The last days in Kathmandu have rushed by in a haze of sightseeing and saying goodbye. I'm not sure what my emotions are, I'm sad to be leaving but feel my journey is complete.
I finally got to the monkey temple with it's fine views of the Kathmandu valley and it's place in history as the hilltop on which the Buddha preached. It seemed a fitting end to my time here.
I met up with Fletch again, and Laura from Pokhara, we all leave on three consecutive days, with me in the middle.
I have achieved so much here personally that I'm really happy with myself, I've felt pain like never before, exhilaration, frustration, fear and exhaustion. I've been pushed beyond what I thought I was capable of, and forced to look inside myself in a way like never before.
Not a day wasn't worthwhile, there was always something new to do, see or taste, or someone new to meet.
I won't miss the toilets, the pollution in Kathmandu or the sickness, but I'll miss Nepal and it's people, and I'll miss the excitement of travelling.
Obviously I am going back to my old life, different in at least one way I hadn't expected, but I'm better equipped now to deal with that at least.
Fletch left today, and I'm taking Laura out tonight for last night drinks, and, well it had to be - Dhal Bat!
The ribs have become really painful again so I'm going to have to see the doc as soon as I get home, I'm worried what the damage is and disappointed that they prevented me from some of the things I wanted to do. However this opened up new opportunities, for which I am grateful.
Si and Liz probably won't believe I've added a touch of organisation to my life, and Gabe I'm sure would have loved to watch me pack! Gabe - it's all folded and in sections and I didn't just shove my arm across my bed and scoop it all in - honest!!!
So, home tomorrow, the adventure is over and there are new challenges to face, an empty flat, a single life again, and Storm - the new IT at work. So at least it'll be busy and occupy me while I settle back down. I'm dying to see the family too and can't wait to spend time with my nieces.
I saw a Christmas tree today, I guess I missed Autumn!
Oh, and yes I know there's a missing 12 days in Pokhara. It's difficult to write about as it was the only time I didn't make notes, and it's a time when there are moments I'd rather forget. But I'll fill in the blanks back in the UK.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Things can only get better 20/11 Pokhara to Kathmandu
Pokhara to Ktm.
Cold on the bus, but good views of Annapurna, almost as if hidden by a curtain. Just outside Pokhara the local bus in front of us goes over the side, rolls, and slides down a really steep slope. People go down to help and I grab a first aid kit off an American girl and slide down. There's a couple of people beyond help, I go to start CPR on one kid then realise there's no ambulance to come. A man comes round from behind with a young child of maybe 6, and I take her up the slope. She's covered in blood but it's not hers, and she appears to be in shock only. An old woman sits next to me with pleading eyes, she has a large open gash to her head, there's no glass I can see so I mop it up and bandage her, getting blood all over my clothes. A trekking guide comes to help, and we get her, the child and an old man onto our bus, and I sit on the floor and mop him up. He seems to have a depressed fracture to his cheek, all I can give him is two paracetamol and the packet to show when he gets to hospital.
We drop them off there, then we head off for breakfast. The trekking guide thanks me for my compassion privately and says all the other westerners just watched. It's a sorry thing really, and I feel some guilt I couldn't have helped more people.
The rest of the journey is thankfully uneventful as we travel our bumpy way through the mountains back to Kathmandu. I return to Wonderland with it's swamp view and fog chorus, and as I check in I remember the excitement of heading out for Lukla and I'm a little bit sad. The adventure is coming to a close, and i know now what I'd been dreading, I'm going home single, it's going to be a tough adjustment.
I'll blog about the missing days in Pokhara soon. Clbomg wall tomorrow to take out some frustration!
Cold on the bus, but good views of Annapurna, almost as if hidden by a curtain. Just outside Pokhara the local bus in front of us goes over the side, rolls, and slides down a really steep slope. People go down to help and I grab a first aid kit off an American girl and slide down. There's a couple of people beyond help, I go to start CPR on one kid then realise there's no ambulance to come. A man comes round from behind with a young child of maybe 6, and I take her up the slope. She's covered in blood but it's not hers, and she appears to be in shock only. An old woman sits next to me with pleading eyes, she has a large open gash to her head, there's no glass I can see so I mop it up and bandage her, getting blood all over my clothes. A trekking guide comes to help, and we get her, the child and an old man onto our bus, and I sit on the floor and mop him up. He seems to have a depressed fracture to his cheek, all I can give him is two paracetamol and the packet to show when he gets to hospital.
We drop them off there, then we head off for breakfast. The trekking guide thanks me for my compassion privately and says all the other westerners just watched. It's a sorry thing really, and I feel some guilt I couldn't have helped more people.
The rest of the journey is thankfully uneventful as we travel our bumpy way through the mountains back to Kathmandu. I return to Wonderland with it's swamp view and fog chorus, and as I check in I remember the excitement of heading out for Lukla and I'm a little bit sad. The adventure is coming to a close, and i know now what I'd been dreading, I'm going home single, it's going to be a tough adjustment.
I'll blog about the missing days in Pokhara soon. Clbomg wall tomorrow to take out some frustration!
Thursday, 18 November 2010
6/7/8 11 Kathmandu - the waiting game.
The sixth is our last day, Ken and Gabe sort laundry and are in a bit of a tizz when it appears the bloke then shuts up and goes home for the weekend. It's another festival here and everything is on a go slow.
We eat out, and Kristin and I return to Paddys for a few drinks, where we meet Gabe's pilot for the next, also entertainingly drunk, accompanied by two friendly Thai girls.
We get lost walking back to Shakti, and I fall over for a change, and we promptl wake Dave and IngeElin up for no apparent reason.
The next day is a blur of goodbyes and moving hotels, Dave and I back to Wonderland, everyone else heads out home.
I feel a bit down, and for the ext two days wander Thamel, bored and aimless, trying to figure out what to do. it's festival, everywhere is closed. My plan to do a couple of days volunteering melts away as all the schools are shut too. It's a bit of a lowpoint really, so much excitement, and then suddenly everyone is gone and we're back in transition.
My rib is incredibly sore now, and no matter how I lay I have difficulty sleeping, and have to get up and go out at 7.30am so I don't keep waking Fletch up. I'm listless and lethargic, and should really go to Swyambruth, or do something, but I struggle to find the energy. I'm tired from trekking, worried about a few things at home and missing the group dynamic. But on the 9th Fletch and I are moving on to Pokhara, and the change of scenery should inject some life into the nxt part of the Nepal tour.
We eat out, and Kristin and I return to Paddys for a few drinks, where we meet Gabe's pilot for the next, also entertainingly drunk, accompanied by two friendly Thai girls.
We get lost walking back to Shakti, and I fall over for a change, and we promptl wake Dave and IngeElin up for no apparent reason.
The next day is a blur of goodbyes and moving hotels, Dave and I back to Wonderland, everyone else heads out home.
I feel a bit down, and for the ext two days wander Thamel, bored and aimless, trying to figure out what to do. it's festival, everywhere is closed. My plan to do a couple of days volunteering melts away as all the schools are shut too. It's a bit of a lowpoint really, so much excitement, and then suddenly everyone is gone and we're back in transition.
My rib is incredibly sore now, and no matter how I lay I have difficulty sleeping, and have to get up and go out at 7.30am so I don't keep waking Fletch up. I'm listless and lethargic, and should really go to Swyambruth, or do something, but I struggle to find the energy. I'm tired from trekking, worried about a few things at home and missing the group dynamic. But on the 9th Fletch and I are moving on to Pokhara, and the change of scenery should inject some life into the nxt part of the Nepal tour.
4 & 5/11 Namche to Lukla / Lukla- to KTM
Sangay leads us on the last day, the long walk back to Lukla. It's a sad day, although we're reunited it's the last day of trekking, and the end of the journe is now in sight.
In fact it's in sight nearly all day as we watch the plans coming into land at the world's most extreme airport.
Despite this it never seems to get any nearer! We chat as we walk, enjoying the forests and the improved oxygen supply at this elevation! We pass a memorial to a plane that crashed a few years ago a reminder to me that I have one small hurdle to cross - the flight out, and after what seems an eternity of walking we reach the village.
Sangay offers to show us his monastery but we're all beat. It's a negative I regret, even as I write my notes up,because I think he was very excited that Lon had shown an interest.
We are late at the lodge, it's nearly dark as we walk down the side of the airstrip, and it's not long before we have black tea and Finjo joins us.
Tonight's the last supper, a communal meal of Dal Bhat with everyone, porters, guides and the team, with the table exceptions of Fletch and Barbara.
We all tuck in heartily and the beer starts to flow, tips are issued and speeches are made. Jim nominates me as the person who fell over the most, which is true by some wide margin!!!
The porters leave us for their homes after the meal, clutching large tips in appreciation of the important and incredible work they do. It's hard enough lugging a six kilo back around at 5400m on steep ground in the freezing cold, I cannot conceive what it is like to do so with two 15kg or so packs, in flip flops or converse trainers like this guys do. One of them is no more than 4ft11 tall, and is as strong as an ox. It's really incredible. Without them we couldn't have got as far as we did, and they do it all with huge smiles on their faces and never a complaint.
The guides, Finjo, Nima and Sangay all stay for what starts off as a few drinks. We're told we're in outside rooms as another group is having a party and will be noisy and we have a 5.30am flight. That's not quite how it works out.
At midnight Ken, Kristin, IngeElin and I and the three guides are the only people awake in the lodge, incredibly dunk dancing to a mixture of Nepali music and Norwegian pop. It's a great evening, really good fun, with arm wrestling, and Nima doing an entertaining dance that mimics my everlasting cough. I put him in a gooseneck hold, which he immediately wants to learn, and later I recall doing squats with Finjo Sherpa over my shoulders. Which probably does my ribs no good - but I'm not letting a little thing like that spoil what has been an incredible experience.
I share with Ken and have an incident involving a bin and a total lack of navigational ability, and before you know it we have to get up for our flight.
I struggle with breakfast, which of curse Lon doesn't - and am glad I don't have too long to sit and stress about the flight.
On the Twin Otter we are taxied past the crashed plane and then held at the top of the runway while the pilot winds up the elastic band. Then he takes his feet off the floor and we zip forward like some crazy fairground ride, before plummeting off the side of the mountain, gaining lift and heading back to Kathmandu.
Back at Shakti Ken offers to let me go in with Dave who is already back, and probably regrets his kindness as they all wait several hours for rooms to become available. There's lots of tired smelly hungry people about when I emerge clean and fresh from the shower.
There follows a day of mooching about and cleaning up before our evening party at Kilroy's. I get to eat fish and chips, which isn't bad at all, and we all have great fun joking about the joys of trekking.
Ken, Gabe, Fletch, IngeElin, Kristin and I take Finjo and his friend to Paddys after, where we listen to a Nepali rock cover band and get stuck into the tequilas in a big way. Unfortunately someone tells Finjo it's water and he gets a bit enthusiastic in his consumption. This later contributes to an unfortunate incident with the police and a slightly sad exit from the evening's entertainment.
There'll be some hangovers tomorrow.
In fact it's in sight nearly all day as we watch the plans coming into land at the world's most extreme airport.
Despite this it never seems to get any nearer! We chat as we walk, enjoying the forests and the improved oxygen supply at this elevation! We pass a memorial to a plane that crashed a few years ago a reminder to me that I have one small hurdle to cross - the flight out, and after what seems an eternity of walking we reach the village.
Sangay offers to show us his monastery but we're all beat. It's a negative I regret, even as I write my notes up,because I think he was very excited that Lon had shown an interest.
We are late at the lodge, it's nearly dark as we walk down the side of the airstrip, and it's not long before we have black tea and Finjo joins us.
Tonight's the last supper, a communal meal of Dal Bhat with everyone, porters, guides and the team, with the table exceptions of Fletch and Barbara.
We all tuck in heartily and the beer starts to flow, tips are issued and speeches are made. Jim nominates me as the person who fell over the most, which is true by some wide margin!!!
The porters leave us for their homes after the meal, clutching large tips in appreciation of the important and incredible work they do. It's hard enough lugging a six kilo back around at 5400m on steep ground in the freezing cold, I cannot conceive what it is like to do so with two 15kg or so packs, in flip flops or converse trainers like this guys do. One of them is no more than 4ft11 tall, and is as strong as an ox. It's really incredible. Without them we couldn't have got as far as we did, and they do it all with huge smiles on their faces and never a complaint.
The guides, Finjo, Nima and Sangay all stay for what starts off as a few drinks. We're told we're in outside rooms as another group is having a party and will be noisy and we have a 5.30am flight. That's not quite how it works out.
At midnight Ken, Kristin, IngeElin and I and the three guides are the only people awake in the lodge, incredibly dunk dancing to a mixture of Nepali music and Norwegian pop. It's a great evening, really good fun, with arm wrestling, and Nima doing an entertaining dance that mimics my everlasting cough. I put him in a gooseneck hold, which he immediately wants to learn, and later I recall doing squats with Finjo Sherpa over my shoulders. Which probably does my ribs no good - but I'm not letting a little thing like that spoil what has been an incredible experience.
I share with Ken and have an incident involving a bin and a total lack of navigational ability, and before you know it we have to get up for our flight.
I struggle with breakfast, which of curse Lon doesn't - and am glad I don't have too long to sit and stress about the flight.
On the Twin Otter we are taxied past the crashed plane and then held at the top of the runway while the pilot winds up the elastic band. Then he takes his feet off the floor and we zip forward like some crazy fairground ride, before plummeting off the side of the mountain, gaining lift and heading back to Kathmandu.
Back at Shakti Ken offers to let me go in with Dave who is already back, and probably regrets his kindness as they all wait several hours for rooms to become available. There's lots of tired smelly hungry people about when I emerge clean and fresh from the shower.
There follows a day of mooching about and cleaning up before our evening party at Kilroy's. I get to eat fish and chips, which isn't bad at all, and we all have great fun joking about the joys of trekking.
Ken, Gabe, Fletch, IngeElin, Kristin and I take Finjo and his friend to Paddys after, where we listen to a Nepali rock cover band and get stuck into the tequilas in a big way. Unfortunately someone tells Finjo it's water and he gets a bit enthusiastic in his consumption. This later contributes to an unfortunate incident with the police and a slightly sad exit from the evening's entertainment.
There'll be some hangovers tomorrow.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
3/11 Namche. Rest Day.
Up late at 8, check mail... Again.... Stuff I feel needs sorting out, and I miss the outside world!!
