XinJiang Part 2 - Acclimatising

I have been very busy with work lately… There is less time for training, and I kinda losing focus on “Mission Impossible” for year 2008. Before going into 2008, I shall continue with what I have to do for 2007 – Pen my thought for “Mission Impossible 2007”. I am lazy and shall edit works of one of my team mates, Phei Sunn, for this blog.

Camels waiting to haul the load to Base Camp

The Trek from 204 to Base Camp

My team was at "Mustagh 204" on 5th July, it took the team almost one week to be "THERE". Travelling with three very different ladies is experiential. I wondered how Master Kim Boon managed 7 women during last year climbing season. I meet the rest of the support crew and some of the climbers around 3pm. The long waited to ascent for Base Camp began. The climb consists of 5 sections - Base Camp BC (4,400m), Camp1 C1 (5,500m), Camp2 C2 (6,200m), Camp3 C3 (6,900m) and Summit (7,564m).

Building Base Camp

What we need to do next is as Phei Sunn described – “Paint a Picture”. There is a series of drill that we have to do before going for summit. These drills are important as part we need to grow more red blood cells within days. “Acclimatisation” is the name of the drill.

Our First Acclimatisation Walk

Our roles for the next ten days were to go up BC -> C1, back down, BC -> C1 stay overnight, down. BC -> C1 -> C2 stay overnight, down. “Imagine the mountain as a canvas and you're painting. Every swoosh of the paintbrush paints a longer stroke than before. You get the picture. Except that each upward swoosh took an average of 5-8hours, and each downward ~3-6h, depending on physical condition.” All climbers have to go through this drill. My team was relatively lucky, while the weather wasn’t fantastic, we had the schedule on track.

Short Video on Acclimatisation Walk from C1 to C2

That was how we spent our first ten days - "acclimatising". In between every swoosh, we get a 1-day rest at BC. This is the day, we eat and relax. There is another Chinese team led by an experienced climb, Song Yu Jiang. While I dun have much opportunity to talk to him. I enjoyed going to his tent talking to his base camp manager, Xiao Mu. There is another guy who always spend his time at Song’s base camp. He, Zhou Jiang, is from XinJiang Climbing Federation. Zhou Jiang’s job is to stop the foreign teams from climbing without permit. He stand between Mustagh and my team during the initial climb phase. Nonetheless, he also helped my team to proceed with the climb at a lower “Communication Officer” fee.

XiaoMu, the BC manager for Song's team
Zhou Jiang and me at BC

While “painting the picture” sounds easy, but it's totally taxing. Base camp is at 4400m asl, 300m higher than the highest Mt. Kinabalu in SE Asia. During the first ten days, the team went to C1 at 5,500m three times. That is almost like scaling Europe highest mountain (Elbrus, 5642m) three times within a week. And C2 at 6,200m is like Denali (North America Highest Mountain). When we next reach C3 eventually at 6,900m before summit day, the team would have covered Mt Aconcagua in Argentina. And we aren't even at the summit yet!

Acclimatisation Walk from C1 to C2

I like to look at climbing as a very strategical mission. I prefer to plan them into phases, and claim my new altitude record bit by bit. BC was a rather luxurious affair, the best I had witnessed. At least the logistics and tents look impressive. The guy, Mr Shi Kai Feng, who set it up was a recent BC manager at Everest, hence the semblance of orderliness. We each had a tent to ourselves at BC -- the need for personal space & privacy during rest time was vital. There was just a simple problem - the food was horrible.

I never thought cooking is difficult when I was studying at Australia. Indeed, it is not that tough as sea level. One should take note how altitude can make a difference on cooking. If 1 litre of water takes 3min to boils at 100 degree C. The same amount of water would take around 20min to boil at about 80 degree C at BC. Do take note, the calculation does not take ambient temperature into consideration. My cook never done any high altitude cooking prior to my Mustagh trip. Phei Sunn tried to make half boil “YaKun style eggs”, but alas, boiled water was not hot enough at Basecamp to cook it even after 15min of soaking.

The food at BC (left), and food at Tashkurgan (right)

Food is an art to any true-blooded Singaporean. In the mountains, we need it to replenish and repair. My resting heart rates at Basecamp averaged 90-100. That was almost double our sea-level of my 50-60.Just sitting around doing nothing, the basal metabolic rates have increased. On each swooshing of 5-8hr, we typically consumed one packet of Gu-gel, some Oreos, vacuum-packed sausage &/ or chocs. In relative comparison, we take about 3-4 gels per marathon. That was how much abuse our bodies were getting.

Preparing food at BC for C1 and C2

At BC, food-oh-glorious was reduced to beneath functionality. There were tonnes of carbohydrate, but nothing nutritious that allowed for recovery of loss muscles, strength etc. Vegetables were always cooked with mutton, and after a week my team and me were sick of the meat. Sadly, I can’t also have problem eating (especially food with strong smell) at high altitude. So far, I know I don’t reject preserve mango and my favourite Triberry GU gel. High altitude does funny tweaking to one's taste buds.

We started fantasizing of everything salty. Like chicken-in-a-biscuit, potato chips, french fries... Then we tried asking our Cook to fry eggs sunny-side up -- they turned up drenched in oil with cooked yolks.

To me, mountaineering is about playing with science and logic. Every action would cause a reaction. One has to be dynamic to survive the terrain with uncountable possibilities of screwing up a climb.

Sunset from Mustagh Ata Base Camp