Camp III

5th May 1924

They finally reached Camp III at 6 p.m., cold, exhausted and hungry. The food supplies at the camp were not as well organized as they should have been and the climbers were without soup that night, and therefore vital liquid. Added to that the jam and cheese were frozen solid. 'One course of Mutton + veg. the first morsel since breakfast + 2 cups of cool coffee left me very thirsty + hungry’, Sandy complained. At that height the human body requires an enormous amount of liquid each day, somewhere in the vicinity of six litres as it is now understood. In 1924 this was not appreciated and Sandy’s lack of liquid intake had a very big bearing on his performance over the following days. That night he slept for the first time at 21,300 feet. ‘I slept like a log in spite of the stones we lay on until midnight, after which I couldn’t get comfy. The sleeping bag grew to about 1/2 its original size, all my clothes felt uncomfy and I kept turning over into patches of frozen breath. From 5 am onwards I slept soundly until 9.'