After brekkie we go shopping, we find a bakery and have fantastic coffee and cakes. We finally get news that Lon and IngeElin summited and we're all incredibly pleased for them. They had to summit and get down to Dengboche, then today they're repeating our yomp from yesterday. They'll be slaughtered when they get here, and will have to finish with another long day to Lukla.
I sit on a wall for a while watching the rescue helicopters which seem to fly in a steady stream, and u smile at the slow people wandering up.
Kristin, Ken and I go shopping after lunch again and get more cakes. I buy presses for B, and we all fall about when a stray cow goes in the massage shop, abd doesn't come out.
Sangay appears from Lukla at three abd then the summiteers arrive.
I'm not as congratulatory as I should be, I'm distracted, and I sit and read while Kristin thrashes everyone at blackjack, and Lon eats everything in sight.
I have Sherpa stew which is delicious, the others all have yak steak, thier first meat in 3 weeks.
I go through the good wishes on facebook, although I'm not as disappointed as people think I might be. I'm content, I face it everything, and think I would have done it but for the AMS.
For me, the journey has been incredible, I know now the limits I can push myself to, and what I can achieve.I know now I'm strong enough to overcome any hurdle, abd I know I've got some I'm going to deal with when I get back to the UK!!
"in mountains we find what we seek, be it peace or violence, beauty or terror"
After brekkie we go shopping, we find a bakery and have fantastic coffee and cakes. We finally get news that Lon and IngeElin summited and we're all incredibly pleased for them. They had to summit and get down to Dengboche, then today they're repeating our yomp from yesterday. They'll be slaughtered when they get here, and will have to finish with another long day to Lukla.
I sit on a wall for a while watching the rescue helicopters which seem to fly in a steady stream, and u smile at the slow people wandering up.
Kristin, Ken and I go shopping after lunch again and get more cakes. I buy presses for B, and we all fall about when a stray cow goes in the massage shop, abd doesn't come out.
Sangay appears from Lukla at three abd then the summiteers arrive.
I'm not as congratulatory as I should be, I'm distracted, and I sit and read while Kristin thrashes everyone at blackjack, and Lon eats everything in sight.
I have Sherpa stew which is delicious, the others all have yak steak, thier first meat in 3 weeks.
I go through the good wishes on facebook, although I'm not as disappointed as people think I might be. I'm content, I face it everything, and think I would have done it but for the AMS.
For me, the journey has been incredible, I know now the limits I can push myself to, and what I can achieve.I know now I'm strong enough to overcome any hurdle, abd I know I've got some I'm going to deal with when I get back to the UK!!
"in mountains we find what we seek, be it peace or violence, beauty or terror"
The curtain starts to fall....
Left Dengboche just after 8am. Hajaramah left a present for Barbara with Jim which was touching. It's one hell of a walk today, through Dengboche then Thangboche with it's incredible monastery. We tramp downhill through stunning forests, the first time we've been below the treeline for days. We have tea at Pangboche and push on in sunshine. There are blue gentian in flower and the smell of pine and rhododendron in the air. Ever down now, Kristin hiding behind me from yaks, which I'm now confident enough to shove out of the way - until I come face to face with one on a suspension bridge and have to turn and run back the way I came, much to Neema's amusement. By the time we leave Phunky Thanga I'm in a bad mood. I think all the oxygen in the air is making bits of my brain that had been out of commission work again!! The pace is too quick and I take a couple if spectacular falls. My ankle, which I sprained just before I came out doesn't feel strong, and it collapses very easily if not well balanced. After lunch it's a 900m climb back into Namche. The fog comes in and the wind covers us in dirt. Not that it matters, I'm filthy anyway and stink like a yak. We pass by a crazy dude galloping along the narrow path on a horse, and finally, at last we get to Namche. I'm last, but this time because I stopped to watch Nepal's national bird, the Monar, grubbing around in a field in good numbers. The male is like a pheasant, with seven colours, some iridescent.
We have tea and biscuits and wait for the porters, mine and Kristin's are last as one of them had to run back to help another one who had got sick. He's so apologetic it's painful, so we give him a biscuit. The dining area is full of Germans so I don't hang about, and I go and check emails. It's nice to hear from B again, it's been hard being away from her. Kristin and I sit and chat and she has a beer, I resist the temptation and go to bed at 8 with her taking the piss loudly in the background. Our rooms are thinly divided and we keep each other awake shuffling in our bags, she farts incredibly loudly for a woman - if you're reading this you know it's true......
Then with mind racing about things at home, Gabe snoring and mice running around I lay awake for ages. Gabe takes a great pic of me all hunkered down in the bag, propped up by various bits of clothing.... And finally I sleep!
We have tea and biscuits and wait for the porters, mine and Kristin's are last as one of them had to run back to help another one who had got sick. He's so apologetic it's painful, so we give him a biscuit. The dining area is full of Germans so I don't hang about, and I go and check emails. It's nice to hear from B again, it's been hard being away from her. Kristin and I sit and chat and she has a beer, I resist the temptation and go to bed at 8 with her taking the piss loudly in the background. Our rooms are thinly divided and we keep each other awake shuffling in our bags, she farts incredibly loudly for a woman - if you're reading this you know it's true......
Then with mind racing about things at home, Gabe snoring and mice running around I lay awake for ages. Gabe takes a great pic of me all hunkered down in the bag, propped up by various bits of clothing.... And finally I sleep!
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Himalayan Nights
I wake at 8, the lodge is fantastic here, and Sangay gets me to try hot seabuckthorn instead of wake up tea. It's a local fruit, and is really nice. I eat some apple porridge, and look across at Imja, through the window, with the sun at my back. I have three days to recover and gain my strength. Sangay suggests I try some light hiking to try and acclimatise again, the diamox has ben giving me pins and needles in my feet, and it makes it uncomfortable to walk, but I'll give it a go.
I ask him about medication for my chest, and he seeks out another MMA guide, and they chat in Nepali. I clearly hear them talking about HAPE, and then I am told there is no medication - just rest. Yesterday Jim had ben keen for me to go to Periche, which is a hospital on the way yo Dengboche, but Finjo wouldn't hear of it. He feels that they would have medivaced me back to KTM without really checking me over as they have some kind of deal wiyj yje rescue chopper. They know my insurance would cover it. Anyway, I sit in silence for a bit as I realise it could have been a lot more serious than I realised. I'm not entirely sure what they were talking about, but if I did have, or come close to having HAPE then I am lucky to be sitting here typing!
Gabe arrives at the lodge and the news is not good. He's come back after a night of being ill and tired. The lodges at Lobuche were rammed and no-one ha been well. Fletch is very sick indeed, and was to be sent down, but changed his mind. Ken sat up all night with him I learn later, while he tried to manage Chaine-Stokes episodes. He also spent two hours in the decrompression bag in an effort to get more oxygen into him. Gbae also says both the girls have had an off fay too. It's good to have Gabe back though, he's been such a help - even folding my sleeping bag when I was too feeble to do it one morning.
I take him round Dengboche but he's clearly shattered and goes top bed. There's a no day sleeping rule, but we've all had to break it.
In the lodge there's lots of pictures nad mountain gear layiong around. There's an ice-ax with 'Hilary 1953' on it, which I think is a hoax until I discover that the man smiling out of all the pictures with Sir Ed is none other than the lodge owner himself, Sonma Hishi Sherpa. A bit of a legend in these parts apparently.
As I wirte this, I see Imja again and I decide to go to Base Camp. and chuck everything at it if I have a good sleep there. It's daunting, but not as daunting as Ama Dablam which rises out of the river opposite. It's fearsome, and also beautiful. I can also see the south face of Lhotse, so step little snow sticks to it, Cholatse and a host of other peaks.
I spend the afternoon reading, and Gabe sleps fully dressed in his bag! After 5 hours in bed he's still really tired, so I go and find Sangay and sit and cha5t with him, and he writes in my notebook - a little something to make me smile and also to make me think.
Later we watch the imax film about Everest in the company of one of the guides for the expedition, a man who had been talking to me over lunch about my cough, and giving me some advice. By the end of the film he has a glass full of Rakshi, and eyes full of tears.
28/10
Another day of recuperation. Hiked up the hill to the Gompa for some aweesome views, and I can look back to Chola, and see just how far I managed to walk a couple of days back. The views are stunning. I spent some expensive time catching up on emails, washing (at last!!) and reading. I mailed Bernie to say I had been a little bit ill, not wanting to worry her. I figure I'll tell her before I blog. It wouldn't be a nice way to find out how close things seemed to be.
Sangay tells me that a flock of birds that fly past are penguins, which makes me chuckle, and at 1600 the whole team arrives. No-one went to EBC, and hardly anyone bothered with Kala Pattar. Fletch looks shot. The schedule is tight and there's no time to recover once you are ill.
I'm feeling better, and despite being sick I am loving it here, the views, the walking, and just the whole experience. It's tough but you find things out about yourself on the way!
At the Gompa and picked out B's name in stones and sat looking at Imja. I realised I didn't care anymore if I climbed it. The journey has become the main thing, noit the result. I have been able to get away from the stresses of home and put my mind straight. The sickness has focused me too.
It's a nice evening as part of the team again, he play cards and chat and Fletch says he's pretty much decided to quit. It's sad he feels like that, but I can see why. I'm going to carry on for now, but I had more rest thaNn he did. He hasn't slept for 4 days and just doesn't have it left any more. I manage to get him to eat some of my fruit cocktail, and he crams down some Pringles. I hope he sticks around.
29/10
Fletch quits. He's had enough. He's been sick for too long and needs to go down. He seems happy to go and we'll see him in KTM, but I'm sorry he's going because he's a good bloke and good company. We don't do anything today, I sunbathe, while the others wrap up in down jackets. it's not COLD people!! Lon has amusing incident where Finjo is trying to find him and he's on the toilet. It ends upo with Lon shouting 'I am taking a f***ing crap' at some poor trekker who was waiting outside the toilet to use it. Early to bed, 6 hour yomp tomorrow......
30/10 Dengboche to Base Camp
Strike out at 9, after dumoping as muchg gear as I dare, I feel strong and working well. Everything is good until we reach Chukkung, then it happens again. I am coughing, and it gets so harsh I start coughing up blood again. It's not much but it's annoying. My lips go blue then crack, and my nose is peeling. I can hardly drink anything and the whole thing is miserable.
We watch a chopper circling Ama Dablam, which is bad news, and as Jim and I notice, there's lenticular cloud over Lhotse and Pumori, which is really bad news.
We reach base camp around 1600, set up gear bags and muck around with plastic boots. We all congregate in the mess tents and eat the best food I've had in Nepal. Except, my appetite is going again. I know I'm unlikely to climb.
The night passes sleeplessly, I have to pee maybe a hundred times, but I least I get to see the amazing skies. I have never sen so many stars. It's sad though, my heart is racing, my chest is pounding and I feel like I asm drowning all night. I have a constantly running nose, and a cake of blood and snot at the back of m,y throat. I'm living the dream!
Gabe moans about his fleece liner feeling like a coffin, then falls asleep, while I lay there wishing I was at home with Bernie.
30/10
I bail this morning. I have had enough. Finjo tries to get me in the gammow bag, but 2 hours in there, or two hours walk to Chukkung...... I tell him I'm quitting. I know it's the right thing, I have no strength. I'm gutted and I feel a bit of a failure, but I really want to go home in one piece, and the desire to fo that is greater than the desire to climb.
I'm suprised when Ken and Jim bail too, the cloud base has plummeted and it's snowing hard. The four remaining may not even get the chance to climb tonight if the weather continues. Neema is so happy to be coming fown with us he dances around base camp and then shoots off so fast we have to almost run to keep up. We have to call him back at Chukkung so we can have tea. Ken and I walk round and get yak attacked, and take a few pictures of the snow, but we're pretty subdued.
I am thinking of home, and my friends on the mountain, and what I want to do with life when I get back. I am sad to come down but when you are hallucinating, sneezing blood, can't eat or sleep and have most of your face peeling off it's time to come down. My high point is about 16500ft, higher than anywhere in western europe and most of the US. I have walked in the footsteps of giants, slept in lodges where my heroes have stayed, seen amazing things, meet awesome people and answered questions about myself. I am now one of those going down, but I am going down a different person. I am no longer one of the pained faces going up, and my load will be a lot lighter.
1/11
Finally sleep. It's a beautiful thing. I had a beer last night, my first in thre weeks, and I quietly toast those on the hill. It's 8 am when we wake and there's a deep layer of snow. The team should be on the fixed rope now, but Neema thinks they won't climb. We wait for news. It has warmed uyp from about 15 below last night, and Harjaramah is revelling in looking after us. I've done email and caught up with friends and the good lady herself, which cheers me up no end. I pack gear ready for the off tomorrow. Three more days and we're back in Lukla, the tear in my throat seems to be healing, and there's no blood now.
1400 - no sign of the others and no news, we're still waiting.
1600 - Gabe and Kristin arrive with news of a terrible night in which the tents were blown around and they had to shout to speak to each other. No-one went up, but IngeElin and Lon have stayed to have a go tonight. This means tomorrow we're out of Dengboche, but will have to walk further - Namche - something like 9 hours away, finishing with a climb of about 800m. Which is annoying. It's never easy in the mountains!!!
I ask him about medication for my chest, and he seeks out another MMA guide, and they chat in Nepali. I clearly hear them talking about HAPE, and then I am told there is no medication - just rest. Yesterday Jim had ben keen for me to go to Periche, which is a hospital on the way yo Dengboche, but Finjo wouldn't hear of it. He feels that they would have medivaced me back to KTM without really checking me over as they have some kind of deal wiyj yje rescue chopper. They know my insurance would cover it. Anyway, I sit in silence for a bit as I realise it could have been a lot more serious than I realised. I'm not entirely sure what they were talking about, but if I did have, or come close to having HAPE then I am lucky to be sitting here typing!
Gabe arrives at the lodge and the news is not good. He's come back after a night of being ill and tired. The lodges at Lobuche were rammed and no-one ha been well. Fletch is very sick indeed, and was to be sent down, but changed his mind. Ken sat up all night with him I learn later, while he tried to manage Chaine-Stokes episodes. He also spent two hours in the decrompression bag in an effort to get more oxygen into him. Gbae also says both the girls have had an off fay too. It's good to have Gabe back though, he's been such a help - even folding my sleeping bag when I was too feeble to do it one morning.
I take him round Dengboche but he's clearly shattered and goes top bed. There's a no day sleeping rule, but we've all had to break it.
In the lodge there's lots of pictures nad mountain gear layiong around. There's an ice-ax with 'Hilary 1953' on it, which I think is a hoax until I discover that the man smiling out of all the pictures with Sir Ed is none other than the lodge owner himself, Sonma Hishi Sherpa. A bit of a legend in these parts apparently.
