By linking my account to the check-in system, I became a leisurely traveler.

Chapter 280 Eating, Drinking, Sleeping, and Blood Oxygen

Choosing to dig snow directly near a camp at an altitude of over 7,000 meters on Mount Everest as a water source is definitely not a wise choice.

Those who frequently climb Mount Everest know very well that above 7,000 meters, a person's mobility is severely limited.
The route is now very well-established, so climbers who come here generally choose to rest at established campsites.

But rest is not just about eating and sleeping. There is something that most people who have climbed Mount Everest will not mention: relieving oneself.

The North Slope Advance Base Camp is the last camp with supplies. At an altitude of 1 meters, it is extremely difficult for the Sherpas to carry large quantities of supplies up through their physical labor.

Therefore, the public toilet tents that are in the advance camp are not available at Camp C1. To be precise, there are no public toilets from here upwards, and both men and women relieve themselves anywhere.

The next question is a math problem.

Over the past decade, an average of two to three hundred people have summited Mount Everest each year, and even more have reached Camp 1. After all, Camp 1 is an important altitude acclimatization point. Many mountaineering teams will climb up here, descend, and climb back up again in this cycle to allow their bodies to adapt to the altitude. Although there is no accurate data, even an estimate can be made – at least a thousand people visit Camp 1 each year.

So, the question is: since the establishment of Camp C1, over such a long period of time, what has been the density of excrement and urine near the camp?
These thousands of people eat, drink, and relieve themselves near the camp. After they finish, the fresh snow covers them, and if people dig up the snow here to use as a water source the following year, they will be eating the excrement and urine of the previous year's climbers.

After all, fungi cannot survive at this altitude, so there is no possibility of biodegradation.

Meanwhile, the microorganisms and bacteria in feces and urine are temporarily frozen due to the cold environment...

The current situation is even more brutal, because it is now the last window of opportunity in May, and the last group of climbers who reached the summit were only two or three days ago. This means that if you dig in the snow near Camp 1, you will most likely be eating fresh excrement and urine.

This is not unfounded. In fact, every year climbers who attempt to ascend Mount Everest are infected with various diseases, and the source of infection is human excrement.

However, this situation is unavoidable, as the vast majority of people now climb for commercial purposes.

To put it bluntly, these commercial climbers, although much stronger than the average person, have earned their place on Mount Everest through money.

Once they reach camps at altitudes above 7000 meters, this group has almost no ability to take care of themselves, and their meals depend entirely on the guides.

At this altitude, you can't care about the taste of food; if you don't eat, you'll die. Living is everything. Who cares about excrement at this point?

So when Li Younan noticed the guide digging in the snow from afar... he couldn't help but feel nauseous.

When it comes to food, Lee You-nan, a top chef, is very picky.

Water is the most important ingredient in food, and no matter how harsh the conditions are, you can't let your stomach suffer.

Li Younan silently chose to forget what he was seeing before him, and then walked towards the camp.

The guide who was collecting snow there was completely stunned when he saw Li Younan carrying such a large backpack.

There was once a philosophical question: did the climbers or the Sherpas reach the summit of Mount Everest?

One interesting point of contention is that without the local Sherpas or Tibetans carrying the vast majority of supplies to the camp, it would have been absolutely impossible for mountaineers to reach the summit of Mount Everest on their own.

For example, this group of mountaineers here each carried only a small amount of supplies and equipment; the vast majority of their supplies were transported to the camp in advance by the mountaineering company.

Moreover, they were not climbing without oxygen; each person carried enough oxygen, most of which was carried up by the mountaineering company.

Every climber who comes here pays hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So when they saw Li Younan, fully armed and carrying a huge backpack, they were stunned.

Huh? You carried all the supplies up yourself?

Li Younan didn't immediately strike up a conversation with the mountaineering team over there; instead, he started setting up his own tent.

The tents, oxygen, gas cylinders, food, and other supplies at the campsite were provided by the commercial mountaineering team at their own expense and are only available to the team members and their assistants.

Although Li Younan had paid some fees beforehand, it only covered the use of supplies in the first two camps. After reaching Camp C1, he could not use the supplies or tents in the two camps that went up to it.

Therefore, Li Younan's backpack was much larger than that of an ordinary mountaineer.

