very high altitude. Purba stands next to the helicopter and is unable to get on. We feel very sorry for him.

The next 45' are memorable. The scenery is breathtaking, we are flying through the Phu valley and can spot the way we came in during the trek to base camp.  We land in a small village to pick up the remaining kerosene that was dropped off on the way in for excess weight reasons. We fill up under the glares of amazed locals who has rarely seen such a yellow beast and are back in the air.

We land in the city's international airport and are greeted by Mr Moham the owner of Makalu adventures.

Back at the dalai la hotel it's shower time. Pure bliss after 3 weeks with only 1 shower. We meet at the lobby at 6pm and go out for some nice steak dinner and beers and guess what we talk about: our expedition of course! We debrief on the past 3 weeks and back at the hotel the comfort of the bed takes over.

11 Nov - Zombie walk down to Base Camp

(pix by Florence)

Wake up at camp 3, feet still numb and concerned.

Planning of the day: all day walk down to base camp. It's a full day of walking down the mountain, and picking up and carrying all the gear that has been left at various camps. The weather is pristine as usual since the last snow storm early November when we arrived at base camp.

We take our last pictures with Himlung behind us, all the summit team: Chris, Lakpa, Ongshu, Florence and myself.  Is time to head down, there is probably 6-8 hours of downhill going from 6200 back down to 4900. I rope in with Florence and Chris and we start to head down. Backpacks are very heavy and lifting them is already an undertaking. Ice axe clipped on the back, all sleeping gear, climbing gear, heavy duty clothing etc.

The view surrounding us is unbelievably beautiful and it gives me the necessary motivation to keep walking. Soon we get to the area where a boulder of ice fell from the hanging glacier a few days ago.

We briefly stop at camp 2 and pick up he remaining gear. My helmet was waiting in the snow clipped to a tent peg. One more piece of gear to carry down.

After the last glacier, we remove the crampons and its walking in steep rocky slopes all the way to the moraine. We un-rope and Chris takes the lead while Florence switches to trekking boots. I follow him down closely all the way to camp 1. It's probably 1-2pm by now and I am knackered. Another 1 1/2 hours and we should reach the edge of the moraine for the last crossing. I am dreading this moment. Purba meets us on the way down and takes some of our gear, 2-3 kg less is a real treat!

(pix by Florence)

Before we get on the moraine I ask Chris to wait for me for this last stretch as I am getting really tired, my feet are not up to the challenge, they feel better than last night but still totally numb. I am just putting this aside, I need them to keep working until base camp no matter what so I am trying to forget that I am walking down 1300m on frozen feet.

 

View of the Moraine - base camp lies on the left of the black ridge (pix by Florence)

At the moraine we all climb down together and then Chris walks ahead and disappears in the labyrinth of boulders, ice and snow. Florence passes me, slows down to wait for me, nicely hangs around for a while but finally keeps going I am too slow and she needs to get to camp and get some rest, she has been plagued by very little sleep for the past weeks. I slow down as there is no one around anymore to help me if I twist a leg in this field of rocks.

 

Half-way into the last moraine crossing, beautiful but treacherous and maze-like (pix by Florence)

My pace had gone down dramatically, I am now obliterating time and just being extra careful, one step after the other. I get lost in a section of the moraine and climb up to see where I need to go. I am quickly back on track.

It feels endless, the rocks are unstable and each step becomes a close call. Another hour passes and finally I reach the base camp side of the moraine. I was hoping that the sun would still be shining at base camp but it's 4pm and the sun has just gone behind the surrounding mountains, and as a result my sleeping bag will remain damp for the night. I swear outloud.

I hear some noise and seem to spot Glenn behind a rock leading to the top edge of the moraine. I hear sounds of bell but I know I haven't lost my mind, it's Xavier, Junga and Glenn welcoming me back to base camp and congratulating me for the summit success! It's so intensely good to see them. We parted 36 hours ago and I am so happy to be back with these guys. The whole trip we have been there for each other and developing a new level of friendship and seeing them here waiting for me is amazing.

Arriving at Base Camp (pix by Florence)

We walk back together to base camp, I throw my stuff back in my tent and we meet in the mess tent to update each other.

