ISLAND PEAK

ISLAND PEAK HERE WE COME!!!!

We headed to Island Base Camp and hoped with all of our hearts for good weather. We did end up hiring a guide, even though we have all hike mountains before never one like this, never one THIS high.  It looked like a baby mountain compared to Ama Dablam or Lhotse, but still high enough to all make us a little nervous that all would go well. The two days that we had our guide *Astar* a cook accompanied us who prepared tasty hot meals and tea that made our bellies pretty happy... I felt SO spoiled!
So hiking day...or should I say night, finally came.

Island Base Camp

  

12:00 a.m. *Midnight* Wake up (or should I simply say, roll out of my sleeping bag because we didn't sleep at all) and drink tea
12:30 a.m. eat porridge
1:00 a.m. begin to hike

One of my favorite moments on the way up was looking at the black night sky (the epitome of no light pollution!), seeing SO many stars   above me then realizing that the dark outlines that surround us weren’t clouds, but the silhouettes of giant mountains...

Once arrived at the glacier the sky was slowly being painted with pinks and purples and the sun was threatening to rise...
We switched to our hard boots, crampons, put our harnesses on, and short roped together, ice axes in hand...
 

 

 

The crevasses were AMAZING!! They were SO big, so so so big.
I look ahead for whats coming, I see the head wall, oh my, thats straight up and down, how...HOW am I going to be able to get up that?!

 5:30 a.m. hit the head wall....oh my

 

So close....

THE CREW AT THE TOP!!

  

 

 

Island Peak:

6,189 meters  *  20,305 feet 

 

Lohtse behind us...one of the top 5 highest mountains in the WORLD

7:00 a.m. we're on the summit....6 hours, yea!

 

 

 

  

Mission accomplished...

Unforgettable views that's for sure. (might I add we beat Lydia and the group of guys to the summit hehe) On the way up each one of us had our 'moment' that was rough, honestly, the head wall was my rough patch. It was a really strange feeling, I wasn't dying to catch my breath, I was just really really tired, sleepy, like I could feel the oxygen and energy being sucked out my legs. 

At 5500 meters * 18,000 feet oxygen is at 50%, perhaps thats why I was struggling hehe

but every step to the top was worth it....