Base Camp, Baby! (Part 3)

Day 8: Dingboche -> Lobuche

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The hike from Dingboche to our lunch spot at Tukla was extremely pleasant. I can’t not mention here ze dishy German we met half way to Tukla who Nix and I made googly eyes at. Unfortunately he soon left us to eat his dust as he jogged up the mountain. I also can’t not mention the revolting ‘toilet’ i.e. shack with a hole in the floor boards, through which business is done. We were talking about that one for days and I am mock charging enthusiastically as I write this.

The rest of the hike after lunch involved a climb, until we reached a bit of a plateau with different rock cairns and memorials dedicated to the memories of climbers who died while climbing mountains in the area, like Everest.  It was really quite sobering to read all the dedications about all those amazing people and reinforced how dangerous the whole business of mountain climbing is.  

It was Hannah’s 30^th birthday and the cook made her this amazing sponge cake in celebration, which was presented after an amazing dinner. (We met quite a few people who were doing the trek for their milestone birthdays – like their 30^thand 50^th- which was pretty cool.) Anyway Nix and I gave Hannah a Mars bar and a roll of toilet paper as a present.  I think she was well pleased.

On a not as pleasing note I didn’t sleep much during the night as I coughed rather a lot  and I just couldn’t get warm.

Day 9: Lobuche -> Gorak Shep

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Wet wipes used: 10000

I can honestly say that day 9 of the trek was possibly in the top 5 of the worst days of my life. After not much sleep I “awoke” shivering and shaking, with diarrhoea, an awful dry cough, nausea and a serious headache. The plan was to try to push to Gorak Shep and possibly attempt Everest Base Camp later in the day, so we got up earlier than normal. I decided, after speaking to Harka, to struggle on to Gorak Shep (although I didn’t think I would make Base Camp in that state), but we left Caz and her Dad at Lobuche as she was even worse than me and couldn’t even hold down food.

I seemed to be ok-ish until we started the actual climb to the camp. Then all I could really do was inch along slowly up the hill, coughing and mock charging continuously. After about 4 or so hours of hiking I kind of lost it a bit, plonked myself down on a rock and tearfully asked Harka if he thought I was going to die. I sound like a bit of a drama queen and can have a bit of a giggle about the theatrics now but at the time I was feeling so very revolting. Harka was a real pro at dealing with me and confirmed that I had symptoms of AMS but that he was monitoring my breathing etc and didn’t think my case was life threatening. Obviously if they were he wouldn’t have let me carry on and I would have been descending instead of ascending. I think the part of the reason for my worry was that the night before he had been trying to reiterate the dangers of climbing too high too fast and had mentioned a girl who had been staying in a tea house close to where he was camped on a certain trek, who had died in her sleep. He had been summoned by the tea house manager to try and resuscitate her. They tried for 45 minutes but she couldn’t be revived. It rather freaked me out, because instead of taking away from the story that if you did all the right things you would be fine, I took away from it that you could die. So I had this in the back of my head, while feeling like absolute crap.

Anyway I arrived at the camp after what felt like 56 hours. And I promptly got into my sleeping bag in my tent. Nix was told that I wasn’t allowed to go to sleep so she looked after me and even read to me from her book. She was a perfect angel during the whole ordeal and I would have been lost without her!!! (Nix, if you are reading this you ROCK my world. Thanks.) I then started to run a temperature, started to ache all over and promptly vomited up the Mars bar and biscuits I thought I had managed to keep down – just outside the tent. And I sobbed quietly to myself while trying to clean up the chocolate flavoured vomit with iced up wet wipes before the vomit itself iced up at the entrance to our tent and someone slipped on it.  

Meanwhile Caz had also made it to Gorak Shep with her very worried dad. She was a bit better and seemed to be keeping food down for a while and then not so much. Anyway it was decided at dinner that if Caz and I didn’t feel better and if we vomited during the night at all we would need to make our way back down to a more reasonable altitude.

That night I managed to keep down the 12 grains of rice and cup of water I managed to swallow at dinner and had a very warm night’s sleep and hardly coughed at all which I think made all the difference to how I felt. Unfortunately Caz was unable to keep anything down and at about 10pm Harka decided she needed to be carried down as far as possible so she could recover. Apparently it was all very dramatic and one of the porters strapped Caz to his back in a table cloth, stuck a torch in his mouth and practically ran down the hill. It is amazing how the altitude just makes everything worse. If you feel like crap at sea level you are guaranteed to feel like crap on steroids at high altitudes.   