As I wirte this, I see Imja again and I decide to go to Base Camp. and chuck everything at it if I have a good sleep there. It's daunting, but not as daunting as Ama Dablam which rises out of the river opposite. It's fearsome, and also beautiful. I can also see the south face of Lhotse, so step little snow sticks to it, Cholatse and a host of other peaks.
I spend the afternoon reading, and Gabe sleps fully dressed in his bag! After 5 hours in bed he's still really tired, so I go and find Sangay and sit and cha5t with him, and he writes in my notebook - a little something to make me smile and also to make me think.
Later we watch the imax film about Everest in the company of one of the guides for the expedition, a man who had been talking to me over lunch about my cough, and giving me some advice. By the end of the film he has a glass full of Rakshi, and eyes full of tears.
28/10
Another day of recuperation. Hiked up the hill to the Gompa for some aweesome views, and I can look back to Chola, and see just how far I managed to walk a couple of days back. The views are stunning. I spent some expensive time catching up on emails, washing (at last!!) and reading. I mailed Bernie to say I had been a little bit ill, not wanting to worry her. I figure I'll tell her before I blog. It wouldn't be a nice way to find out how close things seemed to be.
Sangay tells me that a flock of birds that fly past are penguins, which makes me chuckle, and at 1600 the whole team arrives. No-one went to EBC, and hardly anyone bothered with Kala Pattar. Fletch looks shot. The schedule is tight and there's no time to recover once you are ill.
I'm feeling better, and despite being sick I am loving it here, the views, the walking, and just the whole experience. It's tough but you find things out about yourself on the way!
At the Gompa and picked out B's name in stones and sat looking at Imja. I realised I didn't care anymore if I climbed it. The journey has become the main thing, noit the result. I have been able to get away from the stresses of home and put my mind straight. The sickness has focused me too.
It's a nice evening as part of the team again, he play cards and chat and Fletch says he's pretty much decided to quit. It's sad he feels like that, but I can see why. I'm going to carry on for now, but I had more rest thaNn he did. He hasn't slept for 4 days and just doesn't have it left any more. I manage to get him to eat some of my fruit cocktail, and he crams down some Pringles. I hope he sticks around.
29/10
Fletch quits. He's had enough. He's been sick for too long and needs to go down. He seems happy to go and we'll see him in KTM, but I'm sorry he's going because he's a good bloke and good company. We don't do anything today, I sunbathe, while the others wrap up in down jackets. it's not COLD people!! Lon has amusing incident where Finjo is trying to find him and he's on the toilet. It ends upo with Lon shouting 'I am taking a f***ing crap' at some poor trekker who was waiting outside the toilet to use it. Early to bed, 6 hour yomp tomorrow......
30/10 Dengboche to Base Camp
Strike out at 9, after dumoping as muchg gear as I dare, I feel strong and working well. Everything is good until we reach Chukkung, then it happens again. I am coughing, and it gets so harsh I start coughing up blood again. It's not much but it's annoying. My lips go blue then crack, and my nose is peeling. I can hardly drink anything and the whole thing is miserable.
We watch a chopper circling Ama Dablam, which is bad news, and as Jim and I notice, there's lenticular cloud over Lhotse and Pumori, which is really bad news.
We reach base camp around 1600, set up gear bags and muck around with plastic boots. We all congregate in the mess tents and eat the best food I've had in Nepal. Except, my appetite is going again. I know I'm unlikely to climb.
The night passes sleeplessly, I have to pee maybe a hundred times, but I least I get to see the amazing skies. I have never sen so many stars. It's sad though, my heart is racing, my chest is pounding and I feel like I asm drowning all night. I have a constantly running nose, and a cake of blood and snot at the back of m,y throat. I'm living the dream!
Gabe moans about his fleece liner feeling like a coffin, then falls asleep, while I lay there wishing I was at home with Bernie.
30/10
I bail this morning. I have had enough. Finjo tries to get me in the gammow bag, but 2 hours in there, or two hours walk to Chukkung...... I tell him I'm quitting. I know it's the right thing, I have no strength. I'm gutted and I feel a bit of a failure, but I really want to go home in one piece, and the desire to fo that is greater than the desire to climb.
I'm suprised when Ken and Jim bail too, the cloud base has plummeted and it's snowing hard. The four remaining may not even get the chance to climb tonight if the weather continues. Neema is so happy to be coming fown with us he dances around base camp and then shoots off so fast we have to almost run to keep up. We have to call him back at Chukkung so we can have tea. Ken and I walk round and get yak attacked, and take a few pictures of the snow, but we're pretty subdued.
I am thinking of home, and my friends on the mountain, and what I want to do with life when I get back. I am sad to come down but when you are hallucinating, sneezing blood, can't eat or sleep and have most of your face peeling off it's time to come down. My high point is about 16500ft, higher than anywhere in western europe and most of the US. I have walked in the footsteps of giants, slept in lodges where my heroes have stayed, seen amazing things, meet awesome people and answered questions about myself. I am now one of those going down, but I am going down a different person. I am no longer one of the pained faces going up, and my load will be a lot lighter.
1/11
Finally sleep. It's a beautiful thing. I had a beer last night, my first in thre weeks, and I quietly toast those on the hill. It's 8 am when we wake and there's a deep layer of snow. The team should be on the fixed rope now, but Neema thinks they won't climb. We wait for news. It has warmed uyp from about 15 below last night, and Harjaramah is revelling in looking after us. I've done email and caught up with friends and the good lady herself, which cheers me up no end. I pack gear ready for the off tomorrow. Three more days and we're back in Lukla, the tear in my throat seems to be healing, and there's no blood now.
1400 - no sign of the others and no news, we're still waiting.
1600 - Gabe and Kristin arrive with news of a terrible night in which the tents were blown around and they had to shout to speak to each other. No-one went up, but IngeElin and Lon have stayed to have a go tonight. This means tomorrow we're out of Dengboche, but will have to walk further - Namche - something like 9 hours away, finishing with a climb of about 800m. Which is annoying. It's never easy in the mountains!!!
Monday, 8 November 2010
26 October Tagnak-Dzongla-Dengboche. 12 hours.
The best and worst of days.
e set out just after four AM, a line of headlamps twinkle under star-filled Himalayan skies. The moon lights the peaks, and ice crunches underfoot. There is no other sound except the laboured breathing of climbing at 4800m. It's -15, but I'm really happy. There is a call of 'bistare, bistare' as I walk behind Neema, matching his pace. 'Slowly, slowly'.
We climb steadily, past snowcocks, and across frozen scree. We've left early to make sure the rocks are frozen hard to each other, so there's no danger of rockfall on the incredibly steep parts.
We reach the top of the first pass after a while without too much trouble, and I look out across the plateau towards Cho La. We have to lose a lot of height then regain it.
I start to cough again, it's a hard raking cough, the sort that tears throats and breaks ribs. I smash the ice on the top of my water bottle and drink hard, ice chunks and all. The air is crystallising as I breathe and I'm vaguely aware of the blood and snot that has frozen into my beard. I can't eat again. It's harsh but if i can't eat something will have to give. I can't carry on and I know it.
We descend to the plateau and pick our way across boulders the size of houses, Ken is sick of the rocks, they make iot really tough even on the flat ground. We gradually start to climb, it's stunning here but I don't have the energy for photographs.
It's one foot in front of the other now, nothing more, I can't get enough water on board, and I am now coughing up eevrything bad I have breathed in during the last 40 years. Great lumps of orange muck are coming out, streaked in blood.
he next section focuses me though, it's immense. Possibly three hundre vertical feet of scrambling on frozen and exposed rock. This would be hard at 1000m, but at 5000 it's incredible. I'm right at my limit, good holds disintegrate with a tinkle of breaking ice and then a crack as the rock breaks. It's exciting and all consuming. Total focus is needed tom prevent a small error becoming a big one, and I have a couple of moments where my feet scrape around on the verglass looking for purchase.
Four arms suddenly reach out and haul me onto the top. It's precipitous but awesome. This is it. Cho la. I made this one too. The view is incredible. I suck in the view and slump against what apears to be a safe rock. I cough really hard and vomit again.
I realise I might get pulled from the team here, I am really sick and i just can't get better Finjo tells me we'l need to talk when we get down to Dzongla, he's worried about my cough. I stare at Ama Dablam for a bit and fight back my emotions. I don't want to go down, or leave the team, but I don't have anything left.
Ken again tells me I've got balls, but all I can think is 'I don't belong here.' I'm scared. A porter died of a chest infection when we came out, and I have no idea if that's what I have. There's not much medical care up here.
We start to descend towards the ice field, passing the bergshrund. There's a short downclimb to a crevasse field. Sangay tries to position my foot on a hold as I face into the rock and climb down. 'Dude, the one thing I don't need help with is rock climbing,' I blurt out. I'm frustrated, but he laughs and slaps me on the back and lets me get on with it.
Ken and I joke as we cross the ice, we have no crampons and he's never walked on ice before, but it's me that fals over again. We stop for a team phot in among the crevasses, and for a while I'm loving it, this is where I am happiest.
As we descend to Dzongla though I start to fall behind.I can hardly walk. Gabe stays with me and gives me water, a kidness I find humbling in the circumstances. Every so often I sit on a rock and vomit.
I eventually reach the lodge, and collapse again. Finjo talks to me. I'm either going in the decompression bag or descending to Dengboche, which should be a safe altitude for me. He's the leader and I respect him. I'm not going in the bag though. I hear him tell the porters to sort my bag out from the rest, but I'm too upset to stop him. Kritin takes my temperature, which seems ok. Someone puts some boiled potatoes in front of me, and Fletch tells me later that I pick one up and stare at it as if I don't know what it is. I eat a couple and give the rest to Finjo. Kristin tires to make me eat, but I just can't. Finjo peels a potato and gives it back to me to eat. It's bland and rubbish.
No-one says much, I think they know how I feel, and after a hour or so walking down the trail they go off to Lobuje and eventually to Kala Pattar and EBC, I have to go down.
I have seen the map and know we've got a long way to go. Sangay puts my 15kg duffel on top of his pack and off we go. I turn to look back, Kristin waves, but I don't react and just walk off.
I have to drag out another six hours walking, Snagy and I taking turns in pace-setting. It starts to get cold. Very cold. It's foggy adn realy windy. We can see maybe 20ft, and we justy have to keep moving. Sangay is freezing and I can't feel my toes again. It takes forever, we only just reach Dengboche before it's dark. Sangay's nose has seperated from his face in one corner because of the cold and my ear is all blistered. My nose has windburn and my lips are cracked and peeling. Sangay sorts a room and I just sit in the corner coughing and feeling like shit.
Sangay has kept my spirits up talking about wildlife and buddhist philosophy. he talks about my life, and makes me think about a few things.
A woman comes over and asks if i am ok, which is kind, but it's clear I'm not. Sangay tries to get me to eat, but I can't. I keep falling asleep sitting up, and by 7 he's got me into my sleeping bag. I am utterly spent. I came here to find my limits, and I really have done that today. And some. After 12 hours of trail beating, rock climbing, crevasse crossing and coughing up various parts of my insides the tank is finally empty. I sleep for 13 hours.
e set out just after four AM, a line of headlamps twinkle under star-filled Himalayan skies. The moon lights the peaks, and ice crunches underfoot. There is no other sound except the laboured breathing of climbing at 4800m. It's -15, but I'm really happy. There is a call of 'bistare, bistare' as I walk behind Neema, matching his pace. 'Slowly, slowly'.
We climb steadily, past snowcocks, and across frozen scree. We've left early to make sure the rocks are frozen hard to each other, so there's no danger of rockfall on the incredibly steep parts.
We reach the top of the first pass after a while without too much trouble, and I look out across the plateau towards Cho La. We have to lose a lot of height then regain it.
I start to cough again, it's a hard raking cough, the sort that tears throats and breaks ribs. I smash the ice on the top of my water bottle and drink hard, ice chunks and all. The air is crystallising as I breathe and I'm vaguely aware of the blood and snot that has frozen into my beard. I can't eat again. It's harsh but if i can't eat something will have to give. I can't carry on and I know it.
We descend to the plateau and pick our way across boulders the size of houses, Ken is sick of the rocks, they make iot really tough even on the flat ground. We gradually start to climb, it's stunning here but I don't have the energy for photographs.
It's one foot in front of the other now, nothing more, I can't get enough water on board, and I am now coughing up eevrything bad I have breathed in during the last 40 years. Great lumps of orange muck are coming out, streaked in blood.
he next section focuses me though, it's immense. Possibly three hundre vertical feet of scrambling on frozen and exposed rock. This would be hard at 1000m, but at 5000 it's incredible. I'm right at my limit, good holds disintegrate with a tinkle of breaking ice and then a crack as the rock breaks. It's exciting and all consuming. Total focus is needed tom prevent a small error becoming a big one, and I have a couple of moments where my feet scrape around on the verglass looking for purchase.
Four arms suddenly reach out and haul me onto the top. It's precipitous but awesome. This is it. Cho la. I made this one too. The view is incredible. I suck in the view and slump against what apears to be a safe rock. I cough really hard and vomit again.
I realise I might get pulled from the team here, I am really sick and i just can't get better Finjo tells me we'l need to talk when we get down to Dzongla, he's worried about my cough. I stare at Ama Dablam for a bit and fight back my emotions. I don't want to go down, or leave the team, but I don't have anything left.
Ken again tells me I've got balls, but all I can think is 'I don't belong here.' I'm scared. A porter died of a chest infection when we came out, and I have no idea if that's what I have. There's not much medical care up here.
We start to descend towards the ice field, passing the bergshrund. There's a short downclimb to a crevasse field. Sangay tries to position my foot on a hold as I face into the rock and climb down. 'Dude, the one thing I don't need help with is rock climbing,' I blurt out. I'm frustrated, but he laughs and slaps me on the back and lets me get on with it.
Ken and I joke as we cross the ice, we have no crampons and he's never walked on ice before, but it's me that fals over again. We stop for a team phot in among the crevasses, and for a while I'm loving it, this is where I am happiest.
As we descend to Dzongla though I start to fall behind.I can hardly walk. Gabe stays with me and gives me water, a kidness I find humbling in the circumstances. Every so often I sit on a rock and vomit.