Although they couldn't use their supplies, the campsite was public after all, and it was an ideal shelter from the wind with relatively flat terrain, so Li Younan also chose to pitch his tent here.

In fact, this was the first time Li Youran had shown his equipment to the live stream since he started climbing Mount Everest.

First of all, there's the all-season mountain tent. This type of tent isn't very heavy. The one Li Younan bought is the most professional and the best. It weighs only 2.3 kilograms, yet it can withstand winds and snowstorms of level 12 or higher and temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius.

The tent's bottom features abrasion-resistant and waterproof design. After taking the tent out, Li Younan secured it with high-strength ice spikes and guy lines before opening the tent flap to go inside.

The tent was spacious. Li Younan placed his bag in one corner of the tent, then took out a down sleeping bag and explained to the audience, "This down sleeping bag has a temperature rating of -40 degrees Celsius. In fact, the temperature here won't reach that extreme."

Before putting down the sleeping bag, a moisture-proof mat needs to be laid on top. In this way, Li Younan has set up his sleeping area for the night.

Taking advantage of the relatively ample time, Li Younan began to show off his other equipment to the audience off-camera.

Li Younan said, "On Mount Everest, keeping warm and protecting yourself are extremely important."

"Those who frequently climb Mount Everest know that quick-drying underwear, fleece sweaters, windproof and waterproof jackets and pants, and down-filled linings are all essential."

"In addition, everyone should bring mountain gloves, snow goggles, cold-weather hats, and warm socks."

Because commercial mountaineers typically don't need to carry food and water, nor do they need to cook for themselves, they usually only carry some high-energy foods, such as energy bars, chocolate, and compressed biscuits, and at most a thermos and a gas canister with a stove to heat the food.

But Li Younan is different.

Li Younan's skills endowed him with a powerful load-bearing capacity. After all, his load-bearing experience required him to reduce his weight by a full 50 kilograms. In fact, even if a mountaineer did not consider lightweighting at all, the equipment he carried would definitely not reach half of that number.

Therefore, Li Younan carried some things that ordinary climbers of Mount Everest would absolutely never bring in their backpacks: a high-altitude stove, a portable pressure cooker, a 2.5-kilogram bag of rice, dehydrated vegetables, and several kilograms of dried meat... The food and cooking equipment alone weighed more than ten kilograms.

Climbing Mount Everest is an extremely physically demanding activity, so it's essential to eat well to have the energy to climb.

As Li Younan took out his dinner ingredients, he said to the viewers outside the screen, "To be honest, I don't recommend that everyone try to climb Mount Everest alone, because you have to carry a lot of things."

Next, Li Younan prepared to cook. He took the portable high-altitude gas stove canister outside.

It's worth mentioning that there are many usable supplies at the Everest base camps above 7 meters. Many climbers encounter various problems after reaching the summit and descend early, abandoning much of their non-essential equipment on the mountain. Therefore, you can find a lot of usable gear along the way. For example, Li Younan found a small folding table and a small stool.

Next, it was time to fetch water. Li Younan observed the area and focused his gaze on a steep ice wall a few hundred meters away from Camp C1. That spot was a precipice, and unless it was him, no ordinary person could climb it. It wasn't on the route to Mount Everest, so the possibility of someone carelessly urinating there was virtually eliminated. Furthermore, the glacier on the ice wall was different from snow; it contained a much higher water content. Just breaking off some ice fragments would provide enough water.

Just as Li Younan took an empty small bag out of his backpack to get ice, a woman from the mountaineering team strolled over leisurely.

It's hard for anyone not to be curious about Li Younan. After all, he came up alone. It's been many years since anyone has successfully summited Mount Everest solo from the north face; the last universally accepted, documented summit record is from 1980. There are quite a few solo ascents from the south face, but it's clearly not at the same level of difficulty as the north face.

"Huh, you... are you live streaming?" The other person immediately noticed that Li Younan's live streaming device seemed to be on.

"Yes, I'm driving it."

"Did you come up here alone?"

"Yes."

"You climbed Mount Everest all by yourself without a team?" The woman was clearly stunned.

At this moment, the viewers watching Li Younan's live stream had already started commenting wildly.

"I just love seeing how clueless those mountaineers are when they face Li Shen."

The woman hesitated for a moment, then squatted down next to Li Younan. She looked at the mountain stove and the portable pressure cooker in front of him, and her lips twitched slightly. The mountain stove looked quite heavy, and combined with the pressure cooker, it was simply outrageous.

