This might be a big one - fnarr fnarr
I knew I would end up blogging about my trip but I've been struggling with how to do it, I've got my journal from the trip and it's way too big to blog verbatim but it was written on the fly and already omits a lot of my thoughts and stuff, so I have to summarise a summary. ok lets wing it and see where this goes.
All the place names here are known to me intimately, I've read about Everest/Sagarmatha/Chomolongmu since I was a little girl, places like Dengboche, Tengboche, Periche, Namche Bazar, Gorak Shep, Kala Pattar were very familiar to me even tho I had never been there. Every day I was imagining who had walked this path before me, how can you not feel the history beneath your feet?, I was treading the same path as Mallory, Irvine, Hilary, Tenzing, Messner, Bonnington, Boukreev and a hundred others.
Ok lets go, flew from Kathmandu to Lukla, there is a backlog of trekkers so we get a flight on a military plane, cramped doesn't describe it,
the woman opposite me is Nepali and she is blessing the plane for most of the journey. We wait at Lukla while our porter team gathers. I feel amazingly guilty about how much our porters are carrying, the leader reminds us they have a very good job and earn way more than the national average, I just see more weight than I can carry and crap footwear. The trail leads down to Phakding which is quite posh, that means it has an electric light. We leave to go to Namche Bazar, I can't believe I am standing here, I've read this name a thousand times. The lady who runs the tea house is in 5 years of mourning for her husband who died on K2. The dining room is dominated by a photo of her husband on the summit of Everest, why would we risk making a widow to stand atop a pile of rock? I can't help but look in awe at his photo, how hard must it be for the widow to everyday see him doing what killed him. Hidden off to the side of the dining room is a photo of the two of them in their younger days, he is strong and handsome, she is breathtakingly beautiful, grief has made an old woman of her.
The altitude affects us all different ways, headaches, naseau, tiredness, with me the main effect seems to be uncontrollable flatulence. My schoolgirl sense of humour fails to see the funny side of it after several days and I fear the gasps in the night from my roommate are less to do with the altitude and more to do with clouds of noxious botty vapours.
We walk on to Tengboche which takes us above the height of the French Alps, there is no accomodation there so we walk on to Deboche. Things are starting to get cold now tho we are still below the tree line. the next morning I walk outside before breakfast and see Everest in the morning air, it's so beautiful I get choked up I'll never forget the first time I see it. 
Deboche gives way to Dengboche and we lose sight of the worlds highest. We rest a day there and head onto the 'mediaeval hellhole' of Loboche (above 5km), it's not as bad as I thought it would be but I'm being very careful of personal hygeine. First serious snow and we walk to Gorak Shep where we dump kit and continue to Everest Base Camp. The base camp route is badly marked and not as well travelled as I expected,the scenery however is dramatic but the environment harsh; every breath is precious, a single missed breath such as happens when taking a picture makes you feel queasy. I wait for the others to go on then struggle into a dress for a pic, my heart rate monitor registers 150, hell I'm not even moving and the heart rate is through the roof.
Back at Gorak Shep I'm flagging, it's been too long a day. Next morning we're up at 3am for a 3.30 start onto Kalla Pattar for sunrise over Everest, it's very hard, two of the group turn back after half an hour, two more fall behind rapidly, the last member drifts back leaving me with the guide, the air temperature is showing -12c and I am very cold but I'm just aware of putting one foot in front of another. The guide is moving like we are strolling on the beach. I find this very frustrating, I put a lot of effort into getting into shape and he is so much better conditioned that I might as well have been smoking 20a day and boozing. At the top I realise I can't feel my fingers and sit on a rock with my hands shoved down my trousers, the pain as the fingers come back alive is not very pleasant. After 10 mins I can work a camera again and the second member reaches the top, everyone else has turned back. We return to Gorak Shep together and find there that two of the guys who turned back have been violently ill, one of them vomiting blood. I'm very glad they turned back.