I eventually reach the lodge, and collapse again. Finjo talks to me. I'm either going in the decompression bag or descending to Dengboche, which should be a safe altitude for me. He's the leader and I respect him. I'm not going in the bag though. I hear him tell the porters to sort my bag out from the rest, but I'm too upset to stop him. Kritin takes my temperature, which seems ok. Someone puts some boiled potatoes in front of me, and Fletch tells me later that I pick one up and stare at it as if I don't know what it is. I eat a couple and give the rest to Finjo. Kristin tires to make me eat, but I just can't. Finjo peels a potato and gives it back to me to eat. It's bland and rubbish.
No-one says much, I think they know how I feel, and after a hour or so walking down the trail they go off to Lobuje and eventually to Kala Pattar and EBC, I have to go down.
I have seen the map and know we've got a long way to go. Sangay puts my 15kg duffel on top of his pack and off we go. I turn to look back, Kristin waves, but I don't react and just walk off.
I have to drag out another six hours walking, Snagy and I taking turns in pace-setting. It starts to get cold. Very cold. It's foggy adn realy windy. We can see maybe 20ft, and we justy have to keep moving. Sangay is freezing and I can't feel my toes again. It takes forever, we only just reach Dengboche before it's dark. Sangay's nose has seperated from his face in one corner because of the cold and my ear is all blistered. My nose has windburn and my lips are cracked and peeling. Sangay sorts a room and I just sit in the corner coughing and feeling like shit.
Sangay has kept my spirits up talking about wildlife and buddhist philosophy. he talks about my life, and makes me think about a few things.
A woman comes over and asks if i am ok, which is kind, but it's clear I'm not. Sangay tries to get me to eat, but I can't. I keep falling asleep sitting up, and by 7 he's got me into my sleeping bag. I am utterly spent. I came here to find my limits, and I really have done that today. And some. After 12 hours of trail beating, rock climbing, crevasse crossing and coughing up various parts of my insides the tank is finally empty. I sleep for 13 hours.
Part 3 - Gokyo to Tagnak
Pretty easy walking today - thankfully, across the Dzongala glacier, no snow or ice but it's a bit hairy a few times dodging rockfall, and hearing the ground creaking and groaning under your feet.
Some of the route is up and down - this is Nepal, flat means 'little bit up, little bit down', and Neema leads today, at his usual blistering pace. This strings the group out a bit and eventually Ken and I lose sight of him. I have to free climb a rock the size of a house to see the top of his baseball cap somewhere in front, and eventually we're all re-united.
Tagnak is packed with people and there's not a lot of lodge space. The guy who runs the lodge is like a Nepali John Cleese. He shouts at me for putting my backpack somewhere he doesn't want it and generally marches around being stressed and rude.
I'm managing full meals today, but this has a downside now. I have to deal with the toilets, which are interesting to say the least. If you can bring yourself to actually enter one.
Fletch is sick and spends the day in bed. Gabe is exhausted, and also takes to his bed. I talk to Ken about turning abck and he laughs it off, and tells me he can't believe my stamina and guts and how I just carry on no matter what, without even whinging. Ken's a tough Aussie and he expects the poms to whinge. He reminds me I got to 5400m, without eating and suggests most people would have turned back by now. It's god to have him on the team.
He alaso tells me he works with the brother of a guy who tried to kayak from Australia to New Zealand, a flim Bernie and I saw at the Banff film festival on our second date. ig world, small world.
It's a lazy afternoon, and I have time to think. I iss Bernie like mad, but with no comms home I can't do anything about it. I wonder what she's up to, and wish i could hear or voice just for a few minutes. I'm also missing her paella, it's been a lon time since I ate anything other than spuds or Dhal Bat. I'm craving cheese pasties too.
We've got a massive day tomorrow, to teh summit of Cho La, another 5000m top. I take the opportunity of the afternoon off to wash in a bowl of water stripped to the waist outside the lodge, where I've been sunbathing. Comically one of the sherpas is sat in his down jacket and asks me if I'm not a little cold!!!
Some of the route is up and down - this is Nepal, flat means 'little bit up, little bit down', and Neema leads today, at his usual blistering pace. This strings the group out a bit and eventually Ken and I lose sight of him. I have to free climb a rock the size of a house to see the top of his baseball cap somewhere in front, and eventually we're all re-united.
Tagnak is packed with people and there's not a lot of lodge space. The guy who runs the lodge is like a Nepali John Cleese. He shouts at me for putting my backpack somewhere he doesn't want it and generally marches around being stressed and rude.
I'm managing full meals today, but this has a downside now. I have to deal with the toilets, which are interesting to say the least. If you can bring yourself to actually enter one.
Fletch is sick and spends the day in bed. Gabe is exhausted, and also takes to his bed. I talk to Ken about turning abck and he laughs it off, and tells me he can't believe my stamina and guts and how I just carry on no matter what, without even whinging. Ken's a tough Aussie and he expects the poms to whinge. He reminds me I got to 5400m, without eating and suggests most people would have turned back by now. It's god to have him on the team.
He alaso tells me he works with the brother of a guy who tried to kayak from Australia to New Zealand, a flim Bernie and I saw at the Banff film festival on our second date. ig world, small world.
It's a lazy afternoon, and I have time to think. I iss Bernie like mad, but with no comms home I can't do anything about it. I wonder what she's up to, and wish i could hear or voice just for a few minutes. I'm also missing her paella, it's been a lon time since I ate anything other than spuds or Dhal Bat. I'm craving cheese pasties too.
We've got a massive day tomorrow, to teh summit of Cho La, another 5000m top. I take the opportunity of the afternoon off to wash in a bowl of water stripped to the waist outside the lodge, where I've been sunbathing. Comically one of the sherpas is sat in his down jacket and asks me if I'm not a little cold!!!
part 2
Up early, and a long line of headtorches work their way down to the dining area. I ram a piece of toast in my mouth and wash it down with water, but can only just stomach it. We set out at about 430 in the dark. it's really cold as start to climb up the steep ground, and i already feel like my toes are freezing. The constant coughing is draining, and it's really uncomfortable as we climb, every breath is hard and every so often I have to stop. Fletch is stamping his feet and I am wriggling fingers as well now, trying to stop frostnip setting in, so it's a welcome relief when the sun starts to come up.
We reach the twin lakes, which are stunningly beautiful, and I remember to look back ast the mountains above Lungden. I try to eat a Strepsil, and vomit it straight back up. I manage to force down a glucose tablet, and we move onto easier ground, where I remove some layers, and take another glucouse tablet.
Five hundred metres above us are the prayer flags of the summit, but the ground is incredibly steep. In places steps are cut into the rock, and it helps, but I'm now climbing in a daze, no-one is speaking, there's just the soun of hard breathing and coughing. We zig zag up but the prayer flags never seem to come any closer.
I am trying to keep a bandana over my face to warm and moisten the air I am breathing, but it feels like it is suffocating me. I pull it off and try and fix it to my pack with a 'biner, but I can't work out how to do it. My brain knows, but the signals to my hands seem to be messed up. I feel punch drunk, and my knees have gone like a new born foal's. I slump back against a rock and Finjo tries to take my pack. I refuse. There's a stand off for a few seconds, then I try to stand up but nothing happens. Finjo unclips my pack and hands it to Sangay. I nod my appreciation, but feel gutted I am needing help so close to the top.
I start off again, unhindered by the 8kg that was on my back, and now it's four breaths and two steps, four breaths, two steps. The air is so thin it's tough to get enough oxygen. Kristin is behind me, and I try to let her pass, but she wants to stay behind me, probably using me to pace herself. 'This is the hardest day of my lie...' she breathes. This is a girl who has climbed Elbrus the highest mountain in Europe. I ask her if she includes Elbrus and she says 'Elbrus was nothing.'
Now Inge-Ellen has had her pack taken as well, she has stomach problems. I try to speak to her, but I just cough up a mixture of blood and gunk, and just try to keep moving. Then I realise I've only got 5 metres to go, and the power comes back on. Over my right shoulder, as I crest the ridge I see Everest. It's enormous. It towers over everything, it's snow streaked granite pyramid distinct and clear against the perfect blue sky. It's glorious. I'm pretty much overcome and lurch out onto the narrow ridge. I'm on top of Renjo at 5400 metres. I don't know how I have accomplished it.
I realise I'm no longer suffering from my usal fear of heights, and stumble around on top for a bit. There's lots of back slapping, hand shaking and a few tears. Lots of pictures are taken, and I sit and suck in the scene. Makalu, Lhotse and Everest dominate the horizon, and there on the left is the huge north face of Cholatse, crossed with seracs and hanging glaciers. One of the most technical climbs in the Himalaya.
I scramble up a bit of rock and put up the prayer flag I had blessed at Kopan before the others arrive, with a couple of names and some thoughts for the future on it. I think Finjo does puja with the others, and I cram inn a Snickers, which I promptly vomit back up. Then we're off. We've been here less than half on hour. But it's enough.
The slope down to Gokyo is steep and loose now it's no longer frozen, Gokyo seems so close, yet the drop is huge. We pick our way carefully down, but I'm too tired to think, and I fall. I skid along on my backside for a good 5 metres before Neema manages to grab my pack and stop me disappearing. I now have a limp and a brusied backside to go with the cough, and then I start sneezing blood.
Seven and a half hours after we leave Lungden we reach Gokyo. The lake is incredibly beautiful with it's glacial green waters standing out in the grey and brown of the rocks.
We get to the lodge and I collapse. It's pretty much and hour before I am aware of anything. I've gone to 5400m on nothing more than a slice of toast, some glucose and a half eaten Snickers.
Fletch's watch says we're burning about 5000 calries a day, and I think I've been eating around 200 for the last 4 days. Essentially I am eating myself. I'm losing weight like anything, and by now pretty much everyone else is sick too. Lon is vomiting through dehydration, and possibly hallucinating, accoriding to Ken.
I manage to eat that evening, a few roast potatoes and i start to feel a bit better. I have some fruit salad from a can. In the evening we go out and watch Co Oyu in the starlight, and take a few pics. It's freezing cold here but stunningly beautiful. I decide to press on, despite this being the ideal place to abandon the trip. Tomorrow should be an easier day on flattish ground, and if I can only eat I should be able to go on.
Finjo congratulates me on getting to the top, my previous high is only 1344m, 4000m below what I achieved today, and by far the lowest altitude any of the team had as a previous record. I'm pleased, content, happy, tired and relieved as I crash out.
One thing is for sure though, next time we go high in a few days I won't wear my trainers. They didn't feel that safe. :)
We reach the twin lakes, which are stunningly beautiful, and I remember to look back ast the mountains above Lungden. I try to eat a Strepsil, and vomit it straight back up. I manage to force down a glucose tablet, and we move onto easier ground, where I remove some layers, and take another glucouse tablet.
Five hundred metres above us are the prayer flags of the summit, but the ground is incredibly steep. In places steps are cut into the rock, and it helps, but I'm now climbing in a daze, no-one is speaking, there's just the soun of hard breathing and coughing. We zig zag up but the prayer flags never seem to come any closer.
I am trying to keep a bandana over my face to warm and moisten the air I am breathing, but it feels like it is suffocating me. I pull it off and try and fix it to my pack with a 'biner, but I can't work out how to do it. My brain knows, but the signals to my hands seem to be messed up. I feel punch drunk, and my knees have gone like a new born foal's. I slump back against a rock and Finjo tries to take my pack. I refuse. There's a stand off for a few seconds, then I try to stand up but nothing happens. Finjo unclips my pack and hands it to Sangay. I nod my appreciation, but feel gutted I am needing help so close to the top.
I start off again, unhindered by the 8kg that was on my back, and now it's four breaths and two steps, four breaths, two steps. The air is so thin it's tough to get enough oxygen. Kristin is behind me, and I try to let her pass, but she wants to stay behind me, probably using me to pace herself. 'This is the hardest day of my lie...' she breathes. This is a girl who has climbed Elbrus the highest mountain in Europe. I ask her if she includes Elbrus and she says 'Elbrus was nothing.'
Now Inge-Ellen has had her pack taken as well, she has stomach problems. I try to speak to her, but I just cough up a mixture of blood and gunk, and just try to keep moving. Then I realise I've only got 5 metres to go, and the power comes back on. Over my right shoulder, as I crest the ridge I see Everest. It's enormous. It towers over everything, it's snow streaked granite pyramid distinct and clear against the perfect blue sky. It's glorious. I'm pretty much overcome and lurch out onto the narrow ridge. I'm on top of Renjo at 5400 metres. I don't know how I have accomplished it.
I realise I'm no longer suffering from my usal fear of heights, and stumble around on top for a bit. There's lots of back slapping, hand shaking and a few tears. Lots of pictures are taken, and I sit and suck in the scene. Makalu, Lhotse and Everest dominate the horizon, and there on the left is the huge north face of Cholatse, crossed with seracs and hanging glaciers. One of the most technical climbs in the Himalaya.
I scramble up a bit of rock and put up the prayer flag I had blessed at Kopan before the others arrive, with a couple of names and some thoughts for the future on it. I think Finjo does puja with the others, and I cram inn a Snickers, which I promptly vomit back up. Then we're off. We've been here less than half on hour. But it's enough.
The slope down to Gokyo is steep and loose now it's no longer frozen, Gokyo seems so close, yet the drop is huge. We pick our way carefully down, but I'm too tired to think, and I fall. I skid along on my backside for a good 5 metres before Neema manages to grab my pack and stop me disappearing. I now have a limp and a brusied backside to go with the cough, and then I start sneezing blood.
Seven and a half hours after we leave Lungden we reach Gokyo. The lake is incredibly beautiful with it's glacial green waters standing out in the grey and brown of the rocks.
We get to the lodge and I collapse. It's pretty much and hour before I am aware of anything. I've gone to 5400m on nothing more than a slice of toast, some glucose and a half eaten Snickers.
Fletch's watch says we're burning about 5000 calries a day, and I think I've been eating around 200 for the last 4 days. Essentially I am eating myself. I'm losing weight like anything, and by now pretty much everyone else is sick too. Lon is vomiting through dehydration, and possibly hallucinating, accoriding to Ken.
I manage to eat that evening, a few roast potatoes and i start to feel a bit better. I have some fruit salad from a can. In the evening we go out and watch Co Oyu in the starlight, and take a few pics. It's freezing cold here but stunningly beautiful. I decide to press on, despite this being the ideal place to abandon the trip. Tomorrow should be an easier day on flattish ground, and if I can only eat I should be able to go on.
Finjo congratulates me on getting to the top, my previous high is only 1344m, 4000m below what I achieved today, and by far the lowest altitude any of the team had as a previous record. I'm pleased, content, happy, tired and relieved as I crash out.
One thing is for sure though, next time we go high in a few days I won't wear my trainers. They didn't feel that safe. :)
The best and worst of times.
