Antoine enjoying a nice wash Photo (c) Tom Padgham 1998

Antoine and Tom report that they made the summit, although it was a battle against miles of horribly soft snow. Sue had become exhausted about the same place as Julian had, and the whole party were thoroughly spent when the arrived late at Yalung high camp.

They also discovered that the MSR mountain stoves we brought with us do not work over 5000m. Rather than a nice blue roaring flame, they produce instead a horrible engulfing ball of sooty orange flame. It had been a cold dinner, then, though Pasang had had the foresight / masochism to bring a gallon pressure cooker packed with cooked rice to high camp, which must of weighed at least 5kg.

At dinner Kami impresses us once again by presenting us with a beautifully baked cake iced with 'Ramdung 1998'. How does he do it? In fact, the cake is a type of fruity bread and the icing is Primula cream cheese!