 

(pix by Florence)

Rojan (cook) and Purba (Head Sherpa) bringing the summit success cake & Nepalese liquor (pix by Florence)

A nice evening of stories told and shared and in bed by 9pm. Tomorrow is our last day at base camp, we are helicoptering back!

10 Nov - Summit Day - by Xavier

Written by Xavier Perrodon:

Xav in the tent at Camp 3

It is about 5pm the day before summit push and as Ben and I are about to start preparing dinner, Chris enters the tent to give us a heads up on what we're about to attempt. For almost two weeks I have been unhappy with the very little information we get from him every day, and I am positively surprised to get for the first time a real operational briefing.

 Xav and I in the mountain

After 10-15mn Chris leaves the tent and we start getting ready for the "night".
Bedtime at 6pm, alarm at midnight and expected departure at 1am.
With nervous anticipation we go to sleep and surprisingly manage to get a few hours of rest.

Midnight on Nov 10: the alarm rings and almost without a word we start getting dressed and packing our bags while trying not to get in each other's way and staying away from the frost that now covers the walls of our tiny tent.

1am: Ben and I are almost ready but from what we can hear through the tent's walls, not everybody is.
We get out of the tent and little by little the others do too. Chris is ready to go but the sherpas are still inside their tent and Glenn seems to have problems with his gear. Surprisingly, Chris, who shares his tent with Glenn, is not helping him at all although he is standing still less than a meter behind him.
I find this strange but decide we need to play this as a team and start helping Glenn with his crampons. Ben follows a few seconds after and although I am really at loss as to why our expedition leader is behaving so strangely, I have the feeling this helps strengthening our team spirit and bringing the rest of the team closer.

Glenn starts expressing his lack of confidence in his physical condition and his gear. I quickly wave away these second thoughts and seem to manage to convince him to stay with us.
In the meantime, a group has already left and I realize Ben is gone.
When I ask Chris where my rope buddy  is (we were supposed to climb together to the summit) and what is going on, I get an irritated "I don't know!", which start making me feel a bit uncomfortable.
I decide to focus on what really matters (leaving camp 3, staying warm and going up) and a few minutes later am roped in with Purba and Glenn.
After about 30 mn, Glenn stops and turns back towards me and announces that he's going to turn around and go back to camp 3. Many things are going wrong with his gear (which most of us are only testing in real conditions at that very moment) and he's getting both cold and worried. I try to reason him but quickly understand that he's made his decision and that he won't change him mind at this point. One thing matters to me though: it is pitch black, cold and windy and I strongly advise him against going back alone. He seems exhausted and in these extreme conditions, one mistake and we'll find his frozen body the next day on the way down.
We decide to call Chris and get his opinion. To my great surprise, Chris tells him to go back on his own and turns around to keep going up. Reluctantly I nod at Glenn and watch him unrope from us and disappear into the mountain's cold night.
I am now alone with Purba and we start climbing again.
The conditions keep getting harder and harder and after another half hour, I start to lose my temper. My mittens are too big for the jumar and I have had to haul myself all this time with two fingers only and this is starting to hurt in spite of my frequent hand swaps.
I then decide to replace my warm and bulky summit mittens by more manageable mid-mountain gloves. Which works great with the jumar but not at keeping my hands warm.
I start getting angry at Chris because we didn't get any advice on how to manage all this. I lose a lot of energy being irritated at him, at my gloves, at the lose fixed ropes and I am starting  to wonder if this what I want and whether I find any pleasure in doing all this. Soon after, for some reason my headlight decides that it won't stay in place on my forehead and starts slipping down.  I can't see anything any more and need to take off my gloves to fix it. This feels cold, really cold and I start realizing that things could get dangerous very quickly if not kept under tight control.

Meanwhile, Florence has caught up with us and is now right behind us. I let her take over. She's almost crawling on the snow and I realize I am not the only having a hard time. In fact we are all having a difficult time, and becoming aware of it helps me to mute all the negative thoughts in my head.

