As predicted, the day started extremely early. We got up at 4 am into the freezing cold and dark. I carried only my daypack, with some water and a wet-weather jacket in it. I wore 3 layers of jumpers and my down jacket, two layers of warm socks and my trekking pants. A beanie, head torch and trekking sticks (invaluable for trekking in the dark!) completed my outfit. If it wasn’t for our guide I’d have lost the path on the way up. It was a hard slog, but I coped batter with this one than Kempy. So I went last and walked at his pace. Being just a touch slower than my own made it quite plesant for me, though he was cursing and swearing. About 1/2 way up the mountain (a bit over an hour walking up a 30-45 degree incline) it started to become light. While there was no cloud in sight before ( you could see all the stars over the mountains!!) the mountains got a bit shy in the light and covered up in clouds. I put away my sticks and started taking photos anyway. Eventually we made it to the top. Oh my, what a view! Even cloudy, it was spectacular. We were the first there, but were soon joined by a group of noisy older yanks. I explored the ridge a bit further away from them and their noise, only to have an old guy follow me to piss of the edge. I kept going to the very far side of the ridge (which I was later told isn’t very stable…) and took some photos and video, hopefully far enough away from them that they couldn’t be heard too much in the recording. When I returned to Kempy and the Guide we took some photos of ourselves and then headed back down. The trip down was easier, but harder on my knees, which made me extra cautious and slow. A spot of breakfast later (I had the most fantastic plate-sized hash brown with egg and cheese!) we packed up and headed out. We were going to go back to Dolay, but we only made it to Machherma before our guide succumbed to a massive headache. No issue for us though, the people here are lovely and the food is fantastic! The 4 am start left me a bit weary, so I slept for a few hours while Ryan read my kindle. It sustained a scratch in the last few days of travel unfortunately… I should have bought a cover for it! 🙁 Anyway, I awoke to some Noisy chinese neighbours moving in for the night, had dinner and went back to sleep not long after.