On top of the world, Nepal (Everest Part two)

Autumn wild flowers, Everest trail

Climbing Everest is tough, tougher than we had anticipated. Although we are reasonably fit and healthy with plenty of trekking experience under our belts we weren't prepared for the remarkable difference of climbing in high altitude. 

Each day as the air became thinner, it became significantly harder for our bodies to push on.

Statistically one in every seven trekking attempts fail. During our ascent we passed numerous sick trekkers having to turn back and rescue choppers flew overhead throughout the day picking up injured and altitude sickened trekkers.

A porter on the long swing bridge

River view towards Khumbutse peak

As we climbed, every day we realized that trekking on Everest is less of a physical challenge and more of a mental challenge. 

Every morning you must push through the headaches and stomachaches to keep going, to even just get out of bed. However, controversially it can also be very dangerous if you don't listen to your body carefully. 

Mountain Yak (or Nak?)

By base camp, that mild headache you've had for the last few days is pounding like someone's tapping away at your brain with a jack hammer, your white swollen fingers are tingling and your arms don't even feel like they belong to you. 

Tibetan temple shrine, Pheriche

You feel intoxicated and dizzy due to the lack of oxygen, light headed and faint.

Now, returning back to where part one finished off, it was early morning in Thyangboche and we were still on our way to base camp. We climbed down from our second story room and ventured into the crisp air as the sun was just beginning to rise. 

Today was a rugged eight-hour hike day, hiking for the first time higher than the tree line. Starting off slowly we left mid morning, dressed warmly with thermals under our sweaters. 

Peaking shrine in front of Khumbutse

Stunning mountains

With an estimated four-hour hike to our lunch stop in Pangboche we felt a renewed vigor. This was a very beautiful part of hike, like somewhere the elves in Lord of the Rings would live. Large white bark trees were covered in years of soft hanging fluffy mosses. Then for the first time it felt like we were really truly deep in the Himalaya mountains. 

Having a rest at Dingboche lodge

Made it! Dingboche! 

We crossed glacial rivers that were turquoise green where the water moved rapidly. In single file we climbed up ladders tied to trees where the path had been wiped away by rising floods and finally turning around bends we encountered towering mountains with snow-capped peaks that seemed to loom over us. Arriving into the Imja Khola Valley we hiked down into Dingboche. Collectively our group sat in the big dining room nursing headaches and rubbing Chinese tiger balm into our temples. Even with reducing appetites we were all eyeing up the expensive Pringles in the guest house’s little counter! Something different for the first time in days.

Another acclimatisation day hike up the Pangboche mountain

Finally in Dingboche we had reached our second acclimatization day. 

It was a rough start, another sleepless night, and the constant headaches seemed like they were going to stay. Kara had been up by 6am in such a state of nausea that even the fresh outdoor air gave her the chucks. 

Today's goal was to hike up Nagarjin hill, just a short steep 600m ascent directly behind the guest house. 

The group set off with Kara trailing far back in the rear fearing that if she didn't make it today there was no chance in proceeding tomorrow. But we made it, clicking in at 5100m now above see level. On top of the hill rested a Tibetan prayer monument covered with flags and the whole group posed for a photo together!

Later in the afternoon we played some team games in the guest house and our guide demonstrated the oxygen chamber that he carries with him for those that might suffer acute altitude attacks. We would have loved to have just crawled in and slept, to get some decent shut eye. 

But once you’re in that baby you’re in a helicopter on your way back to Kathmandu.

A small Sherpa hut with views of Kantega, 
Ama Dablam and Lhotse

Khumu glacial river

The next morning, we walked carefully over the rocky valley and crossed flat green plains north of Dingboche where the land was still soft from the summer rains. Our guide explained that this is where they bring the yaks down to in the harsh winter months for grazing and the small stone cottages are where the herders stay. 

They looked very picturesque but cold and not like they would provide much comfort from the winter onslaughts. Then as we continued the landscape changed, from greens to nothing but greys. 

Trekking aside the white glacier rapids of Khumbu Glacier, we carefully clambered over rocks and corrugated bridges into Pheriche Valley. Lunch under the glacier’s moraines offered the same choices we've come to see on every menu. Vegetable rice dishes, soups, boiled and fried potatoes and Dahl set or for the light eater- 2 hard-boiled eggs. After lunch we encountered our steepest ascent yet, a sharp climb over the Lobuche pass. 

Climbing the pass, was the hardest part of the entire hike. Breathless and dizzy we covered just over 200 meters zig-zagging slowly up hill, just like erratic bees. 

Wild blue mountain tulips!

We took a step, we stopped for a breath. We took another two steps and stopped for a breath. Tears of frustration were spent and when we sat panting on big rocks next to the path, local Nepalese porters puffed on past carrying phenomenal weights, entire solid wood doors, cow carcasses and aluminum 30 foot ladders. 

When we made it to the top, Kara couldn't catch her breath. We sat for 20 minutes just trying to force the oxygen into our lungs but the whole time it felt like there was just no air. At the top of the hill were lines of memorial cairns, built in memory of Sherpas and other climbers who have died on various Everest expeditions. 