But what truly astonished her wasn't just the equipment Li Younan carried. Those who haven't actually set foot here have no idea why climbing Mount Everest is so difficult for a solo climb—it's all about the supplies.

It's important to understand that while the vertical drop from base camp to the summit of Mount Everest is less than 4 meters and the distance is only a few dozen kilometers, a journey that would take at most two or three days on flat ground, takes many times longer when climbing Mount Everest.

One reason is that the climbing pattern of Mount Everest involves going up and down repeatedly, allowing the body to adapt to the altitude.

As time goes on, it means you'll need more food, more oxygen, and more supplies to accomplish this.

The reason why climbing Mount Everest requires spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire a mountaineering company for support is precisely this.

You have to spend so much time going up and down the mountain to let your body adapt to the altitude, and you certainly can't transport those supplies yourself during that process.

There are more solo climbers on the south slope, mainly because the routes there are easier to navigate, with fewer vertical ice walls to climb, allowing individuals to prepare supplies in advance on their own.

Even so, climbing Mount Everest alone is difficult, and on the north side, it's simply impossible.

Women are always more curious, so she asked directly, "Are you planning to stay here for a few days and then go down again?"

Li Younan looked at the woman strangely and shook his head: "The window of opportunity for climbing Mount Everest is almost here, so of course we should climb it in one go."

The woman was even more surprised: "You...aren't you going to adjust to the altitude?"

Li Younan smiled and said, "I don't have enough supplies to squander. If we don't reach the summit in three days, we won't have enough food."

The woman stared in disbelief: "You...you mean you plan to go straight up to the summit from here without any altitude acclimatization?"

Li Younan nodded.

The woman wanted to chat with Li Younan for a bit more, but just then, the guide called out to her, "Come and eat."

The woman responded, hesitated for a moment, glanced at the pressure cooker Li Younan was carrying, and ultimately did not invite Li Younan over.

After all, Li Younan wasn't part of their business team. Inviting a stranger to their team at this altitude was definitely not a wise move.

"What's your name?" the woman asked.

At this moment, Li Younan was wearing snow goggles, so his face was not clearly visible.

"My name is Li Younan."

"Li Younan?" The woman clearly recognized Li Younan. "I know you. You climbed Mount Gongga before. You...you're here to challenge Mount Everest again?"

The guide over there was already urging them: "The food's getting cold."

"Coming, coming." The woman waved to Li Younan and hurried over to eat.

Li Younan looked at the women over there with some amusement as their conversation drifted over from afar.

What did we eat today?

"Dried rice with miso soup."

"Oh……"

Li Younan couldn't help but think of the snow again... A wave of nausea washed over him, and he quickly grabbed his bag and headed towards the place he had planned to get ice.

……

Just as Li Younan had walked a few hundred meters toward the ice wall, the live stream notification indicated a connection request.

Li Younan knew that the host of the live broadcast room had come online again, so he clicked "agree".

The screen showed images of the live stream host and guests. "Yu Nan, how are you feeling today?"

Li Younan waved the bag and ice axe in his hand and said, "I feel pretty good. I'm going to get my water source now."

The host and guests were puzzled: "Why did you go to such a far place to fetch water?"

Li Younan paused for a moment, then sighed softly and said, "The snow near the camp is not very clean."

The host looked completely bewildered, while the guest with climbing experience immediately understood what Li Younan meant and then began to explain to the host and the audience in the live broadcast room.

After hearing the guest's explanation, the host looked surprised and asked Li Younan, "Younan, is that so?"

Li Younan nodded: "Indeed. At this altitude, if someone gets an upset stomach, the climbing plan might not go smoothly. We need to eliminate these effects as much as possible."

As he spoke, Li Younan had already arrived at the bottom of the ice wall.

There were signs that someone had been here, so Li Younan thought for a moment and said, "To ensure the safety of our drinking water as much as possible, we need to climb up a bit to get some ice."

The host quickly said, "Yu-Nan, be careful!"

Li Younan smiled and began to climb upwards without caring.

He didn't climb very high, only about two or three meters up. Li Younan secured himself with one hand and began chipping away at the ice on the ice wall with the other, quickly filling a bag to the brim.