We call a meeting of the group to talk about the forthcoming summit attempt on Pokalde, I'm nervous; of the 6 of us theres only me confident about taking it, we defer the decision to Loboche. After a quick nap we return to Loboche the two ill members are still struggling and the porters carry their daypacks. This is very frustrating for them, one of the ill members is much stronger and fitter than me but still has sucummbed to altitude sickness. Lunch at Loboche turns into a heated discussion about Pokalde, I am very confident about being able to do it, two of the party definately cannot and another two decide to go for it. We split and head for Pokalde base camp while half the party descend to recover. Base camp is on the side of the Khumbu Glacier, it is magical; we are hours away from any settlement and the sky is so clear at night. I'm awoken at night by extremely strong winds, the tent is caving in under the pressure and I'm making plans to bivouac using what I have to hand in case the outer shell gets torn away. The wind abates and in the morning we climb to the Kongmala pass and descend to high camp at 5480m. The wind tonight is terrifying, the tent is almost crushed ontop of us, it is a relief to leave the tent at 4.30 am for the summit climb. 
It's very awkward to climb back to the Kongmala pass in mountain boots, we ascend 100m further vertically then buckle on the crampons and don our harnesses, we leave off our helmets. The mountain guide has fixed ropes across a crevass section and we all clip on, it's very difficult to walk in the deep snow and it's step, breathe, breathe, step, the mountain sherpa looks like he is out for a sunday stroll. Eventually we clip off the fixed ropes and rope together, the terrain is fairly flat. I am second on the rope behind the guide, as we cross a flattish section I take a step and we hear a crack, the snow around me drops an inch and everyone freezes, we all know I'm standing over a crevasse, the guide takes up the slack ahead of me and I edge my way up to him without incident.
We traverse across into shadow to get firmer snow and continue up to a dramatic ridge. Knife edge sharp and falling 1000 feet on one side we squat on the safer side and have a rest, looking up at the summit I guess it's half an hour away 'two more hours should do it' says the guide - eek!. Last two sections now, the ridge is light snow over hard ice but the crampons bite nicely. The ridge ends in much deeper snow which is a struggle to cross till we get to a reasonably flat bit that ends with the summit mount. It's only 10m vertically to the summit cairn but the snow is very deep and this turns out to be one of the most exhausting bit, sinking to thigh depth every step. We summit and sit down to enjoy the views from 18800 feet but we aren't lucky with the weather. It's getting cold and we descend, the ridges are terrible on the way down, I dislodge a head sized block of snow and at bounces 1000 feet down a snow slope, the other side is 500 feet down shale - take your pick.
Back at high camp we're too tired to do much except climb into sleeping bags, even dinner is too much effort, we sleep well and next day walk out to meet the rest of the group at Dengboche, the disappointment amongst them is evident and theres some animosity to the group leader for leaving out two rest days from the original schedule which may have meant the difference in climbing or coming down with altitude sickness. This is always in the back for the rest of the trip.
Start the big walk back, Dengboche to Periche to Pangboche monastery then Deboche. Tangboche passes and we take a detour to KumChung to see the famous Yeti scalp. this leads via a different route back to Namche, we feel we are at a low enough altitude to risk beer - mmmmmmmmmmm.
Weather closes in now and we spend the next 3 days walking in the rain, one of the members who was ill on Kala Pattar doesn't react well to the bad weather and ends up coughing blood again, he needs help from the porters, the other casualty is back to his super fit norm. Back at Phakding, the posh place we decide more beer is in order and manage to get a decent drinking session with the locals, we gave them beer, they gave us Chang which is sort of off-milk mixed with yaks piss with some alcohol, it tastes foul but we drink it anyway, next out comes Royksa, it's just meths, I don't know why they are trying to pretend it's a local drink.
The final days walk to Lukla tortures us with a few hours steep climbing before we reach semi-civilization and find out all the fun and games that have been happening in Nepal while we were away. This was a good adventure.