In my struggle to keep my gear functional, I lose my balance (at this stage, we've moved up past the ice wall and are now climbing an endless 45 degree snow wall) and as I step back, do not see Purba who was walking right behind me and slit his knee with my crampons.
Because of the wind, feathers are now flying out of his down suit, and have no idea whether he's injured or not.
He quickly ties a white Nepalese silk scarf around his knee and replies to my pressing questions "ok ok", which, to me, could mean that he's either uninjured or strong enough to continue in spite of the injury.
Needless to say that I am now really worried and that we should immediately go down if he's injured.
He keeps telling me that he's ok so I reluctantly continue climbing.
I try to accelerate the pace to catch up with Chris who's only a few meters away from us further up.
After about 10 mn we reach him and I quickly explain what’s happened as well as my concerns regarding Purba's actual state.
The noise of the wind is making our conversation difficult but he seems to have understood what I said.
And then he continues without showing any form of concern for his staff. I am speechless and do not move for at least 30 seconds, trying to find any meaning to what is currently going on and the potential consequences.
I now feel in real danger because I expect he would behave the same way if anything happened to me, and this starts to really scare me.
I decide to radio Ben and get his opinion.
After a few attempts he answers and gives me the words of encouragement I was in need of. "I understand, but you're gonna be fine, just try a little more and see how it goes". I can't see him although I know he’s just a few hundred meters from me, but his words really help in this hostile environment.
I gather my courage and start climbing again.
10 mn later I must stop again. My body is starting to get cold, really cold. Not just the cold we all feel on our faces, fingers and toes. This time, it's affecting my back, my stomach, and my whole body is shivering. I spent too much energy being angry and fighting against my gear and I am starting to feel like an empty shell, deprived of of any traces of energy.
We are at least 6 hours from the summit... and only 1.5 hour from camp 3...
After another few seconds of deep thinking then discussion with Purba, I decide I'm going to turn around.
We all climb for different reasons and luckily mine were crystal clear from the day I decided to join this expedition. I never intended to reach the summit at all costs, and have already beaten my altitude record of more than 1800m. I joined this expedition for the human experience, and my expectations have already been largely met.
So I turn around with no regrets and happy to have made a decision that will probably save my life.
Purba still mentions that if we turn around he may not get his summit bonus... which I retrospectively find unbelievable! So I tell him that he will still get one, no matter what (in such a dangerous environment, it felt smart to treat well the person who was looking after me).
90 minutes and a fall into a crevasse later, we are back at camp 3 (it is now 5:30 am) and I hastily crawl into my tent and into my sleeping back. In spite of its warmth, I will be shivering in it for the next 4 hours and it'll take all the morning sunlight for my feet to get back to a decent temperature.
Around 9 am we decide to go back to base camp that very same day and to not wait for the others. Junga Sherpa also had to turn around about 30 mn after us because of toe frostbite and the sooner we go back down the sooner his toes will be taken care of.
As Purba, Glenn, Junga and I start walking down, we can observe tiny dark dots on the mountain’s back, getting closer and closer to the summit…
This is exciting and scary at the same time, since we know how cold it must still be for them (that face of Himlung himal doesn't get any sunlight before at least 9am).
Luckily the radios still enable us to communicate with them, and we wish them good luck before heading down towards camp 2.
We won't see them again before the next evening.

Xav at Base Camp

10 Nov - Summit Day - The Way Down

Benjamin on the way down from the Himlung Himal summit

The time has stopped, each second is pure bliss, the view is breathtaking. But the clouds pass over our heads at incredible speeds and it is not a good sign. I have never seen such fast clouds and so close. I guess its a normal sight at over 7000 meters. Lakpa points at the clouds and tells me we should go down. Its time to start again. We are roped in and I proceed to climbing down the final slope, it is very steep, almost vertical and I pay great attention to each step. Its been almost 10 hours since we left camp 3 and fatigue will come soon.

On  the way down, I hug Florence who is going up with Chris and Ongshu and wish her the best for the final meters, they congratulate us. There is no turning back for them now.

I walk in front of Lakpa, keep my footsteps as wide as I can to avoid hitting my legs with my sharp crampons. It is an easy mistake on the way down to cut yourself or tear your boots with a crampon. Fatigue catches up with me and I have to pay even more attention to each steps. Keeping maximum concentration on the way down is critical. I have barely had any water for over 10 hours, my thermos cap has frozen tight with the cold and my hot tea is sadly unreachable. 2 gels and 1 bar are the only food that I have had since we left.

I look back at the summit and, at around 11-1130am, I see Florence, Chris and Ongshu Sherpa on the summit. Emotions overwhelm me, they have made it too!

