Trekking to the Top (well, almost) of the World, Everest Base Ca
From The Otherside in Mt. Everest, Nepal on May 18 '07
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So, we bought all of our knock-off gear (wow, it's amazing how quickly "North Face" and "Colombia" can fall apart) for the upcoming two week hike. I think we did a pretty good job with bargaining the people down and stocked up on warm jackets with fleece inner-lining, fleece pants, zip-off pants, gloves, hats, shoes, sunglasses... the whole nine yards. We literally came with nothing. I didn't want to have to pull out my sorry excuse for warm clothing (that I wore every day in Halong Bay, Vietnam) for another two week stint. Kathmandu is one of the best places we've been for buying souvenirs, so I had to try to put the blinders on as we shopped for our warm clothes for the next few weeks. The blinders would most certainly be coming off as soon as we got back, though... :)
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We bought a ticket from the Yeti Airlines office in Thamel and were at the Kathmandu domestic airline the morning after returning from white water rafting. Of course, you know it's a bad sign when you're buying the airline tickets trying to figure out the best departure time and the lady behind the desk says, "6:30 AM is the safest." Hmmmm... "safest." How do you mean? They only have 3 flights a day: 6:30, 8:00 and 9:15ish. The real question was: does "safe" mean the later flights will be cancelled or go down? As it turns out, the answer is both.
Let me tell you, high altitude is no joke.
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We missed our first flight out of town because we had gotten the 8 AM flight and the clouds were too dense to fly, so we spent the whole day in a dingy little restaurant in the airport paying an exorbiant amount on food and drink. Back to Hotel Encounter and we were out the next morning for round 2. (We had heard that people have been grounded for days, sometimes, weeks, before any flights will leave from Kathmandu - Lukla or the other way around). I guess we lucked out that it wasn't the other way around, as there is absolutely nothing going on in Lukla besides watching planes take off on the ridiculous runway from time to time. But the important thing is that we got on the flight - a tiny prop plane with duct-taped steering wheels and seemingly no hope - and we made it off the ground. Somewhere along the 30 minute flight, the pilot turned to Kevin and yelled something we couldn't hear over the roar of the engine. To me, the mouthed words were as promising as, "We're going down." I actually wasn't too far off.The plane banked sharply and we were heading straight for the mountains (oh, yes, we got this all on film). 30 seconds later we were landing on a gravel landing strip on the side of a hill. We weren't in Kansas anymore. And we definitely weren't in Lukla. It was a few hours of waiting around, as our plane left us with all our bags, until the sky hopefully cleared. We could be staying in this place in the middle of nowhere (some people were even thinking of just starting their trek here, as it was "only two days walk away from Lukla") Needless to say, this wasn't an option for us. Dah dah dah! The plane arrived and we got the news. We didn't have to go back to Kathmandu again (thank god!) and it was reasonably safe to try Lukla (gulp). We had heard all the rumors about Lukla's landing strip, how it is so short and you just take off into an abyss in the mountains, but there was nothing like our take-off from this stop-off we had. Our plane bounced three times off the gravel "runway" before it got us safely (I might be using this word too loosely) into the air, people panting and screaming the whole way.
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A lot of people hire porters and guides when they are in Kathmandu and spend a lot of money while doing it, but we decided to hire one porter/guide when we got to Lukla. We had people hounding us (even to the point of stalking - they would just walk into our hotel room when we least expected it) to no end to hire them for our trek, but in the end we picked a guy who showed us a license and spoke English reasonably well. His name is Ngima, and we literally couldn't do the trip without him. These porters go above and beyond. We thought he would just be helping us with carrying some of our stuff, but he assisted us in everything we did, everywhere we went.
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So, we set off for or trek, not knowing what to expect. We would be heading from Lukla to Phakding to Namche Bazaar (where we would be spending two days for acclimatization) to Tenboche to Dingboche at 14,400 feet (another acclimatization day) to Leboche to Gorek Shep to Everest Base Camp at 17,600, and then a grand finale at Kalapathar at over 18,000 feet, where we would get our best Everest views. Let me just warn you, coming from sea level, altitude sickness is certainly not overrated.
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The sights along the way were magnificent, filled with walking across shoddily boarded bridges covered with the colorful prayer flags you see all along the way, constant Yak crossings (where they always have the right away... Hey! You're on the side of a cliff looking down into oblivion and they're 2,000 pounds, no need to do the math - we were stepping aside) and meeting great people along the way (especially the Tenzing Norgay Adventures group, led by Tenzing Norgay's son, Jamling Norgay. Tenzing Norgay was the Sherpa guide that was the first person to summit Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary). Come to think of it, let me just give you a rundown on some pluses and minuses of the trip. It'll be easier that way...
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Things We Will Miss About Trekking to Everest Base Camp (at 17,400 feet):
1. Waking up every morning to the most amazing views right out our window.
2. Being surrounded by clean air and good people.
3. Drinking way too many Tuborg beers until all hours of the night with Jamling Norgay at 14,400 feet in Dingboche, which in turn led to whiskey (that can't be denied in Nepal - fpr the boys ONLY) and attempts at dancing and singing to the Grease soundtrack (on my part, of course). I'm telling you, that altitude will do a number on your voice... "Cho" means "cheers", by the way.