Oh the drama!!!!

Day 10: Everest Base Camp!!!

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Base Camps reached: 1

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I woke up on Valentine’s Day feeling at least 80% which I thought was some kind of miracle. Technically I was supposed to be descending on account of my being so sick but luckily I was able to convince the guide left in charge that I was ready to conquer Base Camp. The hike was insanely amazing. We walked over a lot of glacial moraine and had awesome views of the Khumbu Glacier and the ice fall. We also witnessed mini avalanches on the way to Base Camp and on the way back!!

The Base Camp itself wasn’t really anything to write home about since it was out of season and there were no camps of teams getting ready to climb the Everest. It was basically just a rock someone had written on with a mighty marker and a bunch of prayer flags. But I was still happy to make it and if it hadn’t been so freakishly cold and windy I would have stayed there for 12 hours and taken 4766 photos to make the most of it all.

First Zimbabweans to reach Everest Base Case. EVER. IN THE WORLD.

We were going to attempt to climb Kala Pattar after lunch which at 5545m was going to be the highest we would climb to, but it was decided with the weather as it was we would try and do the climb the next morning.

Day 11: Gorak Shep -> Pheriche

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Wet wipes used: 11000

The weather wasn’t good at all and we didn’t end up trying to climb Kala Pattar in the end, which was a bit of a shame. Instead we ended up hiking down as far as Pheriche, picking up Caz (who was feeling better) and Peter from Tukla on the way through. As we arrived in Pheriche it started to snow and it didn’t stop all night. Despite this, we were pretty cozy in our tents. Although at one point in the night Nix pointed out that the whole inside lining of the tent was iced up!!a

Goodness this Base Camp thing is dragging on FOREVER. Slowly losing the will to post about the whole episode. Next post the whole bang shoot.

Good.Day.

Base Camp, Baby! (Part 2)

Day 4: Rest day in Namche Bazaar

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Wet wipes used: 65

Somehow on the journey to Namche I managed to contract a full blown cold and a hacking cough which is pretty awesome for one when one is already struggling to breathe in the thin mountain air. I therefore opted out of the 4 or so hour hike to the Everest View Hotel planned for our REST DAY and instead went for a hike with one of the guides and 2 others in the group who were also not feeling hundreds, on a shorter hike. We went up about 200m above Namche in the name of acclimatisation, took a few snaps and then I went into Namche to have a look around. On the weekend they hold a market in the village and people come from all around to sell their wares – some from as far off as Tibet. Unfortunately since we were there during the week everything was pretty quiet and shut up.

While staying in Namche, instead of sleeping in the tents we were in one of the tea houses that World Expeditions uses when they bring groups to the town. We were all dreaming about hot showers when we arrived but unfortunately the pipes had frozen and so there was no hot water. Sad faces all round. But I was able to semi wash one or two items of clothing which I then lay on the rocks in the sun like a serious local.

After my exercise for the day I still wasn’t feeling well and had developed a headache and was experiencing some serious waves of nausea, so I thought it best after speaking to Harka to start hitting the Diamox.

Even though I wasn’t feeling on top of the world the views from our tea house were crazy and overwhelming and totally made me feel better.

Wish you were here.

Day 5: Namche Bazaar -> Tengboche Monastery -> Deboche

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Wet wipes used: 476

After the usual morning tea, ‘washy washy’, pack-up and breakfast we headed towards the Tengboche Monastery on a lovely flat-ish road out of town. Was bliss until after lunch at a tea house near the Dudh Kosi (Milk River), when we began the climb to the monastery. I can’t speak for the others but I was rather happy when we arrived, as I was in serious need of a rest.

At the monastery, we were allowed to stand and watch the monks engaged in their afternoon prayer ritual. This pretty much just involved lots of chanting and drinking what looked like tea. The ceremony was a privilege to witness, and it was all really beautiful and ornate inside, but after about 15 minutes I had lost all feeling in my feet (we had to take off our boots to be allowed inside) and all I could think about was putting my poor feet IN a fire to warm them up.

Before the chanting started.

From the Monastery we headed downhill about 150m to our camp at Deboche.

