Haggard, Staggered and Shaggered

Once upon a time, five glamorous women ambitiously set off from base camp on their final adventure to the summit. Camps 1, 2, and 3 were reached successfully in beautiful weather. At camp 3, 6800m, the weather turned and wind howled as we boiled water through the night. Getting enough water was crucial as many other climbers couldn't continue due to dehydration. At 3am we started piling on the layers and interestingly the main concern wasn't 'Does my bum, look big in these down trousers?'. It's hard to describe how horrific it is getting out of the tent into the teeth of a freezing gale with the lack of oxygen and accumulated exhaustion. On departure at 5.30am no part of our skin was visible. Excruciatingly slowly we made our way towards the summit. Ten hours into the slow, snow, slog we reached what we thought was the summit, then we discovered it wasn't. The true summit was 150m higher and two hours away. Our time window had expired. At 7400m the Lipstick Blondes took to their skis and boards delighted with the amazing achievement of all of us getting so far. To celebrate, Carole got her crochet out. We are fairly sure this an extreme crochet record.

Above 7000m people's lips tend to make a bid for freedom, except Squash's, she insisted on taking her beauty products to camp 3. Perhaps Carole wishes she had too given her impressive combination of sunburn and frostbite which has resulted in most of her face falling off. Five not so glamourous women returned to base camp haggard, staggered and shaggered.