September 10

I have a 2+ man tent all to myself. It is yellow, spacious and most of my stuff - 45kg - is laying around occupying all corners.

We are camped at 5700m. It is a lot of altitude - 900m higher than Mt Blanc, 50m higher than Mt Elbrus and 300m short of Kilimanjaro. And we are camped here as if it is the most natural thing to do and be. But our surroundings immediately remind you that all of us here are on borrowed time. Underneath us is a rocky moraine, shredded into loose boulders over millions of years by the massive glaciers just 20m away, that run down the high Himalayan peaks surrounding us. The wind is icy cold and the sun burns your skin in minutes. Weather is constantly changing - very cold in the early mornings, very hot periods later on and wind and snow for most of the evening and night.

The air is thin. Walking up and down just a few meters in a haste will leave you gasping and lungs screaming for oxygen. Our guide Victor announces with a smile that we are now in constant pain zone. And if we want to succeed, we should accept the harshness of the terrain because it will get only more severe the higher we climb from camp to camp over the next four weeks.

I only have to open the tent flap to remind myself what is in store. Cho Oyu fills up the entire view. She is much bigger than in any of the photos I had seen before I departed for this expedition. Monsoon clouds still envelop her for most of the day but for those brief periods just after sunrise, She looks splendid in white winter garb, steep ridges and hanging seracs.

What remains between the summit and us is 2500m of climbing. Not technical as any of the Alpine routes I have been on. But very hard as in physicallychallenging. When not climbing, food is slow to digest and lacks the energy I am accustomed to back home. Sleep comes slow and then only for a few hours. The lack of oxygen reduces your step to a ridiculous slog. Your legs are heavy and leaden. Your head is painful and lungs screeching. Cold wind embraces your body in constant shiver. And you must go on, one step in front of the other.

Love is blind. I feel at ease in the mountains. One day at a time. Break the challenge in manageable chunks and instead of facing them head-on like a bull, go blend and adapt with the environment. We will never conquer Cho Oyu but just creep slowly and hope the Turquoise Goddess will smile at us at the summit, pleased that we showed respect and humility.