High Tea Neverest Style

Training has now been modified to include cream teas and sewing - at high altitude of course.

Now that we're in the final stages of preparation for our trip, we're trying our best to get some acclimatisation in before we leave so that we can hopefully avoid suffering from altitude sickness. The best place to do this is up at the Aiguille du Midi but unfortunately it is closed today due to bad weather conditions, so we're stuck down in the valley drawing up lists of what we mustn't (but probably will anyway) forget to take and repacking our bags in the hope that our kit has somehow got smaller and lighter than last time we did it.

Our high-altitude training is my favourite part of the preparations; apparently even just spending a few hours up there can help your body adjust and enable it to deal with the thin air better. We've not been completely slacking; a few sprints up and down the staircases, a few star jumps on the viewing platforms... But mostly though, we've just been eating cake and sewing badges on to our kit. It turns out that Helen is a bit of a Delia Smith on the sly and can knock up a fine batch of scones.

Our kit is looking grand now that we've got our badges sewn on, thanks to the skills of Ellie at Hand Made in Chamonix - the Neverest Girls and A Chacun Son Everest patches are self-explanatory but the other two are in honour of Mountain Garden Company and TSJ Menuiserie, who have both supported us and made generous donations - thanks chaps!

Speaking of generous donations, we've had loads more rolling in this week and the grand total now tops 13,000€! Thank you to each and every one of you, all donations big and small are all very much appreciated and mean a great deal.

We've only got 3 days left in which to squeeze in some last minute cake-eating... I mean altitude training... so we're hoping that the weather clears and we can get up the Aiguille du Midi a few more times before we leave.