Sunday morning we left early to try to reach the summit of the Lenin Peak. Unfortunately the conditions forced us to turn around as it was just far too dangerous to continue on after 6300m. The wind was too strong so we decided to call it off. For the next few days the weather forecast was not looking good in a hope to get another chance.

Breath in, step, breath out. Breath in, step, breath out.

Climbing to 6100m is quite a struggle! But I am here, camp two! Besides the lack of oxygen it’s also extremely windy. The dry powder snow gets everywhere and you need to be sure to cover every bit of skin! Tomorrow we start at four, the moment I have waited for for months! Will I be capable? How will my body react? Do I have the endurance? Let’s find out if Lenin Peak allows me on his summit!

At 5am I left (with 8 others) Advance Base Camp to go to Camp 1. Hopefully the 4 other members of the group will follow one day after us. We arrived there at 11 and are now at 5300m. The hard wind is common but today was something else. Some empty tents were blown away down the slope and one actually came back up! Despite the hard wind it was really hot today, blue sky and a lot of sun. Tomorrow we are off to Camp 2 at 6100m.

A short message today. We walked to Advance Base Camp, Rim as well because he found a donkey too expensive. Thijmen is preparing for the summit and Rim will manage communications together with Alexander, our 82 year old expedition organizer. They will also enjoy the predicted good weather. We will have to wake up in six hours, so goodnight! Local time Kyrgyzstan 22.45h.

Today we had a rest day in Base Camp. We visited the Kyrgyzstan mountain festival. There were supposed to be awesome horse races but after yet another speech our priorities moved to shaslick bread and tea. Tomorrow we will go up to Advance Base Camp where Thijmen will start his summit attempt!

Today is a sad day. Rim has decided not to climb the peak. His foot is far from ok, which brings too much risks on a climb like this. Instead, he will go to Advance Base Camp and enjoy some fresh mountain air. Luckily, Thijmen is fit as ever and will try to reach the top. Due to possible bad weather at the end of the week, we will go up to Advance Base Camp tomorrow (Wednesday). Rim will most likely make this climb on the back of a donkey. We (Thijmen and the rest of the team) will go beyond the day after.

While most of the team slept in camp 1, Sergeiz stayed in Base Camp under antibiotic. Yesterday sadly two others had to descent to Advance Base Camp, Gerhard and Camillia. Today everybody regrouped in Base Camp for two rest days but Rim sprained his ankle! Hopefully everybody feels better soon! Rest, eat, drink and get well!

13:30h. We just arrived at camp 2! With strong winds and a minus twenty wind chill equivalent temperature, we won’t stay here for long. We also reached the summit of Razdelnaya (6190m) which was just around the corner. Now back down to camp 1 and sleep.

A new height record! We arrived at camp 1, 5300 meters. It was a long day, with lots of sun, a white-out, an avalanche and some thunder. Now, we are hiding from the snow in the tent, and will sleep soon so we can climb up and down to camp 2 tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Advance Base Camp at 4400m. The weather was not that good, some rain and higher up probably snow. Today we had a rest day instead of ascending to camp 1. Some of our team members were not feeling fit so we stayed another day at Advance Base Camp. With everyone well rested we have an early start tomorrow! We will leave the Advance Base Camp with it’s big four-person tent for just the two of us…say hello to our cosy Black Diamond Expedi.