18 October
Fully recovered, or so I think, I'm up at 4am to get the chartered chopper over to Lukla. Fletch and Ken get the first flight and the rest of us end up waiting until nearly 11 before we can leave. Partly because someone had to come and pump the tyres back up on the MIG. We're crammed in with all the gear and a party for Ama Dablam, and I mean crammed, I spend the whole flight with my legs above my had and partly wrapped round Kristin, with Gabe's 6ft 4 frame crammed in by the window. Pasang Sherpa is on the flight and is the guid for Ama Dablam. H's summited Everest 5 times, and we're all a bit in awe. Lon gets to chat to him at KTM before we depart.
The flight is pretty awsome once w are under way, and not really as scary as you'd think, just uncomfortable. Kristin does look she's praying as we come into land, which makes me chuckle. We have a massive lunch at Lukla and meet back up with Fletch and Ken, and then set out, walking past the plane that crashed into the wall at the top of the airport a few days ago. We climb up towards Phakding, which takes just over 3 hours, walking through forsts that must be incrdible in spring, jumping out of the way of the Zopkio - cow-yak hybrids that porter on the lower slopes, and I feel like I am living the dream!!
The lodge at Phakding is ok, Lon has to go in with his Mum and Dad as one of the rooms is a triple, me and Gabe share again and have a good laugh when he opens his porter-pack to find his shaving foam has gone for a proper burton everywhere. I'm going full yeti so I am not going to have that problem. The big issue is the toilet paper - we've been issued two rolls each for three weeks, and I have another visitation like I did at Kathmandu it won't last long. So, first night in a lodge at the Prince Everest, where we at chilli potatoes and chat before an early night. We've had the rules read to us - no meat or dairy above Namche, no beer, etc - all thought out to try and stop us getting sick. Fingers crossed.
19 October Phakding - Namche (7 hours)
Set out early on what starts as an easy walk up to Monjo, whre we would have started today had the flight not been so late. The going gets harder here and Barbara is finding it tough, but she's in her sixties so it's no suprise. She's a well known US author on Nepal, and her knowldge is great and really interesting, but it's hard to talk to her because of the difference in our paces. We go over Nepal's longst suspension bridge, hoping the Zopkio don't start coming the other way, and after lunch we then cross the highest, which Ken bounces to test my nerves, but I'm ok on it and we're soon over the Dudh Koshi, th milk river.
Namche never seems to come, as we near 3000m it gets really hard, Barbara is now in front, so she can set the pace, and as we reach Namche we are disappointed to find the first Everest viewpoint in thick cloud. We then have to climb through the village right to the top to reach the lodge. It's a long day.
19th October Namche Bazar
There's an annoying French guy here who looks Gerard Depardieu! We joke about the price of snickers, of which Fletch has a stash in his bag - he's the Snickers King of Phakding, or the Snickers Tsar of Namche Bazar, we're not sure. Lon demonstrates his eating prowess by clearing up all the leftovers, I've never seen anything like it, but he's fit. I caught him doing push ups at Phakding, god knows where he gets the energy, I'm feeling good and I'm in the mood for altitude.
20-23 October
Didn't get to see as much of Namche as I'd hoped, by the time we reached the lodge I just wanted to sleep. The next 'rest day' we set out on an acclimitisation hike to the Everest View Hotel, where we are rewarded with our first views of Ama Dablam, Lhotse and a little peek at Everest behind the clouds. We walk round to Kunde to see the yeti skull at the monastery and the hospital, where we met a girl I had seen yesterday. She was telling her guide she felt ill because she had 'never walked uphill before!!!' Hmmmm. Anyway I'm last back to the lodge, feeling drained and unable to eat. Which is annoying.
The next day we walk up to Thame, and all I can eat is a Mars bar. and a few glucouse tablets. I'm not worried though, sure it will pass. Pretty thrilled to be staying at Appa Sherpa's lodge - 21 times summiteer of Everest. The certificates are all round the walls, with oxygen bottles and other memorbillia. This is also the village that Tenzing Norgay came from.
We leave for Lungden the next morning, and I still can't eat. I'm also crapping water, and now I'm not sleeping. I don't remember much of the walk, except the views of Kasum Kangure, Kongde and then Cho Oyu - the first 8000er we see. I get to Lungden on stamina and energy I didn't know I had. The lodg is very basic, w're here for two days too. I manage to eat a bizarre mix of chapati, jam and chips so I can start on Diamox, which will hopefully stem the onset of the AMS I think I am getting. Fletch is getting sick too, but Finjo finds a yellow tablet which sems to help. The lodge is full of Japanese, who have bought their own cook tent and food, so they pay 10 times the lodge price. They're a strange lot. Sangay says 'walk slow, no bag... Japanese....'
The next day we rest up, a really welcom day. Gabe, Jim and I sit in the sun, while the others do some light hiking, I'm still not eating very well and don't join in the High Altitude Rounders. I go to my room to eat, where I cram in potatoes washd down with water. It's easier in the room, I don't feel like I'm putting the others off with my retching and coughing as I eat. Early to bed for an early start.
Fully recovered, or so I think, I'm up at 4am to get the chartered chopper over to Lukla. Fletch and Ken get the first flight and the rest of us end up waiting until nearly 11 before we can leave. Partly because someone had to come and pump the tyres back up on the MIG. We're crammed in with all the gear and a party for Ama Dablam, and I mean crammed, I spend the whole flight with my legs above my had and partly wrapped round Kristin, with Gabe's 6ft 4 frame crammed in by the window. Pasang Sherpa is on the flight and is the guid for Ama Dablam. H's summited Everest 5 times, and we're all a bit in awe. Lon gets to chat to him at KTM before we depart.
The flight is pretty awsome once w are under way, and not really as scary as you'd think, just uncomfortable. Kristin does look she's praying as we come into land, which makes me chuckle. We have a massive lunch at Lukla and meet back up with Fletch and Ken, and then set out, walking past the plane that crashed into the wall at the top of the airport a few days ago. We climb up towards Phakding, which takes just over 3 hours, walking through forsts that must be incrdible in spring, jumping out of the way of the Zopkio - cow-yak hybrids that porter on the lower slopes, and I feel like I am living the dream!!
The lodge at Phakding is ok, Lon has to go in with his Mum and Dad as one of the rooms is a triple, me and Gabe share again and have a good laugh when he opens his porter-pack to find his shaving foam has gone for a proper burton everywhere. I'm going full yeti so I am not going to have that problem. The big issue is the toilet paper - we've been issued two rolls each for three weeks, and I have another visitation like I did at Kathmandu it won't last long. So, first night in a lodge at the Prince Everest, where we at chilli potatoes and chat before an early night. We've had the rules read to us - no meat or dairy above Namche, no beer, etc - all thought out to try and stop us getting sick. Fingers crossed.
19 October Phakding - Namche (7 hours)
Set out early on what starts as an easy walk up to Monjo, whre we would have started today had the flight not been so late. The going gets harder here and Barbara is finding it tough, but she's in her sixties so it's no suprise. She's a well known US author on Nepal, and her knowldge is great and really interesting, but it's hard to talk to her because of the difference in our paces. We go over Nepal's longst suspension bridge, hoping the Zopkio don't start coming the other way, and after lunch we then cross the highest, which Ken bounces to test my nerves, but I'm ok on it and we're soon over the Dudh Koshi, th milk river.
Namche never seems to come, as we near 3000m it gets really hard, Barbara is now in front, so she can set the pace, and as we reach Namche we are disappointed to find the first Everest viewpoint in thick cloud. We then have to climb through the village right to the top to reach the lodge. It's a long day.
19th October Namche Bazar
There's an annoying French guy here who looks Gerard Depardieu! We joke about the price of snickers, of which Fletch has a stash in his bag - he's the Snickers King of Phakding, or the Snickers Tsar of Namche Bazar, we're not sure. Lon demonstrates his eating prowess by clearing up all the leftovers, I've never seen anything like it, but he's fit. I caught him doing push ups at Phakding, god knows where he gets the energy, I'm feeling good and I'm in the mood for altitude.
20-23 October
Didn't get to see as much of Namche as I'd hoped, by the time we reached the lodge I just wanted to sleep. The next 'rest day' we set out on an acclimitisation hike to the Everest View Hotel, where we are rewarded with our first views of Ama Dablam, Lhotse and a little peek at Everest behind the clouds. We walk round to Kunde to see the yeti skull at the monastery and the hospital, where we met a girl I had seen yesterday. She was telling her guide she felt ill because she had 'never walked uphill before!!!' Hmmmm. Anyway I'm last back to the lodge, feeling drained and unable to eat. Which is annoying.
The next day we walk up to Thame, and all I can eat is a Mars bar. and a few glucouse tablets. I'm not worried though, sure it will pass. Pretty thrilled to be staying at Appa Sherpa's lodge - 21 times summiteer of Everest. The certificates are all round the walls, with oxygen bottles and other memorbillia. This is also the village that Tenzing Norgay came from.
We leave for Lungden the next morning, and I still can't eat. I'm also crapping water, and now I'm not sleeping. I don't remember much of the walk, except the views of Kasum Kangure, Kongde and then Cho Oyu - the first 8000er we see. I get to Lungden on stamina and energy I didn't know I had. The lodg is very basic, w're here for two days too. I manage to eat a bizarre mix of chapati, jam and chips so I can start on Diamox, which will hopefully stem the onset of the AMS I think I am getting. Fletch is getting sick too, but Finjo finds a yellow tablet which sems to help. The lodge is full of Japanese, who have bought their own cook tent and food, so they pay 10 times the lodge price. They're a strange lot. Sangay says 'walk slow, no bag... Japanese....'
The next day we rest up, a really welcom day. Gabe, Jim and I sit in the sun, while the others do some light hiking, I'm still not eating very well and don't join in the High Altitude Rounders. I go to my room to eat, where I cram in potatoes washd down with water. It's easier in the room, I don't feel like I'm putting the others off with my retching and coughing as I eat. Early to bed for an early start.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Got a big chopper
Back at Airport looks like we're going up by helicopter. So.... We wait til maybe 1300 before they decide the weather is too bad even for the helicopter, then back to the hotel,and out for lunch. Another briefing later, but the feeling is we are shipping out at 5am by MIG1 helicopter. We'll see.
17 october
Sick sick sick. Didn't sleep all night and spent the morning slumped against the expedition gear at KTM airport waiting for the flight to Lukla. It hammered with rain here, and was even worse between the two so we abandoned ship and came back. Another new hotel, this one called wonderland. Spent all afternoon crashed out on the bed with a fever.
Finjo gave me some rehydration powder and I bought some coproximol in the supermarket, but I'm not up to dinner. Gabriella is turning into a top bloke, he's gone out to find me English food as I've only eaten a biscuit in 24hrs, I'm lucky to be rooming with him.
This would have been really difficult to deal with a few days back when I was on my own.
The American family seem to do their own thing, their son asks some odd questions like whether we can catch up the lost time by climbing 1000m of altitude in one day. Finjo put him straight. I missed the team briefing as I was in bed, but Gabe says if we can't get up to Lukla tomorrow we'll lose the Gokyo Ri climb, which is a shame but something will have to give.
Finjo Sherpa is also a bit of a star, he tells me a French girl in shorts at the airport "needs some company", he charges around organising hotels, tea, biscuits and is always smiling and laughing. He also climbs over grade 5, and carries the heaviest pack I've ever seen. The stories about these guys are true.
Finjo gave me some rehydration powder and I bought some coproximol in the supermarket, but I'm not up to dinner. Gabriella is turning into a top bloke, he's gone out to find me English food as I've only eaten a biscuit in 24hrs, I'm lucky to be rooming with him.
This would have been really difficult to deal with a few days back when I was on my own.
The American family seem to do their own thing, their son asks some odd questions like whether we can catch up the lost time by climbing 1000m of altitude in one day. Finjo put him straight. I missed the team briefing as I was in bed, but Gabe says if we can't get up to Lukla tomorrow we'll lose the Gokyo Ri climb, which is a shame but something will have to give.
Finjo Sherpa is also a bit of a star, he tells me a French girl in shorts at the airport "needs some company", he charges around organising hotels, tea, biscuits and is always smiling and laughing. He also climbs over grade 5, and carries the heaviest pack I've ever seen. The stories about these guys are true.
Friday, 15 October 2010
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Yeserday's dinner and cultural display was a blast, sat up with Ken for a beer after. Today we saw some sights, the stupa is pretty awesome, but the Hindu temple pretty much freaked me out. I didn't like them in India either. The Buddhist place is pretty peaceful, and we saw Thangka being made.
Took the guys round Thamel for lunch, and now we're all packing like mad to get our gear ready for our early flight tomorrow. So.... This is probably the last update for a while, tomorrow we head off into the high mountains.
Took the guys round Thamel for lunch, and now we're all packing like mad to get our gear ready for our early flight tomorrow. So.... This is probably the last update for a while, tomorrow we head off into the high mountains.
Yesterday
Decide to walk round to Shakti the new hotel, which probably wasn't a bright idea. I've got a backpack and I'm humping a suitcase along, and going through worse and worse neighbourhoods, until I eventually find it. It's really strange, it's a big neat and tidy 2 star job in the middle of this dumpy area. Maybe won't be walking in and out of here at night.
Was pretty hassled coming round, but managed to baffle one of the trek touts by offering him a trek round Dagenham for very good price, and very big discount as he is my friend. He now thinks Dagenham is beautiful and will probably tell that to anyone who comes from England now.
I'm sharing, haven't met my roommate yet, I'm figuring he's the Italian as he is called Gabriel, but you never know. It's pretty weird having to share, but we're going to all be in pretty close proximity for the next three weeks.
This place has a garden, most of the others have some sort of roof business, you can see quite a bit more sky here, there's a couple of what I think are Griffons circling really high up and hundreds of swift-type birds. They won't go hungry with all these flies that's for sure.
You have to pay the wifi here, 100NR for an hour, which a lot of other places do for free. Probably move on as soon as we get back, maybe up to Pokhara, which is a 7-9hr bus ride, but it's the best way to see a country and I'm here to see more than KTM and the himalaya.
Tonight we have the welcome dinner, I'm not really that bothered, sure it'll be lovely and all that, but I'm anxious and want to get moved on to the trek.
The number of goats tied up in the street is increasing. In a few days they'll be headless and in the pot. Imagine if we had to kill the Xmas turkey on the day before rather than get it prepacked from Tesco. Other turkeys are available from other good stores.
So Pradip the company boss turns up, and he says he can save some money if I do the guided tour of KTM tomorrow, I am a 'resident' and should know it very well. I tell him I do it for very good price.
