Day 7: Sunday, December 4, 2011
Dingboche-Loboche (4928m)
It was a long uphill climb between Dingboche and Loboche. It was windy and I had a really bad headache by the time we made it to the top at 4928 meters. To be honest, I was also feeling a bit dizzy and had visions of being choppered down with severe altitude sickness. You see and hear helicopters all day long while trekking and apparently there are something like 20 rescues a day. I didn't exactly let on to my guide quite how bad I was feeling, but I could see him giving me looks from across the dining room at the lodge. He told me to order garlic soup and take half a Diamox pill (for altitude sickness.) I was also having some stomach issues most likely from the tap water I had started drinking to save money (and plastic bottles), but was only treating with chlorine drops. About an hour later, I was feeling much better and was even able to walk down to see a stranded helicopter that had "crashed" on take-off a few days before while trying to rescue an overweight Australian man (no one was hurt.) I chatted that afternoon with a British guy named Mark who told me about his friend, Ben, who had ridden by motor bike from India to Kathmandu. I told him I had overheard someone in the line for immigration at the airport talking about his friend who had ridden up from India. We then realized that Mark and the "guy at the airport" were one in the same. I felt like a total stalker who knew his whole life story. Too funny. I also meet Brady from Portland and his British friend, Jake, who he met volunteering at an orphanage in Kathmandu.
Day 8: Monday, December 5, 2011
Loboche-Gorka Shep-Kala Patther-Everest Base Camp (5364m)
Today was the big long day. We first walked from Loboche up to Gorka Shep at 5140 meters and left our bags at a lodge there. Along the way, we ran into Donna from New Zealand who was coming back down after going to Kala Pather and base camp the previous day. After stopping for tea, we hiked straight uphill to Kala Patther at 5545 meters to get the best views of Everest of the trek. We also had 360-degree views of all the mountains in the surrounding range from the very tippy top. It took us about 1.5 hours to go up and a little less than an hour to come down. As we approached the top and I could see the mountains on the back side of Kala Patther, all I could say was "wow." After summiting, we came back down to the lodge to have lunch. My guide really didn't want to go all the way to base camp, saying it was eight kilometers there, another eight kilometers back in the wind and you couldn't even see Everest when you got there. He also told me it would take 5.5 to 6 hours so we would be coming back in the dark. Donna had said that it was really worth seeing and since I had come all this way, I told Chandra that I was going to go even if he didn't want to come. In the end, he accompanied me (it only took us three hours back and forth by the way) and I was really glad I went. Since it was late in the season there of course weren't any expedition tents set up, but there were really cool ice formations on the glacier leading to the foot of the mountain. When we got back to the lodge that night I was talking with a German trekker who called the spot the "tourist base camp" saying he'd walked farther along to the real camp where he could see the remains of one of the kitchens from the hiking season. That may be true and I'm sure if I'd had more time I could have explored more, but I'm still glad I got as far as I did.
Day 9: Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Gorak Shep-Pangboche (3930m)
After a very cold and mostly sleepless night at nearly 5200 meters in Gorak Shep, we headed back down to Pangboche. My nose was still all stuffed up and my cough seemed to have returned, but luckily were heading down to an area with more oxygen. It was mostly downhill and we had made it to the village of Pheriche by lunch, but we decided to keep walking another two hours (up and downhill) to Pangboche where it was supposedly a little bit warmer. On the way, we passed the four Australian med students on their way up and also saw Mark and Ben also making their way down. Walking along the first half of the course that the Everest Marathon participants had followed, I was still in awe of their ability to actually run on that unsteady and hilly terrain without any apparent route markers or aid stations. When we made it to Pangboche, we were the only ones staying at our lodge that night and I had a bit of an uncomfortable conversation with my guide, Chandra, about the cost of his flight to and from Lukla. He had told me previously that it was in fact HE who paid for the flight as opposed to the trekking company. I told him again that I had been under the impression the company paid for the flight since I was supposed to be on a group tour with another guide who was already in Lukla. I also confirmed that I had given the agent about a quarter of the flight fee in US dollars and told Chandra he should get that money from the agent if he had indeed paid for his own flight. It was really an issue between him and the trekking company, but I felt stuck in the middle as the "rich American" who was being too stingy with her money. Needless to say, I went to bed feeling a bit unsettled needlessly. On the upside, I was able to take my first shower in five days! Too bad all the clothes I had to change into were still dirty.
Day 10: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Pangboche-Namche Bazar (3930m)
On the second day of our descent we walked all the way down from Pangboche to Namche Bazar. The first part was mostly flat or downhill, then there was big uphill to Tengboche followed by a very long downhill that I remembered struggling through on the way up. I hadn't remembered quite how long the hill was and I think if I had known how long it would go on at the time (about 1.5 hours) I never would have made it up. The day ended with a bit of an uphill before it evened out getting into Namche Bazar. There were quite a few people staying in our lodge, most of whom seemed to be on their way up, though I didn't really talk to any of them. It was nice to see the guy who owned the place again as we had had some good chats before about his travels to the U.S.
Day 11: Thursday, December 8, 2011
Namche Bazar-Lukla (2840m)
We walked the final distance all the way from Namche Bazar to Lukla on the third day of our descent. I had decided I wanted to get down early in case we had a problem getting a flight to Kathmandu and ended up being stuck in Lukla for a few days. We had made it to Phakding by lunch and continued on the final three hours to Lukla in the afternoon. I had forgotten that it was such a tough uphill climb right at the end since it had been a downhill walk right at the beginning on the trek on the way out. It was interesting to pass places that I remembered seeing from the opposite direction such as "that was the place where we had tea on the second day" and "that was the rock wall we clung to to avoid getting gored by a yak horn on the first day." It was also amazing to me how green and flowery everything was after the tree-less "moon surface" of the higher elevations.
Day 12: Friday, December 9, 2011
Lukla-Kathmandu
We were scheduled for the first flight out on Agni Air at 7:30am, but 7:30am came and went without a plane landing in Lukla due to fog and poor visibility in Kathmandu. The two other couples staying at our lodge were scheduled on the first flight out on Tara Air at 6:30am so they received the call first to head to the airport once the first planes started arriving after 10:00am. At about 11:30am, we got the call to go to the airport for our flight, which ended up not arriving until after 1:30pm. At the airport, I ran into Brady and Jake who were also waiting for the same flight. We angled our way to make sure that we got on that flight and then took off without incident shortly before 2:00pm. We made it to Kathmandu about 25 minutes later and I was able to drop off my rented gear in Thamel before heading back to my guesthouse in the afternoon.
I've included a few additions to my previous post that I forgot to mention the other day. If you've already read that post you may want to take a quick look back over it so you're not completely confused. Pictures will be posted tomorrow after I get some sleep. We had a 5+ hour blackout today in Kathmandu (power outages are a daily occurrence) so I wasn't able to get on my computer to post before dinner.
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