Periche Valley reststop in the distance

One of the largest for New Zealander (Scott) who perished in 1995 and is now immortalized in the film Everest. It was somber and as we sat we could only hear the wind rustling prayer flags and our hearts, racing under strain. 

We moved around stretching our tired legs a little more after 20minutes, just standing and staring at the spectacular views of Pumori, Lingtren, Khumbutse, and, across the border in Tibet, Changtse mountain. Another two hours later we walked into the tiny remote village of Lobuche. It was an early night, and we questioned if we could even go on, if we could do it? 

Everything inside our bodies screamed at us to stop, to turn around, to end the punishment we were putting ourselves through. The lack of oxygen was affecting our judgement, perception and decision making. 

Morning came quickly and with the wake-up shouts came nothing. No movement, no willpower. A second knock came on every door and the humour of it, the combined dread, the hurt the collective group suffering was what rose us.

Yak crowd at Lobuche

Looking towards the mountains of Tibet

Big walk day to Gorak shep

It was still early, dark still, when we set off.

Walking down the wet icy valley that runs parallel to Khumbu Glacier, we crossed over muddy puddles and had to scramble constantly out of the way as herds of yaks passed through. We ascended very gradually to the moraines of Changri Nup Glacier.

Four hours of constant uphill later we arrived! We made it! Several large stone buildings covered the dry arid plateau of Gorak Shep. 

Made it to Gorak shep! 
Highest accommodation in the world

As we walked down the hill a helicopter took off and another dropped in, landing just off from what was our large stone guest house. It was mid day and we were exhausted. Sitting down at cherry wood colored tables and waiting for our room key in the large multi-purpose lodge room everyone was silent, nobody had the energy to waste on idle conversation. 

Trekking to Gorak shep across the Khumbu glacier 
(Tibet in the background)

Dropping off our bags, we stared in dismay at the one communal drafty squat toilet and its small blue bucket; attached to the second story side of the building, as if an afterthought, we really were in the middle of nowhere now. Downstairs we ordered some lunch. Today the same as yesterday, all we could stomach was the boiled un spiced and unseasoned potatoes. Even the dry biltong or the last of our snickers wasn't enticing, our appetites were now dropping faster than the increasing altitude.

At 1pm our guide made the call that we would walk to base camp this afternoon, about four to five hours return he said.

Everest base camp- here we come!

Outside was gloriously hot and sunny and we had arrived in t-shirts but we were informed that we must be prepared for anything. So lugging sweaters into the sleeves of our down jackets, gathering hats, gloves and scarves we all set of. 

This was our final stretch, tonight it would be done, it would be over. The group’s behaviour was erratic, we would wave out to other hikers encouraging each other on and then within minutes a quiet would settle and blanket any thoughts.

Spot Kara under the mountains

Yak alert! 

Stunning vistas

Mountaineering over the Kumbu glacier

At 3.45pm that afternoon we reached Everest Base Camp. We stood on the amazing ice blue glacier and looked up at the notorious ice fall. The cool air was so thin and the oxygen was so low that we felt sick. Nothing seemed real and we constantly stumbled over our own feet. 

Super happy and about seven kilos lighter!

It was impossible to imagine camping here for three weeks to acclimatize for a further climb. But all that didn’t matter, because we had made it to base camp! We had made it!!

We walked back, drunk-like, arms tingling, heads pounding and had the worst night sleep yet. The following morning with water rationing in place we didn't get our daily bowel of hot water but a single wet wipe. As we were waking we heard another helicopter arriving to pick up a very sick hiker, lying in bed we knew that we weren't out of the trouble zone just yet.

Made it! (Everest base camp in orange behind
and Everest to the right)

After a restless, sleepless night and forcing chewy dry eggs into our mouths for substance we thought, hey, its all downhill from here.....right?! It took our group a full day down hill to begin to feel just absolutely ecstatic!! We had finally made it! We did it and we could breathe! The way down was a breeze, our group made fantastic time and we were fortunate enough to see some of Nepal's wildlife, such as the Himalayan Monal, Sloth bear and the white bellied musk deer.

Trekking down through the snow storm

It was a little overcast when we begun our rapid descent, following the same narrow rocky paths up and down the mountain side. As we moved quickly the clouds moved faster, bringing a dark grey storm until finally, the rain started. It was so cold that it was softly coming down in the form of small drops of ice that stuck to our woolly hats and shoulders of our jackets. We past through Lobuche and kept moving!

On a mission, moving and sliding over the rocks. We moved through Dingboche stopping to re-fuel on honey roasted nuts in a small settlement called Pheriche, but only for a moment. Our group, the fastest our guide had yet met, decided to push on further and to make more ground. Later that afternoon we arrived at the small village of Pangboche.

and then through more snow in Imja valley

We made it all the way back to Namche Bazaar the following day and then to Phakding the day after.

Lukla was finally looming in the distance. We had made it back! Tired, smelly and far skinnier than when we had left. 

At the freezing cold guesthouse, lunch orders were quickly placed while we waited for our room keys. That evening, our last night in the Nepalese mountains we all celebrated with a small party! Fairly tame, a little dancing, a drink or two and we were tucked up in our beds by 12pm.

Stopping for a break

Clouds rolling down over us

And that precludes our thrilling adventure in Nepal!!!

Tot siens,

John and Kara