Left to right: Chris & Florence at the summit of Himlung Himal

From now onwards, its a very long way down, around 5 hours of walking. I am only clipped on the fixed rope with a screw-gate karabiner and a 1-meter long sling. Worst case scenario my fall will be stopped at the next fixed rope change. Each piece of fixed rope is around 50 to 100 meters, and anchored with a snow stake.

We keep walking down. Later during the day Chris and Florence catch up with me. I have slowed down significantly. I am exhausted.

I finally get news of Glenn from Chris. I figured he had turned back but didn't know the specifics. He was too cold and tired and decided to turn around around 2:30 / 3am. Chris had hard from him on the radio before he turned around but I had no idea and I am glad to hear that he went back to Camp 3 and met with Xavier there.

Another few hours and we hit the ice-wall. Its time to take out the figure 8 and abseil down the wall. There is a small crevasse right at the end of the wall.

The last hour of walking back up to camp 3 is a drag, we are walking so slow we could crawl at the same speed. We are dead tired. We finally reach the tents, 1 of them is missing. Xavier and Glenn have left to base camp. I am sharing the tent with Chris tonight. A noodle soup and we get into our sleeping bags to warm up and rest.

My feet are frozen and I am quite concerned. They are totally numb. I keep massaging them but nothing changes. I take some aspirin and put some warm bottles of water against my feet in my sleeping bag. I cannot sleep, I am too concerned with my feet. I drift in and out of sleep the entire night.

On the way back down to Base Camp from Camp 3, Himlung Himal in the background

10 Nov - summit attempt day, the way up

How to describe the feeling of hearing the alarm go off at midnight? Our minds did not drift very far anyway, our brains know that something special is about to happen and focus is coming right back. No snoozing allowed there is no time for that. It's straight into gear, we get dressed and look at each other, no comments needed we both feel the same: weird, what the hell are we doing getting up at midnight to throw ourselves at this mountain in total darkness?

Layers and layers of clothing come on. Time flies, once dressed we throw ourselves at the gas burner to start it but it refuses to heat up properly. We did not sleep with the gas in the sleeping bag which was a mistake and now it's too cold to give heat. What do we do? We need hot water and a little food to warm up, I shake the bottle, Xav and I take turns to warm it up and finally we change the gas bottle, it's better, snow starts to melt, we are running out of time for the 1am departure. Whatever! We need to eat and warm up, priorities first. It's boiling, we share a freeze dried blueberry porridge, I can barely swallow 4/5 spoonful my appetite is gone at 6200, Xav managed to force down a little more. Opening the door we are attacked by extreme cold, tough climb ahead. Bare Hands are frozen within 1 minute when we put our crampons.

Its 130am, we are late, we were supposed to be ready to go at 1am, something feels wrong. Sherpas are still boiling water, Glenn is missing a battery for his headtorch and struggles with his harness and crampons in the cold, Florence is ready to go. Chris is very upset that things are not according to his plan but he is standing around rather than giving clear cut orders to the sherpas and to us. Then suddenly one of the sherpas is ready and Chris ropes Florence in with him and asks for the next to rope in, I volunteer. Xavier who was supposed to climb with me stays with Glenn to give him a hand.

Off we go, pitch dark, extreme cold, headtorch on pointing at the path in the snow in front of us. Soon after, we hit the first ice-wall. Its a total surprise to see this wall. I take out my ice-axe, change mittens to gloves to have better control but its tool cold even with my -29C gloves and I have to change back to mittens within minutes. I am now trying to warm back my hands, get a grip on the ice-wall with my ice-axe, pull myself up on the fixed rope with the jumar and consider where is Xavier whom I am supposed to climb with. Its hard, physically and psychologically.

330am: we have left for almost 2 hours and I keep pushing to the final section of the ice-wall. I am on the steep slope now, no news of Xavier but Chris mentions that he is behind and to keep going slowly but steadily. Soon after, i hear my radio inside my thick down jacket. I can barely hear but I believe someone is calling me: "Ben for Xavier.....Ben for Xavier" I remove my mittens, open the down jacket, it all takes time at altitude and brain power to find the motivation to do something unplanned. I pick up and Xav explains that he is running out of steam, something happened (I will learn later that he slipped on the ice-wall and hit Purba with his crampons, thank god only the down pants got damaged, not injury). He asks me for my reco: "Xav, keep going, push a little more and wait for the daylight, it will help a ton when u see light". Radio back in and mittens on, I keep pushing. Lakpa sherpa is climbing with me now and helps me unclip and clip the jumar back on the at each rope section end. Its hard, cold and very soon I am in pain with a huge cramp in my right hand and thumb due to the jumar. I switch hand and move to the left side of the rope and keep pushing.