Day 6: Deboche -> Dingboche

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Poor Nix had been vomiting all through the night and was feeling rotten and understandably not ready for the 6 or so hour trek to our next stop at Dingboche. But she was a trooper and struggled her way through.   I tried to distract her with mindless chit-chat. Not sure if I actually helped or if it just made her want to push me off a cliff (there were several around; it being the Himalayas and all.) Another distraction was the awesome view of Ama Dablam on the way to the camp; a super impressive looking mountain that is a lot more distinctive than Everest and is apparently more difficult to climb since it is actually a technical climb whereas Everest isn’t.  

That night we were treated to a fire in the building that was used as the dining room - which was DOPE. We definitely started to feel the cold even more from this point on. Each night we got into a red blanket type sleeping bag liner, then our black liners which were kind of like thin sleeping bags and after that we squeezed ourselves into the mother of all sleeping bags. (Nix and I being the serious cheapskates of the bunch hadn’t thought to get our hands on a ‘thermarest’ (sp??) which the others had. They look like li-lo’s and apparently help in keeping warm because you are raised off the cold hard ground.) Anyway, as you can imagine it was a mission to get into “bed” each night and with the thin air Nix and I were left huffing and puffing like 89 year olds after the whole rigmarole of getting tucked up. Add the fact that we were scrambling around in the dark with one head torch between us. And don’t even get me started on when we had to get out in the middle of night to find the loo! But you see, the golden rules about walking at altitude are to keep well hydrated (I soon got used to our guide asking if my urine was clear J) and to take it slow. So as much as I didn’t want to have to get out of bed at night in the freezing cold, I preferred it to the idea of altitude sickness - which sounded horrid – and I made sure I drank water by the bucket load.

Day 7: Rest Day in Dingboche

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It being a rest day we didn’t carry on with the trek but stayed at the same camp site - all in the name of acclimatisation once again.  I know I have been banging on about the ‘A’ word a lot but the importance of it was pretty well hammered home while we were on the trek and so now I feel it is my duty to mention it at least 76 times a paragraph. During the trek we came across quite a few people who had tried to climb too high too fast and had to descend quickly because they were so sick.

Since Nepal is just coming out of winter in February there were fewer trekkers on the trail than there would have been during the high season but we still managed to meet a fair few of them.  Most were cool and awesome, but some can only be described as wankers. The wankers were the ones who were trying to get to Base Camp in about 12 minutes, with just a day pack and a wooden stick to guide them, judging us as they sauntered past us because we had 45 guides and 345 porters to assist us in our goal. 

Anyhooooo we climbed up out of the village and back down again before lunch and then chilled the hell out for the rest of the day, huddling together to get warm (we had not yet started to smell too bad at this stage). By now we were all pretty acquainted in the team and Nix and I had well and truly unleashed the crazy. Everyone knew exactly when one of us wasn’t well because we were quiet and meek. The rest of the time we were loud and boisterous and quite possibly slightly annoying.

Striking what could be a mountaineering pose, at the top of the ridge we climbed near Dingboche. (And that's Peter's finger in the top left hand of the photo.) 

Over it again, folks. To be continued. Again.

Peace and love and fuzzy warm beanies. X

Base Camp, Baby! (Part 1)

Hello Fans.
I thought I had better hop to it and post about my trek to Base Camp before I completely lose guff and the whole magical experience is left undocumented. T'would be a shame. I am going to use a diary format so that you can feel the full effect. Haha.

Day 1: Kathmandu -> Lukla -> Ghat
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Even though we had a super early wake up call on the first day because we had to catch our flight, I was able to fit in the Last Shower. It was dope.
The 35 minute flight to Lukla from Kathmandu was rather spectacular with only a little bit of turbulence and insane views of the mountains. The landing was something else though. The beginning of the runway was perched on the edge of a cliff and was about 5.3m long!

Luckily we didn't need one of these for the flight since no-one was doing the vomiting.

On arrival in Lukla, all the kit got sorted out and our super human porters started off on the trek with our big red bags and us pansies followed along with our day packs. When I booked the tour I had thought that the bags would be carried by a combination of dzopko's (a yak-cow crossbreed) and porters but in the end EVERYTHING was carried by porters. Apparently this is preferred since employment is provided for more people but the guilt of seeing these poor guys struggling up the hills with our crap did take some getting used to. Anyway we took it slow the first day and only hiked about 2 hours to our first camp at Ghat, where we got better acquainted with our tents and the squat toilets, and started the team bonding process over a few games of UNO - before supper and bed.

Our homes.

This was how the porters carried our stuff. On their heads! Oh the shame!