At this moment, the guest belatedly asked, "By the way, You Nan, don't you need to stockpile your supplies in advance?"

Li Younan packed his ice-collecting equipment and said, "No need, I plan to go straight up in one go."

The guest was so shocked that he was speechless.

The host asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

The guest then came to his senses and earnestly explained to him what Li Younan's actions meant.

"Two years ago, four former British special forces soldiers used a mixture of xenon gas to assist their breathing and completed the summit in just five days."

"Strictly speaking, they used technical means, so it wasn't a completely anaerobic state."

"Nevertheless, it has already refreshed humanity's understanding of the limits."

"If Li Younan could complete the summit of Mount Everest from the north face in just three to five days under completely oxygen-free conditions, then without a doubt, even without the downhill skiing step, he would be the first person to climb Mount Everest."

"If we rank Li Younan's combination of physical qualities and technical abilities as T0, then there is no one in the next tier, T1, and no one in T2 either."

"Is that an exaggeration?"

"Are you kidding me! To summit Everest directly from Camp 1 without needing acclimatization means that this person possesses both the Sherpa's innate high-altitude acclimatization ability and the skills and physical abilities of a world-class mountaineer. This almost represents the level of human physiological and psychological limits under extreme environments!"

Li Younan smiled as she looked at the startled host on the screen: "I'll stop chatting with you for now. I need to go back and cook; I'm a little hungry."

……

When Li Younan returned to the camp, he ran into the woman from before. She ran past him in a panic and then hid behind a rock.

Li Younan was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized what was going on—he had an upset stomach.

Unexpectedly, the snow near the campsite was so effective at cooking.

He glanced with some sympathy in the direction the woman had fled, and sighed softly.

At this altitude, if you get infected like this, it's practically impossible to summit from the north side.

Li Younan composed herself and began cooking her dinner.

First, heat the water until all the ice is melted into water and brought to a boil.

At an altitude of 7 meters, the boiling point of water is far below 100 degrees Celsius, only about 60 degrees Celsius. Therefore, Li Younan directly used a pressure cooker to heat the water to above 100 degrees Celsius, and then let it cool naturally to prevent the water vapor from carrying away too much water. In this way, he obtained pure water that had been sterilized at high temperature.

In fact, the location where Li Younan retrieved the ice had essentially eliminated the possibility of bacterial infection.

The ice and snow here, if we disregard pollution, are relatively clean in origin, consisting mainly of water vapor from the atmosphere.

After Li Younan handled it this way, there was even less need to worry about hygiene and safety.

The viewers in the live stream commented on how remarkable this scene was.

"As expected of my God Li, even when climbing Mount Everest, he still maintains his composure."

Li Younan poured half of the boiled water into his thermos.

This kettle has a large capacity of two liters. Drinking hot water at high altitudes can effectively relieve altitude sickness. Although Li Younan does not need to use it to relieve altitude sickness, drinking hot water is always a very comfortable thing.

The other half was for cooking. Li Younan poured the rice in, mixed it with some vegetables and dried meat, and successfully cooked a pot of fragrant rice.

The cooked rice can be eaten for two meals. Li Younan put half of it into a freezer bag. In this extremely low temperature environment, it will freeze solid in no time. When eating it tomorrow, you can just heat it up with hot water.

After tossing on a bit of the signature spicy sauce, Li Younan started her mukbang in front of the camera: "Guys, the real challenge is yet to come tomorrow."

After having dinner, Li Younan replaced the power supply for his live-streaming equipment, finished his live stream for the day, and then went to rest in his tent.

He needs to get some rest now.

Tomorrow we will travel from Camp 1 to Camp 2, climbing more than 760 meters in altitude. Along the way, we will encounter three large snow slopes and sections with a mix of snow and rock.

The first 500 meters are gentle but the route is long. The next 200 meters are extremely steep and crampons will make it very difficult to walk with them. In addition, you will pass through a strong wind gap.

It's clear that the mountaineering team next door has already acclimatized to the altitude and is probably planning to continue their ascent to Camp 2 tomorrow.

However, compared to Li Younan, this team was doing aerobic climbing, and the difficulty was on a completely different level.

It was destined to be a sleepless night, at least for the people on the mountaineering team outside; Li Younan slept soundly.

The next morning, Li Younan got up and packed his gear. The others in the camp were still asleep. After finishing, Li Younan silently embarked on his journey to the next target location.

