Pakistan: What went wrong?

Hey Cracksters,

I’ve recently just got back from an expedition to Pakistan—however, I shouldn’t be back this early. In fact, the rest of the team is still out there and still climbing as we speak!

So, what happened?

I actually ended up getting extremely altitude sick. So sick, in fact, that getting back down to lower altitudes became a real fight. There were definitely some things out of my control which led to this, but looking back, I could have done a few things better to help prevent it.

These points are mainly just notes to myself, but I thought I’d put them into a newsletter anyway.

So, what went wrong...

Gaining altitude too quickly: This was obviously the big one. The reason it all went wrong was because I gained too much altitude too quickly. I was starting to feel quite bad on day 3 of the hike to basecamp. However, the rest of the team (who were fine) and I, kind of took the approach to push on to basecamp and try to rest and recover there. In the end not the right decision at all…

No backup plan: We had porters carrying our equipment to basecamp, which meant that every day, my tent, sleeping gear, and food would progress to the next camp no matter what. The porters would charge on and I was left with no option but to reach the next camp. There was no backup plan that had previously been discussed regarding "what to do if someone got sick" and so I was left with no option but to progress to higher altitudes each day.

Recovering at high altitude when you’re already sick doesn’t work: I was continuously told, "just get to basecamp, and then you can recover." However, I quickly found out that if you’re already sick, recovering at an altitude you’re sick at doesn’t work! As I tried to recover, I ended up getting worse and worse, until the point where actually getting back down to lower altitudes became a massive problem.

The slightly disappointing thing about all of this is that I already knew these three points, and I could feel the altitude sickness getting out of control.

What should I have done…

1.Take action myself and become self sufficient

2. Go back to lower altitudes early with my own tent and food and catch up with the rest of the group at my own pace.

While that's very easy to say now, it is incredibly difficult to do in the moment when everyone else is pushing forward.

Anyway, I am back and recovering (almost fully recovered now). Although the expedition feels very disappointing on paper, looking back on it, it has been a very good learning exercise. I absolutely won’t be making those same mistakes again, and things will hopefully go a lot smoother in similar situations in the future. I will take a different approach, or at least have a solid backup plan in place.

Bit of a strange newsletter for you this week, it’s mainly just thoughts to myself (and then to you), but don’t worry I’ll be sharing more crack tips with you in the next newsletter!