Day 2: Ghat -> Lukla
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Wet wipes used: 12

The day started with what was to become our daily morning routine. We got woken up at 6.30 with a cup of black tea, followed half an hour later by a bowl of hot water which was for 'washy washy'. After we had packed all our stuff into our big red bags and day packs and our tents were taken down, we had breakfast and started off for the day. We hiked about 4 hours to our camp at Munjo and had lunch. Nix and I were hoping that with all the physical exercise and the cold and the altitude, the weight would just drop off but we soon found that being fed carbs with more carbs and a side of carbs didn't help our cause. Anyhooooooo.
After lunch we hiked 300m up a hill behind the camp to better help us acclimatise. Which is all well and good until I slipped going down and landed on my ass. Good times.


Day 3: Munjo -> Namche Bazaar
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Wet wipes used: 365

The hike to Namche was rather hectic and took us to over 3440m. But we took it very slow, with frequent stops and water breaks to make sure we didn't succumb to the dreaded altitude sickness. We saw our first views of Everest on the way to Namche - peaking out from behind the clouds. By now Nix and I had established ourselves as "the Zimbabweans" and were telling everyone that we were going to be the first Zimbabweans to Base Camp etc etc and even though that was complete bullshit, we sure as hell were the first in the team to see the first views of the mountain we had all come to Nepal to see.
In our team we had a father and daughter from Melbourne, another Aussie chick from Perth, an Englishman from NZ and an American, along with our guide, Harka, his team of 4 sherpa guides, the cook and the 20 porters (yes 20!).


To be continued ..... dum dum dum .....

Namaste

I am writing this on my bed in dirty dusty crazy Kathmandu (shout out to my adorable little net book WHOMB I have christened Len - you rock my world). The city may be a little run down and 3rd world but I don't want anyone to be under the illusion that I am slumming it because I am actually staying at the Radisson which is where the tour company I am using for the trek puts up its guests while in Kathmandu. But I reckon that I will roughing it very shortly and wont be showering for a good while so should make the most of it while I can.

So after a miserable good-bye at Brisbane Airport with my Mum and Dad I set off wondering what the hell I was doing!! (Why do I have to have the best parents in the world? I keep telling them that if they were a bit more crap at being parents it would make these goodbyes SO much easier. I for one think that it is pretty selfish of them.) But I sucked it up. After numbing my brain with Jennifer Aniston movies. And arrived in Bangkok with a neon "Backpacking Virgin" flashing over my head - wearing my big ass hiking boots that I couldn't fit in my backpack and a look of sheer panic. I must also mention that said backpack was wrapped in plastic at the request of Dad, in case any shady characters tried to SOMEHOW sneak some drugs in there. Found a bus to take me into Bangkok and stumbled past all manner of dodginess to the guest house where I met up with Nix, a Zim friend who I will be accompanying on the trek to Everest Base Camp. We stayed the night in Bangkok and caught a morning flight to Kathmandu and that is where I am now.

Thoughts on Kathmandu so far:

• The traffic system is insane in the membrane. The "system" consists mainly of honking your horn as loud as you can while trying not to die. Every now and then some brave policeman gets in the middle of it all and attempts to direct the traffic but for the most part everyone just does whatever blows their hair back.
• Nepalese food is dope. We went out for a traditional meal the first night and were treated to popcorn (that's right people - popcorn), fried potatoes, yummy chicken dumplings, bean soup and veggie, chicken and wild boar curries with rice. And some rice alcohol guaranteed to put hairs on your chest.
• The people are very comfortable with death. We went to the Pashupatinath's (the Hindu god Shiva) Temple on the Bagmati River and saw first hand several funeral sessions going on. Along with the dead persons family, rather a lot of randoms also come along and have a look at the bodies burning and their ashes being dumped into the river. Getting the ashes into the river is considered important because the Bagmati River flows into the Ganges River, which is considered holy by Hindus. It felt bizarre to be looking at dead bodies and watching them burn but to everyone else it is normal.

Some sort of demonstration going on at the Boudhanath stupa. I think.   

Sadhu men getting all Cindy Crawford for me.

I am about to start packing for the trek which starts tomorrow. We leave rather early in the morning because the flight we have to catch from Kathmandu to Lukla, where we start the trek, often gets delayed due to bad weather. The sooner we leave the better chance we have of having decent weather and getting there on time.
I doubt there will be much blog updating in the next week or so. I will be trying to conserve all my energy for the trekking during my downtime (which will probably involve curling into the foetal position) and I doubt the internet access will be up to scratch anyway.

Tracy out. X