We're now 9 for the trek, and 8 for the mountain, there's a girl who's leaving us before climbing. She's the only girl coming along. There's also another Brit Dave, which is actually a bit of a relief, although I am paired for now with the Italian. We're all meeting in a couple of hours for briefing and dinner. I've spent the day sorting gear, trying to work out what I need and what I don't. Pradip likes my boots. He's not getting them though!! I just have to get the flight out of the way.
One of the kids here who picks shit up and moves it around as far as I can tell is wearing a ball cap that he has very carefully written 'Nike' on in marker pen on the back, the front says 'Chuck's Mowers, Denver' or something. I'd love to see what would happen to a teenager who made his own Nike ball cap back home.
It's now raining hard, just in time for Dishanwy, just like Xmas at home.
Met up with the team, strange mix. Two Norwegians, girls who seem serious mountaineers, off to Anconcagua next yesr. Ken's an Aussie fireman and a top bloke, there's a family of Americans, where the parents have been here often, and my roomy Gab who is Italian and also here for his fortieth, seems a decent bloke. Think we're a good group, and we all enjoyed the cultural night, dancing and traditional Nepali food. One of the Norwegians is a nurse and I think we've all got a strong chance of a summit. Unless we drink much Rakshi. Then we'll all die.
Was pretty hassled coming round, but managed to baffle one of the trek touts by offering him a trek round Dagenham for very good price, and very big discount as he is my friend. He now thinks Dagenham is beautiful and will probably tell that to anyone who comes from England now.
I'm sharing, haven't met my roommate yet, I'm figuring he's the Italian as he is called Gabriel, but you never know. It's pretty weird having to share, but we're going to all be in pretty close proximity for the next three weeks.
This place has a garden, most of the others have some sort of roof business, you can see quite a bit more sky here, there's a couple of what I think are Griffons circling really high up and hundreds of swift-type birds. They won't go hungry with all these flies that's for sure.
You have to pay the wifi here, 100NR for an hour, which a lot of other places do for free. Probably move on as soon as we get back, maybe up to Pokhara, which is a 7-9hr bus ride, but it's the best way to see a country and I'm here to see more than KTM and the himalaya.
Tonight we have the welcome dinner, I'm not really that bothered, sure it'll be lovely and all that, but I'm anxious and want to get moved on to the trek.
The number of goats tied up in the street is increasing. In a few days they'll be headless and in the pot. Imagine if we had to kill the Xmas turkey on the day before rather than get it prepacked from Tesco. Other turkeys are available from other good stores.
So Pradip the company boss turns up, and he says he can save some money if I do the guided tour of KTM tomorrow, I am a 'resident' and should know it very well. I tell him I do it for very good price.
We're now 9 for the trek, and 8 for the mountain, there's a girl who's leaving us before climbing. She's the only girl coming along. There's also another Brit Dave, which is actually a bit of a relief, although I am paired for now with the Italian. We're all meeting in a couple of hours for briefing and dinner. I've spent the day sorting gear, trying to work out what I need and what I don't. Pradip likes my boots. He's not getting them though!! I just have to get the flight out of the way.
One of the kids here who picks shit up and moves it around as far as I can tell is wearing a ball cap that he has very carefully written 'Nike' on in marker pen on the back, the front says 'Chuck's Mowers, Denver' or something. I'd love to see what would happen to a teenager who made his own Nike ball cap back home.
It's now raining hard, just in time for Dishanwy, just like Xmas at home.
Met up with the team, strange mix. Two Norwegians, girls who seem serious mountaineers, off to Anconcagua next yesr. Ken's an Aussie fireman and a top bloke, there's a family of Americans, where the parents have been here often, and my roomy Gab who is Italian and also here for his fortieth, seems a decent bloke. Think we're a good group, and we all enjoyed the cultural night, dancing and traditional Nepali food. One of the Norwegians is a nurse and I think we've all got a strong chance of a summit. Unless we drink much Rakshi. Then we'll all die.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Obscured by Clouds
Managed to speak to my neices on skype last night which was really cool, the ability to check in with familiar things keeps this long trip just that little bit easier, from now though it might just get a bit too hectic and far away for all that.
Went out to Paddys and met up with a kiwi and his guide just back from the Everest trek. The guide is full of confidence, telling me he's going to guide Everest, but it's a happy confidence that rubs off a bit. He's drinking green tea, and laughing at jokes I'm surprised he understands. He wants to do Ama Dablam next year, and thinks if I can do Imja I should have a chance of summiting the 6900m icon of the Himalaya. I wonder if the good lady would allow another mission out here?!
The kiwi guy is travelling the world in two months, pretty much a whistle stop tour, which must be pretty tough because you never have time to get orientated. Respect, though, he's out there doing it.
Before all that I sat up in Northfield chatting with a couple out here on charity work, I might be able to get some time with them when I'm back. She's from Saffron Walden and a doctor, and is fulfilling a friend's wish. A friend who trekked to EBC with cancer. Pretty awesome that. Makes my worrying about it seem silly.
The husband tells me a funny story where he's repeatedly asked If he likes 'hashish' by a shoe shine boy. And the boy won't accept that he doesn't like it. "all English like hasish, " and so it goes on. Then the kid says "Australians like hashish too... Ricky Ponting, Andrew Flintoff...all like...." The guy then realises he's saying "Ashes.. You like Ashes!"
There's a few kids knocking round sniffing glue last night, slumped up against the police box. No-one chases them away, arrests them or even takes much notice. They don't seem to have the fears we in the west do where we sweep things like that under the carpet I think.
It's pretty chilly this morning, the first time I've seen a lot of cloud, although apparently it gets foggy here quite often as KTM is in a valley. It's the first time I've not seen the sun while I've had breakfast since I have been here. I've been out for some more drugs for AMS and some other bits and some breakfast, then it's time to move on to Laizupat, change hotels again and meet up with the trekking group.
Went out to Paddys and met up with a kiwi and his guide just back from the Everest trek. The guide is full of confidence, telling me he's going to guide Everest, but it's a happy confidence that rubs off a bit. He's drinking green tea, and laughing at jokes I'm surprised he understands. He wants to do Ama Dablam next year, and thinks if I can do Imja I should have a chance of summiting the 6900m icon of the Himalaya. I wonder if the good lady would allow another mission out here?!
The kiwi guy is travelling the world in two months, pretty much a whistle stop tour, which must be pretty tough because you never have time to get orientated. Respect, though, he's out there doing it.
Before all that I sat up in Northfield chatting with a couple out here on charity work, I might be able to get some time with them when I'm back. She's from Saffron Walden and a doctor, and is fulfilling a friend's wish. A friend who trekked to EBC with cancer. Pretty awesome that. Makes my worrying about it seem silly.
The husband tells me a funny story where he's repeatedly asked If he likes 'hashish' by a shoe shine boy. And the boy won't accept that he doesn't like it. "all English like hasish, " and so it goes on. Then the kid says "Australians like hashish too... Ricky Ponting, Andrew Flintoff...all like...." The guy then realises he's saying "Ashes.. You like Ashes!"
There's a few kids knocking round sniffing glue last night, slumped up against the police box. No-one chases them away, arrests them or even takes much notice. They don't seem to have the fears we in the west do where we sweep things like that under the carpet I think.
It's pretty chilly this morning, the first time I've seen a lot of cloud, although apparently it gets foggy here quite often as KTM is in a valley. It's the first time I've not seen the sun while I've had breakfast since I have been here. I've been out for some more drugs for AMS and some other bits and some breakfast, then it's time to move on to Laizupat, change hotels again and meet up with the trekking group.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk
Did some shopping today, picked up a few bits and bobs for trekking like my drugs for AMS, which you can get freely from the pharmacy here, but UK doctors won't give you. That's even though it can save your life if the AMS becomes HAPE or HACE. There's various theories about the other diseases up in the hills, some books say it's so high up that a lot of bacteria that would normally make you sick don't really survive, but I've got the immodium, some Bisto and a cork. One of them will work, or a combination.
Lots of places will be closed for Dasani on Sat on Sun, the big festival, think we're out of town by then though, don't want to be struggling to find food and beer.
Was going for a stroll round Thamel but found an MTB place, so got a bike for $10 for the day. No face mask though, which resulted in some fairly spontaneous vomiting after following a garbage lorry for a while. I'm eating loads, but I'm definitely losing weight despite pumping in the calories like there's no tomorrow, not really sure how I'm going to combat that. There's only so much pizza and burritos a man can eat, and we'll be on Dhal Bhaat for three weeks I guess.
Went through the itinerary on the map, there's a few hairy bits marked 'dangerous in snow', which is what I'm here for, pretty stoked about that, but we're a few weeks early for the deep stuff.
Lots of places will be closed for Dasani on Sat on Sun, the big festival, think we're out of town by then though, don't want to be struggling to find food and beer.
Was going for a stroll round Thamel but found an MTB place, so got a bike for $10 for the day. No face mask though, which resulted in some fairly spontaneous vomiting after following a garbage lorry for a while. I'm eating loads, but I'm definitely losing weight despite pumping in the calories like there's no tomorrow, not really sure how I'm going to combat that. There's only so much pizza and burritos a man can eat, and we'll be on Dhal Bhaat for three weeks I guess.
Went through the itinerary on the map, there's a few hairy bits marked 'dangerous in snow', which is what I'm here for, pretty stoked about that, but we're a few weeks early for the deep stuff.
The itinerary
Everest High Passes and Peaks
25 Days Strenuous Trip
22 Days Teahouse and Camping Trek & Climbing
04 Nights Hotel Accommodation in Kathmandu
Round Trip Himalayan Flight to Lukla
Highest Elevation: 6189 meter
Venture on Himalayan peak close to Everest along with the spectacular Himalayan traverses from Gokyo valley to Everest Base camp via the Chola pass.
The exciting picturesque journey of Everest high Pass and Peaks links you through three beautiful Himalayan valleys: Gokyo, Khumbu and Imja. This high altitude trekking and climbing trip in Everest region fulfills the dream of every amateur climbers and serious trekkers, who have been seeking the thrill of adventure and wish to widen their experience towards the peak climbing expedition beyond simply trekking in Nepal.
The professionally design Everest High Pass and Peaks trek and climbing itinerary takes you to the acclimatization hike to the most popular trekking destination of Gokyo lakes, Gokyo Ri, Himalayan traverse of Chola pass, Everest Base camp and Kala Pathar for the close up views of Everest before scaling Island peak, also known as Imja Tse (6,189m), lies to the south of Everest and is one of the most popular trekking peaks
We head for Island peak climbing after the essential climbing practice course briefed and instructed by Climbing Sherpa on various aspects of climbing techniques. Your historical effort to summit the peak will be rewarded with probably one of the best panoramic views in the world as you feel Lhotse, Nuptse, Baruntse, Ama Dablam and Makalu are almost touching the tip of your nose.
Day 1 Arrive in Kathmandu (1330m): Mountain Monarch office representative welcomes you on your arrival in Kathmandu airport and transfer to the hotel in Kathmandu where pre – trek arrival briefing and other information will be given. Arrangements are made today for the distribution of your kit bag, down jacket, sleeping bag etc. For your kind information, your group leader will be happy to assist you in any way he can. The evening will be highlighted by a traditional Royal Nepali welcome dinner accompanied with trek guide as a perfect end of your very arrival day in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal.
Day 2 Sightseeing tour in Kathmandu: Today you have time to explore Kathmandu-valley, which has more World Heritage sites than any other city in the world. This capital city has an amazing range of traditional fascinating highlights, whatever your interest. In our morning exploration of the cultural sights and sounds in Kathmandu, we will visit the Bhaudanath stupa, a biggest Buddhist shrine in Nepal and Pashupatinath, most important Hindu temple, where you have chance to witness the cremation done in public way. After the guided tour afternoon is free to pack, purchase last minutes items for your trek or simply relax.
Day 3 Flight to Lukla (2600) Trek to Phakding (2600) Walk approx. 3hrs.
Early in the morning, we head towards the STOL airport for 45 minutes thrilling mountain flight to the airstrip at Lukla which was built by Sir Edmund Hillary and his friend, when he started his social work of building schools and hospitals for the local Sherpa people. At Lukla, the first glimpse of all huge mountains are quite impressive which surround the very village, but be patience, it is just starting, and there are lots more to come on your way. From Lukla, we trek downhill towards the Dudh Koshi (milky river), a raging river that flows from the highest mountains. The trail is fairly easy and well-marked, menders around the fields of potatoes and wheat. We pass through many traditional villages to reach to the vicinity of Phakding for our first night stay at Lodge.
We see many "Mani Wall" which is a compilation of many stone tablets, each with the Buddhist chanting inscriptions, "Om Mani Padme Hum" which means, "Hail to the jewel on the lotus". Please respect the local tradition as the local people walking left to these Mani Walls.
Day 4 Namche Bazaar (3440m) walk approx 5 -6 hrs. Today, passing through the pine forest and terraces, we cross and recross the thundering glacial river ' Dudh Koshi '. We will see groups of yaks and dzopki carrying the trek-gears and trading goods along the trail. Spectacular mountain peaks like Nupla (5885m) Kongde RI (6093 m), Thamserku (6808m) rises majestically above us.
We must be patient, though the allure of the mountains is hard to resist, as it is very important that we acclimatize slowly so that we can fully appreciate our time at higher altitude. We enter onto the Sagarmatha National Park, another World Heritage site. We walk along the river to the confluence of the Dudh Koshi and Bhote Koshi and cross a spectacular high bridge before commencing ascent to the village of Namche Bazaar, a gateway to the Everest. As we ascent passing through pine forest of rhododendron and magnolia, we will sight our first view of the majestic Mt. Everest from a vantage point
Day 5 Rest Day in Namche BazaarAs we believe that the journey is important not the place of stay. This rest day is very important to acclimatize for safe ascending. Though it is a rest day, you have lots of options you can do as you wish. You may walk to the hill above the village to the National Park Headquarter to see stunning view of huge mountains including Mt. Everest. The Sherpa cultural center in National Park headquarter, has an interesting collection of Sherpa mountaineering items and photographs. You may go on an excursion to Thame village or those who are fit and acclimatizing well may wish to take an optional morning walk to the Everest View Hotel from where view of the Mt. Everest and Ama Dablam may be seen or just simply relax and watch the Sherpa culture around
Day 06: Thame, (3,800 m.) approx. 6 hoursWe trek out to Thame 12,500ft. (3,809m.) Following the Bhotekoshi river valley. This walks takes us away from the main corridor of travel towards Everest Base Camp. At the same time it takes us toward the home of many of the most accomplished Sherpa Everest climbers. Tenzing Norgay was from Thame. Other famous mountaineers like Ang Rita and Apa Sherpa both from Thame. Here you can make visit to the monastery of Thame is home to a Rimpoche or reincarnate lama.