430am: I hear the radio again, Xav informs me that his is turning around, he is done, too cold He had reached 6600m and its a success. Xav dissapears in the darkness back to base camp, I can see a few  headtorch lights flickering lower on the steep slope, going down.

From left to right: Chris, Lakpa, Benjamin. Daylight slowly breaks on the horizon. 

530am: finally, the daylight breaks. The world comes out of darkness, all the summits appear around us far and most of the lower than us already. We are now probably around 6700 or 6800 meters. Its inspiring to see this beautiful nature around us. I feel fine, I keep a steady and very very slow pace, some deep snow sections make things even slower and absolutely exhausting, as I have to lift my foot higher and sometimes slip down what I just gained due to snow slipping under my crampon. I make very slow progress. My feet are very cold.

8am: the sun is starting to hit the mountain but unfortunately we are climbing the northern face and no sun will reach us until 930am or so. I had clearly observed this when at base camp.

9am: my feet are now half frozen, i wonder if I should turn around and go back down, the cold has not lowered. Wind has picked-up and the wind chill factor makes things even more difficult. I dig deep and keep pushing.

We reach the end of the fixed ropes, I look at the watch and I am amazed to see my Garmin telling me that I have reached 7000m, I am ecstatic! no more fixed ropes. Lakpa unclips from the last snowstake (metal bar holding the rope deep inside the snow) and climbs further up to fix the remaining 100 meters of rope on the final ridge. I am sitting on the snow, my feet are frozen but I can still feel them which is a good sign, waiting for lakpa to come back. He fixes the last piece of rope and we are off.

930am: we reach the end of the final stretch of rope that Lakpa has just fixed but the summit is at least another 45 minutes away. The wind is picking up and we clearly see clouds flying by at 7125m, scrapping away some of the snow on the summit.

10am: we are not on fixed ropes anymore, I am just roped in with Lakpa and we are slowly pushing up. I am exhausted, each step has become hard now and I have to stop to rest every few steps. Lakpa turns around and warns me of the wind picking up on the summit. I nod and tell him to push on.

1030am: We are too close now, we need to reach Himlung's top! the final 50m are almost vertical and deep snow, the ice axe is hitting the snow and I am pulling myself up one hit of the axe after the other. we are getting so close, my heart is pounding with joy. Suddenly Lakpa is on top and helping me up onto the summit, the wind is strong, we kneel on the summit and look at each other with immense happiness. "We made it! we made it" says Lakpa, he is as thrilled as me. We take pictures, I shoot a few seconds of Gopro 360. My ice-axe is deep in the snow securing me, the drop towards Tibet side is huge, and the summit is not that wide.

Success! I am humbled by nature again, truly & deeply this time. Not many summits around us can match our altitude. At Camp 3, they can apparently see some shapes in the form of black dots on the summits, us.

We have to start the descent now. Slightly below, Chris, OngShu Sherpa and Florence have abandoned their backpacks in the snow to save extra weight and are getting close to the summit, they are about a half hour away from us.

9 Nov (part 2) - preparing for the final ascent

1 year of planning, intense training, triathlon, gym, weight training with my trainer Derek, to be in best possible shape, a charity for raising money for Nepal, great support from friends and family, almost 3 weeks on the mountain and the day has finally arrived.

You know the feeling when you have been longing for something, for an event or special moment that is supposed to happen on a certain date, and when the date finally appears you feel amazed that it's already here. That's how I feel today.

I am seating with Xavier in the tent, right next to us to our left are Glenn and Chris, our tents are roped in together, a little further to our right is Florence's tent. We are all quiet, napping or resting with our own thoughts, our own objectives stirring our brains up.