--------------------
Quinon proficit deficit
He who does not advance, go backwards.
All the place names here are known to me intimately, I've read about Everest/Sagarmatha/Chomolongmu since I was a little girl, places like Dengboche, Tengboche, Periche, Namche Bazar, Gorak Shep, Kala Pattar were very familiar to me even tho I had never been there. Every day I was imagining who had walked this path before me, how can you not feel the history beneath your feet?, I was treading the same path as Mallory, Irvine, Hilary, Tenzing, Messner, Bonnington, Boukreev and a hundred others.
Ok lets go, flew from Kathmandu to Lukla, there is a backlog of trekkers so we get a flight on a military plane, cramped doesn't describe it,
the woman opposite me is Nepali and she is blessing the plane for most of the journey. We wait at Lukla while our porter team gathers. I feel amazingly guilty about how much our porters are carrying, the leader reminds us they have a very good job and earn way more than the national average, I just see more weight than I can carry and crap footwear. The trail leads down to Phakding which is quite posh, that means it has an electric light. We leave to go to Namche Bazar, I can't believe I am standing here, I've read this name a thousand times. The lady who runs the tea house is in 5 years of mourning for her husband who died on K2. The dining room is dominated by a photo of her husband on the summit of Everest, why would we risk making a widow to stand atop a pile of rock? I can't help but look in awe at his photo, how hard must it be for the widow to everyday see him doing what killed him. Hidden off to the side of the dining room is a photo of the two of them in their younger days, he is strong and handsome, she is breathtakingly beautiful, grief has made an old woman of her.
The altitude affects us all different ways, headaches, naseau, tiredness, with me the main effect seems to be uncontrollable flatulence. My schoolgirl sense of humour fails to see the funny side of it after several days and I fear the gasps in the night from my roommate are less to do with the altitude and more to do with clouds of noxious botty vapours.
We walk on to Tengboche which takes us above the height of the French Alps, there is no accomodation there so we walk on to Deboche. Things are starting to get cold now tho we are still below the tree line. the next morning I walk outside before breakfast and see Everest in the morning air, it's so beautiful I get choked up I'll never forget the first time I see it. 
Deboche gives way to Dengboche and we lose sight of the worlds highest. We rest a day there and head onto the 'mediaeval hellhole' of Loboche (above 5km), it's not as bad as I thought it would be but I'm being very careful of personal hygeine. First serious snow and we walk to Gorak Shep where we dump kit and continue to Everest Base Camp. The base camp route is badly marked and not as well travelled as I expected,the scenery however is dramatic but the environment harsh; every breath is precious, a single missed breath such as happens when taking a picture makes you feel queasy. I wait for the others to go on then struggle into a dress for a pic, my heart rate monitor registers 150, hell I'm not even moving and the heart rate is through the roof. 
Back at Gorak Shep I'm flagging, it's been too long a day. Next morning we're up at 3am for a 3.30 start onto Kalla Pattar for sunrise over Everest, it's very hard, two of the group turn back after half an hour, two more fall behind rapidly, the last member drifts back leaving me with the guide, the air temperature is showing -12c and I am very cold but I'm just aware of putting one foot in front of another. The guide is moving like we are strolling on the beach. I find this very frustrating, I put a lot of effort into getting into shape and he is so much better conditioned that I might as well have been smoking 20a day and boozing. At the top I realise I can't feel my fingers and sit on a rock with my hands shoved down my trousers, the pain as the fingers come back alive is not very pleasant. After 10 mins I can work a camera again and the second member reaches the top, everyone else has turned back. We return to Gorak Shep together and find there that two of the guys who turned back have been violently ill, one of them vomiting blood. I'm very glad they turned back.