Day 07: Lungden, (4400m.) approx. 6 hours We leave Thame in the direction of the fabled Nangpa La, the glaciated pass into Tibet. Nomadic Tibetan traders will be on the trail to Namche, but we will be heading into wilderness areas. We follow the right side of the valley and will stay at Lungden. The trails leads the river valley making a gradual climb, the views to the south is stunning by the northern flank of Kongde Ri and to the west is Bigphera Go, Tashi Lapsa and Kang Tengpoche. To the north can be seen Nangpa La range in the border between Nepal and Tibet.
Day 08: Rest & acclimatization Here we will take a rest for acclimatization practices; we just walk around the valley, or try to climb up a bit, just to be sure for the next days to go over the pass
Day 09: Gokyo (4800 m.) approx. 8 hour Early morning departures to Renjo pass. Today we have a longer day, so we start our first Everest pass crossing, Renjo pass, for those familiar with the Rocky passes of Colorado you will find this pass really similar. There is no glacier; just behind the pass there are some icy parts to descend down to Gokyo valley. If we are trekking in Nov then we have to be careful to descend down from the pass. The trails to the pass will climb steeply and some parts will be walk zigzag. The views from the pass is unbelievable north face of Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse, Makalu the fourth highest of the world, many more gigantic Himalayan peaks and Cho- Oyu one of the 8000m very close by you. We will descend all the way into Gokyo at an elevation 4800m.
Day 10 Ascent of Gokyo RI (5483m) walks approx 4 hrs. Early in the morning we start steady ascent of Gokyo Ri that takes around 2 to 3 hours, depending on your level of fitness and acclimatization for the Nepal's best panoramic views. From the rocky summit four peaks higher than 8000 meter can be seen: Everest (8848m), Cho-Oyo (98153m), Lhotse (8501m) and Makalu (84) and countless other towering snow peaks fill the horizon including Gyangchung Kang (7922 m), Cholatse (6440 m), Tawache (6542 m), Kantega (6685 m), Thamserku (6808 m), Lobuche (6145 m) and many more other unnamed peaks while below us the Ngozumpa Glacier stretches through the valley and the striking color of the lakes make the completion of the whole incredible Gokyo valley.
Day 11 Thangna (4880 m) walks 4 hrsToday we leave our way across the glacier to the luncheon camp called Thangna as our trail menders around the constantly changing obstacles. Great views of Cho-Oyo and Cholatse greet you. Keep an eye open for the Himalayan Thar on the rocky slopes as they are not hunted and are not too shy.
Day 12 Chola pass (5335m) sand Dzongla (4843m) walk approx. 6-7 hrs. We start our journey early in the morning to take advantage of the stable early morning weather pattern that prevails in the Himalayas. Depending upon the weather condition it takes 3-4 hours to reach the saddle of the Pass. There will be time on the crown of the Pass to drink and savour the life long experience being on the Pass before the descent into the valley to Dzongla. This is one of the especial days the highlight of the trip. The views of the peaks seem to hover over us. Words failed to describes the beauty of Nature and sense of achievement to be on the Pass.
Day 13 Lobuche (4930m) walk approx 5-6 hrs.The early morning sun is welcome after a cold night and reveals a dramatic panorama of the spectacular pears. We traverse high in the flanks of Awi Peak, above the village of Chola and continue past Cholatse Lake. Beyond the lake the Chola Glacier flows from the saddle between the cliffs of Cholatse and Tawache peaks with the rugged beautiful display. We continue our walk until we join the busy trail to Everest Base Camp. Walking on barren slopes above the tree line we sill see different peaks such as Cholatse, Lobuche and Pumari unfolds us in this contrasting and spectacular landscape. Rock cairns can be seen dedicated to the memory of climbers attempting the high mountains at Dugla Ridge. Walking up onto marine of Khumbu Glacier (the longest glacier in Nepal) to Lobuche for the overnight camp, one can feel the temperature drops her as we are more exposed with our camp situated along this glacier marine.
Day14Gorak Shep (5288m) walk approx 3-4 hrs / climb Kalapathar (5546m) approx walk 4 hrs. Today, we are high among the glaciers of the world's highest peaks to trek alongside the Khumbu Glacier, as the trail menders over the rocky marine towards the high settlement of seasonal spectacular village called Gorak Shep. After the rest, we ascend the slopes of Kalapathar, a small, rocky peak on the south west ridge of Pumori, a slow, and steady pace once again takes us on vantage point to savour the sensational Himalayan vistas all around. The climb is not easy but the view from the top surpasses the wildest imagination. We will hear huge glaciers creaking as they move under pressure and be awe-struck at the sheer size and majesty of the surrounding peaks including Pumori, Nuptse, Changtse, Ama Dablam, Tawache, Kantega and Everest – the highest mountain in the world. About 3 kilometer distance east and some 200 meter below, the famed Everest base camp is seen in a bowl at the bottom of the notorious Khumbu Ice Fall. For many trekkers reaching Kala Pathar is a very emotional experience and we have allowed plenty of time on Kala Pattar to enjoy the experience. We return to Gorak Shep for over night stay. This spectacular village is surround by Pumari (7145m), Lingtren (6697m), Nuptse (7745m) and of course Everest (8848m). As the sun sets it becomes very cold though the sun is strong in daytime.
Day15Morning excursion to Everest base camp (5300m) walk approx 5 hrs and trek back to Dingboche, walk approx 4 hrs. This morning we head for the historical ascend to Everest Base Camp. The trail sometimes can be difficult to follow so do keep an eye on your Sherpa guides and walk carefully. On the way we might encounter yaks and porters supplying food and equipment to the Expedition group in March and April. We could not see the Everest from base camp but we can see the most difficult and dangerous section of Everest expedition, the Khumbu Ice Fall that flows from the western Cwm. After making historic steps on Everest Base Camp and Kalapattar, we will descend down to the highlander's village called Lobuche. Another day at high altitude so be prepared for the long and tiring day. The trek to Everest base camp is optional so if you are feeling tired you can rest at Gorak Shep instead. After making historic steps on Everest Base Camp and Kalapattar, we will descend down Dingboche retracing down our way via the memorial Rock Cairns.
Day 16 Trek to Base camp, walk approx 6 hrs. (Tented Camping) Following the Imja Khola valley we ascent gradual, crossing small streams, through open alpine pastures with fine views of Island Peak at the head of the valley. We reach Himalayan hamlet Chukung being surrounded on three sides by icy peaks: the views of the massive Lhotse Wall and Ama Dablam are particularly impressive as seen from Chukung. After the lunch we heads the side of the lateral moraines of the Imja glacier takes you to the beautiful Island peak base camp. Mountain Monarch staff have set up the two men climbing dome tent for you and our cook prepare the delicious food for you.
Day17Acclimatization rest day / Climbing Clinic This rest day will help us to have a successful summit of the Island Peak. Today our experience mountaineering expertise – climbing Sherpa will give you the climbing information of the peak. The aim of our climbing clinics is to build self-confidence and increase the rate of success to each participant. Climbing Sherpa and trek leader brief the group on the theory and practical use for climbing gears like ice axe, zoomer, crampons, rope fixing etc.
Day 18 Island Peak climbing (full day)Today is one of the tough and important as it is a summit day. We leave the Base Camp early at around 3 am using head torches. After about half an hour's walk along the moraine at the side of the glacier we turn up the screes of Island Peak. The trail is clear but it is stiff walking at over 5000m and cold.
The scree finishes at the site of the High Camp and we begin scrambling up easy angled rock. After some time we join a rib and scramble along it to a point where the glacier joins the top of the rocks. Here we put on crampons, harnesses and rope up. The route weaves through the crevassed glacier eventually reaching a steep headwall leading to the summit ridge. Normally the guides and Sherpas will climb this first and fix a rope down at this section allowing members to zoomer up and on return abseil down. The summit ridge is quite narrow and sometimes corniced. We continue roped up along it to the small shapely summit of Island peak top where the panoramic Himalayas enthrall you making your historical trip of a lifetime.
Day 19 Spare Day This is a spare day to enable us to be flexible with the program to allow for weather changes or other problems. If we have been able to follow the itinerary to date we can use this day for further exploration of the area.
Day 20 Trek to Pangboche 5-6 hrsThere may be a tendency to rush; particularly as we are walking downhill but at the same time there are still lots more to see. We descend along the meandering trail to Pangboche and visit its historic oldest monastery in Khumbu before continue down to the Imja Khola (river). The bridge across the river is spectacular and the rapids of the water cause the river to roar beneath us.
Day21Namche walk approx 6 -7 hrs. It seems much quicker and easier going down! There can be a tendency to rush as we are walking downhill, but there is still much to see as we descend to Thyanboche on the way to Namche, the Sherpa capital where we will visit the Thyanboche monastery. This monastery was recently re-built after it was destroyed by fire in 1989AD. As this area is a devout Buddhist region, the wild life is unharmed so there is possibility that we may see some wild animals such as musk deer, mountain goat and Pheasants etc.
Day 22 Lukla (2600m) walk approx 5 hrs. We retrace our steps along the same Dudh Koshi through pine and rhododendron forest with a view of Kusum Kanguru and other splendid mountains behind us before a gradual climb out of the river valley to the trek starting point Lukla to savour our final mountain sunset of the trek as we complete this exhilarating journey.
Day 23 Fly back to Kathmandu This morning, we have a flight from Lukla to Kathmandu; it is a thrilling exciting flight over forests, fields and villages with the Himalayas at the background. On arrival, we transfer to the hotel. The remainder of the day is at leisure.
Day 24 In Kathmandu: There are lots of interesting thing to see in Kathmandu valley: the Royal Palace, Durbar Squares, Swayambhunath (the monkey temple), Pashupatinath, Buddhist Stupa at Bouddhnath, Patan and an ancient city Bhakatpur etc. Or you may explore down town to shop for souvenirs, getting your photos or slides processed and trying out the various restaurants in Thamel.
Day 25 Departure/Trip Concludes:
It is time to fly back to home keeping all the exhilarating experiences of Nepal in mind. Please make sure that you have collected all valuable from the security department. Those people traveling by aircraft to further destination will be transferred to the airport and assisted with check in procedures.
Note: The above route and walking hours must be seen as a guide only. This itinerary may change at any time due to weather, trail conditions or other reason.
Wishing you wonderful adventure trip in Nepal.
Mountain Monarch Adventures
Phone # 977 – 1 – 4361668 Cell 977 - 9851079588
E-mail: mma@mail.com.np
Website www.mountainmonarch.com
25 Days Strenuous Trip
22 Days Teahouse and Camping Trek & Climbing
04 Nights Hotel Accommodation in Kathmandu
Round Trip Himalayan Flight to Lukla
Highest Elevation: 6189 meter
Venture on Himalayan peak close to Everest along with the spectacular Himalayan traverses from Gokyo valley to Everest Base camp via the Chola pass.
The exciting picturesque journey of Everest high Pass and Peaks links you through three beautiful Himalayan valleys: Gokyo, Khumbu and Imja. This high altitude trekking and climbing trip in Everest region fulfills the dream of every amateur climbers and serious trekkers, who have been seeking the thrill of adventure and wish to widen their experience towards the peak climbing expedition beyond simply trekking in Nepal.
The professionally design Everest High Pass and Peaks trek and climbing itinerary takes you to the acclimatization hike to the most popular trekking destination of Gokyo lakes, Gokyo Ri, Himalayan traverse of Chola pass, Everest Base camp and Kala Pathar for the close up views of Everest before scaling Island peak, also known as Imja Tse (6,189m), lies to the south of Everest and is one of the most popular trekking peaks
We head for Island peak climbing after the essential climbing practice course briefed and instructed by Climbing Sherpa on various aspects of climbing techniques. Your historical effort to summit the peak will be rewarded with probably one of the best panoramic views in the world as you feel Lhotse, Nuptse, Baruntse, Ama Dablam and Makalu are almost touching the tip of your nose.
Day 1 Arrive in Kathmandu (1330m): Mountain Monarch office representative welcomes you on your arrival in Kathmandu airport and transfer to the hotel in Kathmandu where pre – trek arrival briefing and other information will be given. Arrangements are made today for the distribution of your kit bag, down jacket, sleeping bag etc. For your kind information, your group leader will be happy to assist you in any way he can. The evening will be highlighted by a traditional Royal Nepali welcome dinner accompanied with trek guide as a perfect end of your very arrival day in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal.
Day 2 Sightseeing tour in Kathmandu: Today you have time to explore Kathmandu-valley, which has more World Heritage sites than any other city in the world. This capital city has an amazing range of traditional fascinating highlights, whatever your interest. In our morning exploration of the cultural sights and sounds in Kathmandu, we will visit the Bhaudanath stupa, a biggest Buddhist shrine in Nepal and Pashupatinath, most important Hindu temple, where you have chance to witness the cremation done in public way. After the guided tour afternoon is free to pack, purchase last minutes items for your trek or simply relax.
Day 3 Flight to Lukla (2600) Trek to Phakding (2600) Walk approx. 3hrs.
Early in the morning, we head towards the STOL airport for 45 minutes thrilling mountain flight to the airstrip at Lukla which was built by Sir Edmund Hillary and his friend, when he started his social work of building schools and hospitals for the local Sherpa people. At Lukla, the first glimpse of all huge mountains are quite impressive which surround the very village, but be patience, it is just starting, and there are lots more to come on your way. From Lukla, we trek downhill towards the Dudh Koshi (milky river), a raging river that flows from the highest mountains. The trail is fairly easy and well-marked, menders around the fields of potatoes and wheat. We pass through many traditional villages to reach to the vicinity of Phakding for our first night stay at Lodge.
We see many "Mani Wall" which is a compilation of many stone tablets, each with the Buddhist chanting inscriptions, "Om Mani Padme Hum" which means, "Hail to the jewel on the lotus". Please respect the local tradition as the local people walking left to these Mani Walls.
Day 4 Namche Bazaar (3440m) walk approx 5 -6 hrs. Today, passing through the pine forest and terraces, we cross and recross the thundering glacial river ' Dudh Koshi '. We will see groups of yaks and dzopki carrying the trek-gears and trading goods along the trail. Spectacular mountain peaks like Nupla (5885m) Kongde RI (6093 m), Thamserku (6808m) rises majestically above us.
