The day before the summit
The day before our climb to the summit, Felix, our guide made us climb high and sleep low i.e. we went up a couple of hundred feet during the day and came back down again to sleep at a lower altitude - this is supposed to help acclimatise to the altitude a bit better.
Felix (on the right in this picture) was an excellent guide - he made sure we were all feeling OK and was careful to make us take our time when we were at altitude, rather than pushing too hard and risking making ourselves sick.
Our next day would be spent on a relatively short walk towards the ridge in the background and then getting some sleep before starting for the top around midnight, clambering up the ridge to the crater rim in time for sunrise. Hard work! We're probably about 15000 feet here, another 4,500 to go...
The day before the summit
The day before our climb to the summit, Felix, our guide made us climb high and sleep low i.e. we went up a couple of hundred feet during the day and came back down again to sleep at a lower altitude - this is supposed to help acclimatise to the altitude a bit better.
Felix (on the right in this picture) was an excellent guide - he made sure we were all feeling OK and was careful to make us take our time when we were at altitude, rather than pushing too hard and risking making ourselves sick.
Our next day would be spent on a relatively short walk towards the ridge in the background and then getting some sleep before starting for the top around midnight, clambering up the ridge to the crater rim in time for sunrise. Hard work! We're probably about 15000 feet here, another 4,500 to go...