We call a meeting of the group to talk about the forthcoming summit attempt on Pokalde, I'm nervous; of the 6 of us theres only me confident about taking it, we defer the decision to Loboche. After a quick nap we return to Loboche the two ill members are still struggling and the porters carry their daypacks. This is very frustrating for them, one of the ill members is much stronger and fitter than me but still has sucummbed to altitude sickness. Lunch at Loboche turns into a heated discussion about Pokalde, I am very confident about being able to do it, two of the party definately cannot and another two decide to go for it. We split and head for Pokalde base camp while half the party descend to recover. Base camp is on the side of the Khumbu Glacier, it is magical; we are hours away from any settlement and the sky is so clear at night. I'm awoken at night by extremely strong winds, the tent is caving in under the pressure and I'm making plans to bivouac using what I have to hand in case the outer shell gets torn away. The wind abates and in the morning we climb to the Kongmala pass and descend to high camp at 5480m. The wind tonight is terrifying, the tent is almost crushed ontop of us, it is a relief to leave the tent at 4.30 am for the summit climb. 
It's very awkward to climb back to the Kongmala pass in mountain boots, we ascend 100m further vertically then buckle on the crampons and don our harnesses, we leave off our helmets. The mountain guide has fixed ropes across a crevass section and we all clip on, it's very difficult to walk in the deep snow and it's step, breathe, breathe, step, the mountain sherpa looks like he is out for a sunday stroll. Eventually we clip off the fixed ropes and rope together, the terrain is fairly flat. I am second on the rope behind the guide, as we cross a flattish section I take a step and we hear a crack, the snow around me drops an inch and everyone freezes, we all know I'm standing over a crevasse, the guide takes up the slack ahead of me and I edge my way up to him without incident.
We traverse across into shadow to get firmer snow and continue up to a dramatic ridge. Knife edge sharp and falling 1000 feet on one side we squat on the safer side and have a rest, looking up at the summit I guess it's half an hour away 'two more hours should do it' says the guide - eek!. Last two sections now, the ridge is light snow over hard ice but the crampons bite nicely. The ridge ends in much deeper snow which is a struggle to cross till we get to a reasonably flat bit that ends with the summit mount. It's only 10m vertically to the summit cairn but the snow is very deep and this turns out to be one of the most exhausting bit, sinking to thigh depth every step. We summit and sit down to enjoy the views from 18800 feet but we aren't lucky with the weather. It's getting cold and we descend, the ridges are terrible on the way down, I dislodge a head sized block of snow and at bounces 1000 feet down a snow slope, the other side is 500 feet down shale - take your pick.Back at high camp we're too tired to do much except climb into sleeping bags, even dinner is too much effort, we sleep well and next day walk out to meet the rest of the group at Dengboche, the disappointment amongst them is evident and theres some animosity to the group leader for leaving out two rest days from the original schedule which may have meant the difference in climbing or coming down with altitude sickness. This is always in the back for the rest of the trip.
Start the big walk back, Dengboche to Periche to Pangboche monastery then Deboche. Tangboche passes and we take a detour to KumChung to see the famous Yeti scalp. this leads via a different route back to Namche, we feel we are at a low enough altitude to risk beer - mmmmmmmmmmm.Weather closes in now and we spend the next 3 days walking in the rain, one of the members who was ill on Kala Pattar doesn't react well to the bad weather and ends up coughing blood again, he needs help from the porters, the other casualty is back to his super fit norm. Back at Phakding, the posh place we decide more beer is in order and manage to get a decent drinking session with the locals, we gave them beer, they gave us Chang which is sort of off-milk mixed with yaks piss with some alcohol, it tastes foul but we drink it anyway, next out comes Royksa, it's just meths, I don't know why they are trying to pretend it's a local drink.
The final days walk to Lukla tortures us with a few hours steep climbing before we reach semi-civilization and find out all the fun and games that have been happening in Nepal while we were away. This was a good adventure.--------------------
Quinon proficit deficit
He who does not advance, go backwards.
posted by Gillian at 8:32 PM
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