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4. The camaraderie with the other trekkers, through tears and all. The mountain can do a number on some people. One of my last images of Nancy is when she was pushing herself to get up Kalaphatar (at 18,300 feet) to hang her prayer flags, as she was really struggling and didn't make it to Base Camp. Even though she didn't make it to the top, giving her a hug after she hung those prayer flags over half-way was a very touching experience, and I'm glad I could be a part of it.
5. Dodging yaks as they passed, feeling their soft and fluffy fur as they passed. And the feeling of accomplishment felt each time after NOT being shoved off the side of the mountain by their sharp horns!
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6. Hot chocolate every day. I felt like a kid again.
7. The feeling waking up every morning that I was getting in shape!! And all it took was 7-8 hours of forced walking every day. Ha ha. Nope, there really wasn't any turning back.
8. Most people we walked by were coming back from either attempting or succeeding in summiting Everest. And let me tell you, that is one feat I will never attempt. It's no joke. It's just cool to be surrounded by such hardcore people/climbers.
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9. Finding out my body was strong enough and could acclimate well to high altitudes. No altitude sickness for me, as well as no pills!!! The dangerous part for me, ironically, was taking the altitude pills that are supposed to make you better!
10. Extra blankets. Loads of extra blankets. They help... especially when you're stupid enough to not bring sleeping bags, like everyone else.
11. Being on the top of Kalphatar (18,300 feet) with the clearest views of Everest and the top of the world against the blue sky right in front of us.
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12. One of the days on our walk down was the Everest Marathon, so while we were happily bounding our way down the mountain, away from exhaustion and altitude scares, we got to watch people running the 26 mile high-altitude marathon pass right by us.
13. Getting back to Kathmandu where I could buy my pashmina shawls and all the other trinkets, as well as enjoy a good meal and a glass of wine in normal altitude!!!
Things We Will NOT Miss About Trekking to Everest Base Camp:
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1. Squat toilets. (Especially when Gremlins are involved, right Chris?)
2. Diamox. Sulfa and Sulfur are VERY MUCH the same thing - and will cause an allergic reaction if you have an allergy to either of them. Lucky for me, the altitude sickness pills people take preventatively or when they get extremely sick... that I just so happened to be taking preventatively... very allergic to them. I found out the hard way.
3. The same food every day. Tuna sandwiches and fried egg noodles, there seemed to be a pattern. Oh, and the apple pie was never what you were expecting.
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4. Garlic soup. The worst thing ever, which has to be the best thing for you. YUCK. It was the number one natural cure for altitude sickness and it was awful.
5. Cold... oh, so cold... and the knock-off clothes we bought didn't seem to be cutting it. Hmmm... I wonder why? The gloves actually made your hands colder.
6. How expensive the water got the higher we trekked. By the time we got to the top, it was about $4 a bottle. And you have to stay hydrated to avoid altitude sickness. So, it was a mixed of boiled water that tasted like melted plastic or iodine pills in the water...
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7. Forgetting how to play literally every card game we've ever played in our lives. It was pretty much Gin every night.
8. No matter what, no matter in what point of my life, 7:15 PM IS NOT A BEDTIME.
9. Wasting away every day. We all lost weight!!!!
10. Seeing the people coming down along the way as we were struggling up, happily bouncing along as they descended from high altitude and barely having to walk uphill anymore. But, hey, we got to do it on our way down... and were loving every second of it too!
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11. The drunk, wasted, AWFUL feeling of beginning stages of altitude sickness in Lebouche. We felt like our heads were going to explode and couldn't walk straight.
12. Paying exorbiant amounts for water and a shower. And I thought these were necessities.
13. The sound of the helicopters overhead, knowing it's a rescue mission or transport of body. There were way too many of those. Jamling's cousin fell to her death into an ice crevasse climbing Everest the day we were in Tengboche. It was the reality of just how dangerous Everest really is, right in our face.
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All-in-all, the trip was amazing. Exhausting, yet amazing. Yes, as we were making our way down we all made wagers on how much you would have to pay us to do it again. It got pretty high. Say, million dollar range... but it's going to be one of those trips that we will always remember as good times. We got back to Kathmandu on an earlier flight out of Lukla than expected (no waiting around for days!) We were in Kathmandu for one more night, where we blew it out at LOWER ALTITUDE (phew!), all the time hearing rumors of a strike that was going to occur the next day, and we might want to get out of there. Luckily, our flight was the next day, and sure enough... there was something going on the next day. It was almost impossible to get a cab to the airport. Nobody was on the road. Apparently it was too dangerous. In our cab, we soon realized everything was closed in the city and there was not so much as a bull on the road and only just a few other vans transporting tourists the heck out of there. These vans had signs reading: TOURISTS ONLY. Our driver drove us through the narrowest alleys and backroads as he deemed the main roads, "Unsafe." Which we were soon to find out was not far from the truth. A Western man in the airport was in a cab on the way to the airport when I brick was thrown though his window, smashing in his jaw. They weren't messing around with the warnings, and I'm still not sure what was going on in Kathmandu when we left that day (nobody seemed to know!), but it was probably a good time for us to hightail it out of there.
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