Sadly, at Duglha, (4,620m) the advanced symptoms of AMS began to bite. I fell in
and out of consciousness, suffering with a severe headache, fatigue and complete
lack of co-ordination. You could easily die here without noticing. It was very
scary. The others said nothing either. We limped on to the lodge where we had planned lunch. I was completely out of it now, and thankfully, our Sirdar made the ultimate decision. I had to go down to a lower altitude to relieve the symptoms, and leave the others to battle on. This was the worst day of all. The goal was less than a day away, but it was the end of the trail for me. I was literally dragged at lightening speed off the higher terrain by a Sherpa, eager to get some oxygen back into my system. Wendy could have gone on slowly, but decided to descend too. You cannot begin to describe the discomfort of altitude sickness here, and I accepted defeat. This wa no place for anyone to try and be a hero. Despite all this, probably one of the best pictures of all awaited us - just around the corner...ures . |