Today is a rest day (as well as tomorrow) in order to recover from the past 3 days of very high altitude, and to build red blood cells, it’s a critical step of the acclimatisation and an important milestone of the expedition.

I like the way Chris puts it: “your body has taken a hit at high altitude, and all its sensors are telling him that it needs to produce more red blood cells in order to operate better and manage oxygen better. You need do NOTHING, rest, lie in your tent, drink a lot of water and let it produce red blood cells that will help you for the final summit push”. (And by the way Chris Harling, 43 years old, is no newbie, he summited Everest in 2007 and has been climbing for about 30 years )

(Chris with red fleece)

But equally important is the date of this rest day: Nov 5 and that’s my birthday. I am going to celebrate my 40th in the mountains, what a treat and a unique place to change decade. Amazingly I wake up feeling as young as ever after a good 8-9 hours sleep. Glenn is the first to see me and wish me a happy bday followed by Florence, Chris and Xav over breakfast.

The day is absolutely amazing, blue sky and a view of Himlung which just take my breath away. I roll up the door of the mess tent just to be able to spend the entire breakfast contemplating the 7000m mountain that we are producing red blood cells for. It’s a humbling moment, and I am close to life’s true meaning, far from the city distractions and unimportant work issues that we are forced to believe are so important when we are in the thick of it.

The day goes by doing ‘nothing’. And at dinner time I am treated to a nice cake from Rojan our Nepali chef and a nice bottle of sweet wine that Xav brought from Kathmandu on a mule’s back and it survived the ordeal. First alcohol in 2 weeks and we all sip it delicately in our metal tea cups.

It’s a late birthday night, I think I go to bed at 9pm! Almost 2 hours later than for the past 10 days…

Tomorrow is another rest day so I can fully recover and get ready for the final push.