Originally my objective was to summit with my friends and celebrate on top of the mountain. This has changed over the past 3 weeks and my objective is now to give my best. I was challenged by Chris' vision of mountain climbing. He told us that we could celebrate if we got to camp 3, is hard enough to survive at 6200m, breathe, eat and function properly and keep a sane mind. So if we got here, we could be proud and happy of ourselves. Leaving camp 3 for the attempt would be another success and summit should remain a 'bonus' but not the ultimate goal. We are too insignificant compared to the mountain, the weather, the cold and all the other possible outcomes to focus only on summit. Summit should not become an obsession but a reward and a quiet, calm, intense and deep pleasure. A pleasure granted by nature and not within our human control.

Xavier is napping when Chris enters our tent. It's summit briefing time. Our ears are wide open, we do not want to miss one word from Chris, every detail will play a role in the success of the final push.

Chris confirms that Xavier and I will climb together as a team with Purba Sherpa and Junga (aspiring Sherpa aka base camp manager). We will wake up at midnight, get ready and leave at 1am sharp all geared up for the climb. The 4 of us will be on 1 rope. Chris warns us to expect the worse, toughest day of or lives, push beyond our limits and fight our thoughts of failure, we will be zombies climbing up the mountain, the temperature will be extremely cold and we can expect around -30 celcius. We listen quietly and do not utter a word.

The gear recommended:

Bottom: long underwear, primaloft pants, goretex climbing pants on top

Top: merino tshirt, fleece, heavy duty climbin down jacket

Hands: silk liner gloves, heavy duty summit mittens, poles and 1 ice axe

Feet: smartwool unused socks, possibly feet warmer activated prior to putting on boots, heavy duty climbing boots (La Sportiva 8000 for Xav, Millet Everest for me)

We comment on the gear and after a few questions Xav and I look at each other with puzzlement, the time has come for the final push.

Meanwhile, Purba and Lakpa Sherpa are on the mountain at 7000m by now, fixing the ropes that we will hook onto with our jumars and slowly pull ourselves up the north face of Himlung.

Schedule of the afternoon:

2-4pm: rest

4-5pm: pack our summit bags (emergency blanket, spare gloves, radio, food, water)

5-6pm: boil water, eat something

6pm: must get in sleeping bags and sleep

12am: wake up, get dressed

We follow the plan and are in bed by 6pm. Sleeping bag is filled with all the summit gear to keep it warm until

Midnight: inner boots, socks, hat, neck warmer, pants, mittens make for an uncomfortable sleep but it's necessary to fight the cold later tonight.

We drift into semi-sleep, in the back of my mind I know that 6 hours from now I will have to wake up and find the ultimate motivation to get going in freezing temperature and darkness. I drift and fall asleep. 

9 Nov (part 1) - short walk to camp 3, pressure mounting

On this early morning, the clouds float at around 5000 meters. They are far under us at 6000 meter camp 2 and it makes for a beautiful scenery. From our tent (proper altitude tent this time), we can see perfectly Manasulu scrapping the sky at more than 8000 meters as well as Annapurna, made famous by Maurice Herzog's first ever 8000m conquest during the last century. It takes me a few minutes to get back to reality as my mind is climbing Manasulu. At over 6000 meters, the brain focuses differently and it take more efforts to do anything and find the will to get out of your sleeping bag, get the day going, turn snow into water and the likes.

Today is a big day, we are moving to camp 2 and there is no turning back. Camp 2 is being dismantled by the Sherpas to use the tents at camp 3. The departure is delayed by all the extra dismantling work but by 930 or 10 we are on the way roped in with Chris this time. It's a short way to camp 3, the furthest point on the mountain where a camp can be established.

For our summit bid, we have agreed to set up the camp 3 even if the short distance between camp 2 could justify skipping it and trying for the summit straight from camp 2. It seems to be done by some expedition. But setting up 1 more camp has many benefits. First, it's a short distance from camp 2 so we will arrive very soon and can rest the entire day, a huge plus before summit attempt day. Then, it's more time to acclimatise as camp 3 lies at 6200 meters. It's also 2 hours closer to the summit than camp 2 and any little bit will help. And finally, we have by yet been to camp 3 so it's worth staying there 1 night and preparing for summit.