We must be patient, though the allure of the mountains is hard to resist, as it is very important that we acclimatize slowly so that we can fully appreciate our time at higher altitude. We enter onto the Sagarmatha National Park, another World Heritage site. We walk along the river to the confluence of the Dudh Koshi and Bhote Koshi and cross a spectacular high bridge before commencing ascent to the village of Namche Bazaar, a gateway to the Everest. As we ascent passing through pine forest of rhododendron and magnolia, we will sight our first view of the majestic Mt. Everest from a vantage point
Day 5 Rest Day in Namche BazaarAs we believe that the journey is important not the place of stay. This rest day is very important to acclimatize for safe ascending. Though it is a rest day, you have lots of options you can do as you wish. You may walk to the hill above the village to the National Park Headquarter to see stunning view of huge mountains including Mt. Everest. The Sherpa cultural center in National Park headquarter, has an interesting collection of Sherpa mountaineering items and photographs. You may go on an excursion to Thame village or those who are fit and acclimatizing well may wish to take an optional morning walk to the Everest View Hotel from where view of the Mt. Everest and Ama Dablam may be seen or just simply relax and watch the Sherpa culture around
Day 06: Thame, (3,800 m.) approx. 6 hoursWe trek out to Thame 12,500ft. (3,809m.) Following the Bhotekoshi river valley. This walks takes us away from the main corridor of travel towards Everest Base Camp. At the same time it takes us toward the home of many of the most accomplished Sherpa Everest climbers. Tenzing Norgay was from Thame. Other famous mountaineers like Ang Rita and Apa Sherpa both from Thame. Here you can make visit to the monastery of Thame is home to a Rimpoche or reincarnate lama.
Day 07: Lungden, (4400m.) approx. 6 hours We leave Thame in the direction of the fabled Nangpa La, the glaciated pass into Tibet. Nomadic Tibetan traders will be on the trail to Namche, but we will be heading into wilderness areas. We follow the right side of the valley and will stay at Lungden. The trails leads the river valley making a gradual climb, the views to the south is stunning by the northern flank of Kongde Ri and to the west is Bigphera Go, Tashi Lapsa and Kang Tengpoche. To the north can be seen Nangpa La range in the border between Nepal and Tibet.
Day 08: Rest & acclimatization Here we will take a rest for acclimatization practices; we just walk around the valley, or try to climb up a bit, just to be sure for the next days to go over the pass
Day 09: Gokyo (4800 m.) approx. 8 hour Early morning departures to Renjo pass. Today we have a longer day, so we start our first Everest pass crossing, Renjo pass, for those familiar with the Rocky passes of Colorado you will find this pass really similar. There is no glacier; just behind the pass there are some icy parts to descend down to Gokyo valley. If we are trekking in Nov then we have to be careful to descend down from the pass. The trails to the pass will climb steeply and some parts will be walk zigzag. The views from the pass is unbelievable north face of Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse, Makalu the fourth highest of the world, many more gigantic Himalayan peaks and Cho- Oyu one of the 8000m very close by you. We will descend all the way into Gokyo at an elevation 4800m.
Day 10 Ascent of Gokyo RI (5483m) walks approx 4 hrs. Early in the morning we start steady ascent of Gokyo Ri that takes around 2 to 3 hours, depending on your level of fitness and acclimatization for the Nepal's best panoramic views. From the rocky summit four peaks higher than 8000 meter can be seen: Everest (8848m), Cho-Oyo (98153m), Lhotse (8501m) and Makalu (84) and countless other towering snow peaks fill the horizon including Gyangchung Kang (7922 m), Cholatse (6440 m), Tawache (6542 m), Kantega (6685 m), Thamserku (6808 m), Lobuche (6145 m) and many more other unnamed peaks while below us the Ngozumpa Glacier stretches through the valley and the striking color of the lakes make the completion of the whole incredible Gokyo valley.
Day 11 Thangna (4880 m) walks 4 hrsToday we leave our way across the glacier to the luncheon camp called Thangna as our trail menders around the constantly changing obstacles. Great views of Cho-Oyo and Cholatse greet you. Keep an eye open for the Himalayan Thar on the rocky slopes as they are not hunted and are not too shy.
Day 12 Chola pass (5335m) sand Dzongla (4843m) walk approx. 6-7 hrs. We start our journey early in the morning to take advantage of the stable early morning weather pattern that prevails in the Himalayas. Depending upon the weather condition it takes 3-4 hours to reach the saddle of the Pass. There will be time on the crown of the Pass to drink and savour the life long experience being on the Pass before the descent into the valley to Dzongla. This is one of the especial days the highlight of the trip. The views of the peaks seem to hover over us. Words failed to describes the beauty of Nature and sense of achievement to be on the Pass.
Day 13 Lobuche (4930m) walk approx 5-6 hrs.The early morning sun is welcome after a cold night and reveals a dramatic panorama of the spectacular pears. We traverse high in the flanks of Awi Peak, above the village of Chola and continue past Cholatse Lake. Beyond the lake the Chola Glacier flows from the saddle between the cliffs of Cholatse and Tawache peaks with the rugged beautiful display. We continue our walk until we join the busy trail to Everest Base Camp. Walking on barren slopes above the tree line we sill see different peaks such as Cholatse, Lobuche and Pumari unfolds us in this contrasting and spectacular landscape. Rock cairns can be seen dedicated to the memory of climbers attempting the high mountains at Dugla Ridge. Walking up onto marine of Khumbu Glacier (the longest glacier in Nepal) to Lobuche for the overnight camp, one can feel the temperature drops her as we are more exposed with our camp situated along this glacier marine.
Day14Gorak Shep (5288m) walk approx 3-4 hrs / climb Kalapathar (5546m) approx walk 4 hrs. Today, we are high among the glaciers of the world's highest peaks to trek alongside the Khumbu Glacier, as the trail menders over the rocky marine towards the high settlement of seasonal spectacular village called Gorak Shep. After the rest, we ascend the slopes of Kalapathar, a small, rocky peak on the south west ridge of Pumori, a slow, and steady pace once again takes us on vantage point to savour the sensational Himalayan vistas all around. The climb is not easy but the view from the top surpasses the wildest imagination. We will hear huge glaciers creaking as they move under pressure and be awe-struck at the sheer size and majesty of the surrounding peaks including Pumori, Nuptse, Changtse, Ama Dablam, Tawache, Kantega and Everest – the highest mountain in the world. About 3 kilometer distance east and some 200 meter below, the famed Everest base camp is seen in a bowl at the bottom of the notorious Khumbu Ice Fall. For many trekkers reaching Kala Pathar is a very emotional experience and we have allowed plenty of time on Kala Pattar to enjoy the experience. We return to Gorak Shep for over night stay. This spectacular village is surround by Pumari (7145m), Lingtren (6697m), Nuptse (7745m) and of course Everest (8848m). As the sun sets it becomes very cold though the sun is strong in daytime.
Day15Morning excursion to Everest base camp (5300m) walk approx 5 hrs and trek back to Dingboche, walk approx 4 hrs. This morning we head for the historical ascend to Everest Base Camp. The trail sometimes can be difficult to follow so do keep an eye on your Sherpa guides and walk carefully. On the way we might encounter yaks and porters supplying food and equipment to the Expedition group in March and April. We could not see the Everest from base camp but we can see the most difficult and dangerous section of Everest expedition, the Khumbu Ice Fall that flows from the western Cwm. After making historic steps on Everest Base Camp and Kalapattar, we will descend down to the highlander's village called Lobuche. Another day at high altitude so be prepared for the long and tiring day. The trek to Everest base camp is optional so if you are feeling tired you can rest at Gorak Shep instead. After making historic steps on Everest Base Camp and Kalapattar, we will descend down Dingboche retracing down our way via the memorial Rock Cairns.
Day 16 Trek to Base camp, walk approx 6 hrs. (Tented Camping) Following the Imja Khola valley we ascent gradual, crossing small streams, through open alpine pastures with fine views of Island Peak at the head of the valley. We reach Himalayan hamlet Chukung being surrounded on three sides by icy peaks: the views of the massive Lhotse Wall and Ama Dablam are particularly impressive as seen from Chukung. After the lunch we heads the side of the lateral moraines of the Imja glacier takes you to the beautiful Island peak base camp. Mountain Monarch staff have set up the two men climbing dome tent for you and our cook prepare the delicious food for you.
Day17Acclimatization rest day / Climbing Clinic This rest day will help us to have a successful summit of the Island Peak. Today our experience mountaineering expertise – climbing Sherpa will give you the climbing information of the peak. The aim of our climbing clinics is to build self-confidence and increase the rate of success to each participant. Climbing Sherpa and trek leader brief the group on the theory and practical use for climbing gears like ice axe, zoomer, crampons, rope fixing etc.
Day 18 Island Peak climbing (full day)Today is one of the tough and important as it is a summit day. We leave the Base Camp early at around 3 am using head torches. After about half an hour's walk along the moraine at the side of the glacier we turn up the screes of Island Peak. The trail is clear but it is stiff walking at over 5000m and cold.
The scree finishes at the site of the High Camp and we begin scrambling up easy angled rock. After some time we join a rib and scramble along it to a point where the glacier joins the top of the rocks. Here we put on crampons, harnesses and rope up. The route weaves through the crevassed glacier eventually reaching a steep headwall leading to the summit ridge. Normally the guides and Sherpas will climb this first and fix a rope down at this section allowing members to zoomer up and on return abseil down. The summit ridge is quite narrow and sometimes corniced. We continue roped up along it to the small shapely summit of Island peak top where the panoramic Himalayas enthrall you making your historical trip of a lifetime.
Day 19 Spare Day This is a spare day to enable us to be flexible with the program to allow for weather changes or other problems. If we have been able to follow the itinerary to date we can use this day for further exploration of the area.
Day 20 Trek to Pangboche 5-6 hrsThere may be a tendency to rush; particularly as we are walking downhill but at the same time there are still lots more to see. We descend along the meandering trail to Pangboche and visit its historic oldest monastery in Khumbu before continue down to the Imja Khola (river). The bridge across the river is spectacular and the rapids of the water cause the river to roar beneath us.
Day21Namche walk approx 6 -7 hrs. It seems much quicker and easier going down! There can be a tendency to rush as we are walking downhill, but there is still much to see as we descend to Thyanboche on the way to Namche, the Sherpa capital where we will visit the Thyanboche monastery. This monastery was recently re-built after it was destroyed by fire in 1989AD. As this area is a devout Buddhist region, the wild life is unharmed so there is possibility that we may see some wild animals such as musk deer, mountain goat and Pheasants etc.
Day 22 Lukla (2600m) walk approx 5 hrs. We retrace our steps along the same Dudh Koshi through pine and rhododendron forest with a view of Kusum Kanguru and other splendid mountains behind us before a gradual climb out of the river valley to the trek starting point Lukla to savour our final mountain sunset of the trek as we complete this exhilarating journey.
Day 23 Fly back to Kathmandu This morning, we have a flight from Lukla to Kathmandu; it is a thrilling exciting flight over forests, fields and villages with the Himalayas at the background. On arrival, we transfer to the hotel. The remainder of the day is at leisure.
Day 24 In Kathmandu: There are lots of interesting thing to see in Kathmandu valley: the Royal Palace, Durbar Squares, Swayambhunath (the monkey temple), Pashupatinath, Buddhist Stupa at Bouddhnath, Patan and an ancient city Bhakatpur etc. Or you may explore down town to shop for souvenirs, getting your photos or slides processed and trying out the various restaurants in Thamel.
Day 25 Departure/Trip Concludes:
It is time to fly back to home keeping all the exhilarating experiences of Nepal in mind. Please make sure that you have collected all valuable from the security department. Those people traveling by aircraft to further destination will be transferred to the airport and assisted with check in procedures.
Note: The above route and walking hours must be seen as a guide only. This itinerary may change at any time due to weather, trail conditions or other reason.
Wishing you wonderful adventure trip in Nepal.
Mountain Monarch Adventures
Phone # 977 – 1 – 4361668 Cell 977 - 9851079588
E-mail: mma@mail.com.np
Website www.mountainmonarch.com
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
The Hero Returns?
Tonight I bump into Jenny who's down from Kopan and we have a drink, she's heading off to India soon, to work in Kolkutta or whatever they call it now. We're both interested in the way people here just get on with life - the power goes out, no problem, and life never seems to get anyone down.
It's 2200 and there are people who have been at work since 0900, laughing and joking. Imagine that in the UK!
I leave Jenny at KGH and pop into Northfields for some nosh and a beer, and sit up on the high table, barefoot and cross legged and eat Nepali style. The waiters buzz about and I can see everyone, the couples bored with each other looking at the wall or the floor, those excited to have got back from trekking, and those who just drift on through.
The bar might be busy but I am served first and all the waiters take time to come and say Namaste. Then one asks if the manger can interrupt my eating. He chats for a while, tells me he heard about the rude guy earlier and I am a brother of the restaurant, he had asked to waiters to look after my every need. So I sit here while people call for bills and service and I'm asked 'Justin, everything ram-ro?'
It's a bit weird, I didn't want to become 'that guy', but I like the fact I have done some good, maybe. I learn a new word everytime I can, man-li means sexy, and it's amusing to have one of the waiters follow a girl past me and call out 'man-li' and wink at me.
So manager guy has given me a card in Nepali that apparently gets me 40% off at the top Newari restaurant in town, where govt people eat. I'll save that as a post trek treat I think.
Namaste!
It's 2200 and there are people who have been at work since 0900, laughing and joking. Imagine that in the UK!
I leave Jenny at KGH and pop into Northfields for some nosh and a beer, and sit up on the high table, barefoot and cross legged and eat Nepali style. The waiters buzz about and I can see everyone, the couples bored with each other looking at the wall or the floor, those excited to have got back from trekking, and those who just drift on through.
The bar might be busy but I am served first and all the waiters take time to come and say Namaste. Then one asks if the manger can interrupt my eating. He chats for a while, tells me he heard about the rude guy earlier and I am a brother of the restaurant, he had asked to waiters to look after my every need. So I sit here while people call for bills and service and I'm asked 'Justin, everything ram-ro?'
It's a bit weird, I didn't want to become 'that guy', but I like the fact I have done some good, maybe. I learn a new word everytime I can, man-li means sexy, and it's amusing to have one of the waiters follow a girl past me and call out 'man-li' and wink at me.
So manager guy has given me a card in Nepali that apparently gets me 40% off at the top Newari restaurant in town, where govt people eat. I'll save that as a post trek treat I think.
Namaste!
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