The following morning, the team gathered outside their tents. As they ate their breakfasts of porridge, Frank mentally went over the logistics of the next two weeks. For the majority of it, they’d be spending their time acclimatizing to the 5,300-meter altitude of Base Camp. Many of them would probably suffer sleep-deprived nights, headaches, and a loss of appetite until their bodies adjusted—or not. Sometimes you never acclimate and that made for a long, uncomfortable forty-five days at the top of the world. His one huge mantra, which he would continue to emphasize over and over, was to drink, drink, and then drink again. Nothing did more to help their bodies deal with the stress they were under than a steady dose of water to replenish what the thin air siphoned away. Beyond that, it was
