My stomach started to turn and I started to feel sick quite fast. It was very hard to get sleep and we would already leave at 0130 in the night. The night was ice cold. Effectively in the morning we noticed the small river next to our tents had turned into ice. I felt there was a problem with my toes, they were icecold although I had packed them in my warmest socks, put my dow jacket around them and they were in the sleeping bag. I need to massage them with my hands to remove the cold. I got no sleep at all when Dmitry came at my tent during the night. I put on all the clothes I had, a long sleeved thermal tshirt, my fleece and dow jacket and gloves.

It was very cold during the night at this altitude. We switched on our lamps and went further up the mountain.
Navigating in the dark, and when icecold is a lot more difficult then during the day with sunlight. We got lost a few times in the difficult morene terrain. Also there were some dangerous bridges to cross with unmeasurable deep crevasses.
As I had no sleep at all the last night, and my stomach was still upset, I was suffering like hell every step and struggling to get enough breath.

I asked Dimi to slow down as I couldn’t keep up anymore. He was going like a bat out of hell. We were already well above 4000m when I said to Dimi to stop. I made a decision at this point to go back alone as I felt I could keep this pace for another 1000 vertical meters. Dimi asked if I could get back myself and he continued to the top himself. Brave man.

Exhausted I got back to the Black Cross camp and was begging for my tent now. I was not there yet. I saw two small lights staring at me in the dark. What was this? A wolf or big dog?? As I got closed I noticed a very big white dog guarding some of the tents on the way. He started to seriously groll at me. Luckily I had my poles with me and I was ready for a fight. I backpaced away from this bad doggy and made circle around. I finally got in my tent – wet of sweat and fell immediately a sleep.

I was awoken by warm sunlight around 0800 and still felt sick. I realised I had some form of mountain sickness and needed to get off the mountain. I packed all my stuff, left a note in Dimi’s tent and started to walk off the mountain.
At Betlemi hut I dismissed myself in the register.

I had to go over the big glacier again, now by myself. I missed Dimi here as he was quite a good guide before.
The glacier was dangerous full with crevasses and it was hard to navigate. There was also some slope downwards with a big fall at the end. If you fall here it would be game over.

After the glacier I reached camp 2 again, and took some rest and drank some water. I couldn’t eat so far. Although I was feeling weak I wanted to continue I continued the walk down and reached the Gergeti church again around 4pm. I noticed Sacha’s tent was still there, but as I had such a rush to get down and still was feeling sick I continued the walk through the woods towards the small village.

It was a serious beeting for the knees walking from 4000 down to 1800m and with all the walking before. In the end I got safely back the bike and the lady offered me some home made delicious cakes and water melon. Oh boy, this was good. But still no rest. I changed clothes, packed all up and wanted to ride off the mountain and feel asphalt again under the wheels. There was the quite hard enduro trail to do. I was happy to be off the mountain to be honest!

I found a good hotel in the evening in Kazbegi. As always the room was as high as it could be. I didn’t get to it fast though. A nice Australian couple invited me to their table. We had a good talk and a few good brandys. What a nice way to finish the evening.