We are just in between camp 2 and 3 when we see that the path in the snow has been totally erased by a locomotive-sized blue ice boulder fallen from the hanging glacier to our left. It is beautiful, magnificent and frightening at the same time. The thought of being literally flattened by another similar one crosses all our minds. Chris turns around and asks us to unscrew the safety of our carabiners so we can unclip, un-rope and run for our life if another ice chunk were to fall. The thought of un-clipping from safety, throwing aside a 15kg backpack and running with crampons for dear life at 6100m altitude is somewhat hard to grasp. At this altitude, my mind seems to treat this thought as too random to waste energy focusing on. Once we have unscrewed our carabiners safety pin, we hastily proceed to crossing this doomed section.

Arrived at camp 3. We rest and prep for summit bid.

8 Nov - step 2 of summit bid, objective camp 2

I slept fine surprising myself for not feeling the slightest headache at such high altitude. I open the door to the outside world and see beautiful weather, blue skies and sun slowly coming down to our camp 1. The period between 6-7am when we wake up and 8-830am when the sun hits the camp always feels extremely long. The sun is priceless in the mountains. It warms you, melts the tent frost, dries our sleeping bags and gives us courage to keep going. All these simple things that we take for granted in our daily life have unimaginable importance at high altitude in the Himalayas.

View of Camp 1. If you follow a line straight up over the middle green tent, that's the way to camp 2

Xavier inside what Glenn has officially named: the 'Forest Tent', perfect for sea level overnight with your dog

(Routine: snow, water, food, packing - and sometimes trying to do your private business with no trees to hide behind, no shovels, bum freezing at -15 degrees and signs of snow leopard paws in the snow around camp 1, makes for a peculiar experience)

Junga, one of our sherpas / base camp manager, peeking outside the tent at Camp 1

We get going around 930am. Florence is gone already. Didn't want to wait for us to get ready and get cold. It's her call. 

We immediately hit the steep rocky slope leading to the hanging glacier and what we call crampon point. This is where we left our crampons a few days back on the way down. There are no other expeditions on the mountain so it's safe. The mountain is ours, we are lucky!

Around 2 hours of steep climb and we reach crampon point. Florence has been there for the past hour and is pissed to be still waiting for a Sherpa to rope in and get on with the hanging glacier climb. She thought the Sherpa would follow closely but I guess it was miscommunication with them as they are behind walking with Glenn. Xav gives Florence a piece of his mind, I second him and by the time the Sherpas and Glenn catch up with us, we are in the middle of a heated argument with Florence, not a good thing at 6000m where you need to focus. She takes off with Ong Shu Sherpa.

Glenn has caught up and we rope in all together with Junga, put on our crampons, down a chocolate bar for energy and step onto the glacier.

Ben on the Glacier leading to Camp 2

This bit of climbing is almost mysterious. Steep shiny icy slope covered with a mix of mud and small rocks. A 'treat' for our crampons. The 12-tooth yellow Grivel Sabertooth crampons of Xav and Glenn and my orange Petzl Vasak Leverlock bite in this compound gracefully, sometimes helped by some kicking to guarantee that we hit in the ice deeply enough. Then, it's all about evaluation and trust, you need to trust that the grip is there and keep going up. You are roped in with other members and whenever you stop you pull the rope, jerking the guy in front of you backwards and also forcing 3 more people to stop. It's about real teamwork, great patience for each other, respect and pace.

We proceed to higher grounds, the shapes and colors of the glacier are phenomenal: blue ice, black ice, hanging ice chunks, stalactites, and towering ridges around us. We feel small and humble in this magical decor.

We keep pushing and reach the snow covered glacier. It feels safe because is all covered in deep and soft looking snow but danger lures. The rope suddenly jerks and Xavier is down in the snow with part of his legs nowhere to be seen, he has walked on a snow bridge covering a crevasse and has fallen through! Thank good he does not panic, stays extremely calm and shouts to Junga: 'Junga! What do I do?' I am right behind him and advise him to slowly move his body to the safe edge. He does so and a minute later, all is well again. A bit of a scare for us but we keep pushing. It's steep and tiring, the weight of the backpacks starts to be painful but soon, we see some orange and yellow shapes, the tents are in view. In the meantime, Chris has caught up and passed us with Purba and Lakpa Sherpa and reached camp 2 all the way from base camp. We are glad to have our leader back.

We settle in for the few hours of remaining daylight and sleep under towering Himlung Himlal humbling us from its 7125m summit. I am overwhelmed by the feeling of unlimited respect for nature and our planet.

Garmin's view of our climb: