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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“Versace would be rolling in his grave!” |
Time taken: 4 hours (incl. breaks)
Distance: Today: ~8 kms Total to date: ~36 kms
Altitude: Pheriche - 4240m, Lobuche - 4740m, Max ascent: ~500m
(Note: More pictures in the archives - click on any picture to see the others!)
Last night was a terrible sleep. The headache had somewhat subsided by the time I went to bed, and I fell asleep rather quickly, only to awaken a few hours later with a throbbing headache. I did manage to get back to sleep a couple of hours later, but for a much shorter time than I would have liked.
When I got up in the morning, I was feeling a lot better. Not 100% since I was tired, but really no headache, so onwards to Lobuche. We had gone to a different teahouse than Anthony, so were traveling solo today.
The trek continued in the flat river area (the river clearly descends quite quickly through the Himalayas) for the first while. About an hour into the trek we came to the toughest part of the day - a fairly steep ~200m ascent up a rocky trail. At the top of this outcrop was a memorial area with several rock formations and statues in memory of people who had died trying to summit Everest (and a couple on this trek, but mostly the summit). Everest has claimed the lives of ~100 people over time, with only ~1000 who have successfully made it to the top. Pretty bad success rate. A few of them were from the past year - a couple of Americans and one Japanese memorial. One of the most notable was that of a Sherpa who held a few records - 2 summits in one week, 1 without oxygen, and fastest summit. He had died by falling into a crevasse en route to the top. Just goes to show how varying the trek is...
After that climb, the terrain became much more rocky, as we had clearly reached a point that was once covered by glacier. Around then my head started feeling a little rough again, as the headache was creeping back into the picture.
One of the funnier moments on the trek happened that day. We met a guy (who ran the teahouse that we stayed in that night) as we came over one of the last few hills. He was gathering yak shit from the trail, I think for use in fires (to boil water) and also to fertilize the soil around the tea house. The funny thing is that as he turned around, I noticed the logo that was on his jacket - Versace! Obviously a knock-off, but regardless, Versace would be rolling in his grave!
The afternoon and evening were similar to Pheriche, and I spent most of the day trying to rest and kill time. Spent a lot of time in bed doing Sudoku, wishing that the on-and-off headache would go away. Just kept drinking a lot of water and eating garlic soup to try to recover.
Interestingly, today brought me to the highest point I have ever been in my life. I had been on the Inca trail and crossed over a peak at an altitude slightly lower than this, but never stayed overnight at such a height. I had no AMS issues in Peru, but then again I had more time to acclimatize and didn't really stay up nearly as high...
previous travel blog entry
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