In May, it gets light as early as 5 a.m. on Mount Everest, while the sun doesn't set until around 8:5 p.m. Beijing time. So, the daytime hours are actually quite long, about fifteen hours.

Of course, I also checked my blood oxygen level, which was 97 on the monitor screen.

Li Younan sighed slightly. Despite his careful attention to rest, his blood oxygen level still dropped by 3 points. He was worried that his blood oxygen level would drop to around 94 or 5 after summiting Mount Everest.

After several hours of climbing, Li Younan's footsteps crunched through the snow as he crossed three large snow slopes, and before him lay a windy pass where rocks and snow mixed together.

This will be the first relatively dangerous hurdle that Li Younan will face.

Li Younan squinted at the windy pass ahead, where there was a narrow mountain ridge passage with sheer drop-offs on both sides.

Because the terrain is naturally funnel-shaped, the narrowest part is only wide enough for one person to pass through.

Such terrain creates a funnel effect for winds of force 5 or 6. When airflow flows from an open area into a narrow passage, the air cannot accumulate and can only pass through at a faster speed.

Therefore, the wind force will increase significantly, and may even strengthen to level 8-12.

If the wind speed reaches its maximum between January and March or after November, it is almost impossible to pass. However, the wind speed is relatively weaker between May and October, making passage possible.

Looking at the time of day, the wind is relatively weak before noon.

At this moment, Li Younan was only approaching the wind gap when he heard the wind howling like ghosts and wolves. As he continued to walk forward, he even felt that the wind gap had formed an almost opaque, horizontally moving wind wall.

This is not just wind, but a physical barrier carrying ice particles.

Li Younan took a deep breath, stabilized his core, and stepped into the wind barrier.

Instantly, he felt the wind pressure not only acting on his body surface, but even trying to squeeze oxygen out of his mouth and nose.

Li Younan was also taken aback, because he found that he was unable to take effective deep breaths under such wind pressure.

Li Younan looked at the pulse oximeter; his blood oxygen level had dropped by 2 points again, reaching 93.

Just as he felt his breathing rhythm about to be disrupted by the strong wind, his muscles subconsciously began to adjust his breathing.

He suddenly felt his diaphragm and rib muscles making subtle adjustments with an extraordinary frequency and strength, vying with the gale for control of each breath.

Terrifying blood oxygenation capacity!
To ensure his equipment wouldn't be blown away by the wind, Li Younan had already put away the selfie stick for the panoramic camera and mounted the action camera on his helmet.

He took a deep breath, and although the wind briefly disrupted his breathing rhythm, he found that his body was taking the pressure into account.

After a short adjustment period, my blood oxygen saturation actually started to rise, 94, 95, and it returned to 95!

Li Younan breathed a slight sigh of relief, his gaze hardening once more. He steadied himself and continued forward.

Just then, Li Younan spotted another group of mountaineers.

My feelings were a bit complicated.

To be honest, I encountered more climbers during my time on Mount Everest than I did during a single backpacking trip through western Sichuan...

It's said to be the world's highest mountain, a forbidden zone for life. Is that reasonable?
Just then, a series of intermittent, torn cries for help came from the wind.

Li Younan looked up and saw that a climber's oxygen mask had been blown away next to the rope ahead.

The mask got stuck in a crevice in the rock.

The climber was clearly terrified and lay motionless on the ground.

Li Younan's heart sank slightly.

The sudden change brought the mountaineering team ahead to a standstill, blocking the only route through the windy pass.

The result also brought some trouble for Li Younan.

If he went around... his gaze swept over the cliffs on both sides, where there were many ice crevasses, and the danger would continue to rise; but if he waited, his body temperature and strength would be rapidly depleted in the gale.

It's important to know that in this kind of wind, without proper insulation, the perceived temperature can drop to minus fifty or sixty degrees Celsius.

Li Younan knew very well that because he didn't need an oxygen mask and his blood oxygen level was above the safe limit, he was the only person on site who was capable of providing assistance.

He took a deep breath, and without the slightest hesitation, used his astonishing core strength to steady himself in the gale. He calmly said to the live broadcast equipment, "Brothers, the plan has changed. We need to go save someone first."

This is not only about saving lives, but also about clearing a path for oneself.

And... we're already here.

(End of this chapter)