
Our 12 day trek in the Himalayas was phenomenal. We saw wonderful views of Everest and the surrounding mountains and had 12 days in the peace of the mountains. Although the trek was far from easy, especially those days where the oxygen levels grew thin, we still had a lot of fun. We kept warm most nights but huddling around the yak dung fires and playing cards until bed time (around 8 pm up there) and most days were warm enough for a t shirt. Our highest altitude was 5554 meters high, at the top of Kala Pattar. It was a fantastic experience and a great way to spend two weeks. We will have photos posted soon on http://jenmcq.smugmug.com (hopefully before Christmas). Below are the entries from each day of trekking.
November 24th: Kathmandu
We looked around for other hotels, but didn’t find much. We were supposed to be upgraded, but that didn’t happen either. So we finally decided to pack up and leave. We had found some flights for $96 USD each way to Lukla and back. But the annoying and unhelpful man from the airport and Pilgrim’s Guest House offered us tickets to Lukla for $90 each way, so we went with him to book it. After they were booked and on their way to be dropped off at the office, he informed us that there was a 10% service charge. In other words, each ticket would be $99 USD. We got up to leave, but he stopped us quickly, as he would have to pay 33% of the cost to cancel now, so he gave them to us for $95 each. He then sent a man from the Diplomat Hotel to show us their rooms for 300 Rupees (just over $4 USD) on the other side of Thamel. The room was fine, a bit shady feeling, but a ok. We stayed and went for a walk to pick up the rest of the things for the hike to base camp. We bought a small pack so we could leave our big bags and not need a porter. Sam got some warmer clothes. But after hours of haggling and shopping, we needed a break. I jumped at the opportunity for some pad thai and Sam had a pizza, knowing we’d be without that kind of luxury for a while. We were told not to eat any meat on the trek as it’s never fresh—comes from porters all the way up.
The power went out right before we went to use internet and while we were trying to pack. So, we went out for a tea and a walk. By the time we came back, everything was closing (10 pm), so no internet. We finished packing and tried to sleep before our 4:50 wake up for our flight to Lukla.
November 25th: Lukla to Monjo (Day One)
We flew from Kathmandu to Lukla in a little 16 seat, twin prop plane. We were right at the front, so we saw the pilots doing all the flight stuff. The GPS looked like one of the cheap ones you can buy for your car at home, and at one point the pilot opened his window—you could feel the pressure in the cabin change immediately. We landed on one of the highest inclined airstrips—it’s either 12 or 22 %… It was wild though, not much room for error on that strip.
After some breakfast, we climbed to Phadking for lunch. The books suggest you stop there for the night, but it was still early, so we went on to Monjo. We stayed at a clean, cute guesthouse. Monjo is at 9371 Feet (2840 meters). It was cold at night, but not too bad. Definitely slept well though–almost 12 hours of sleep that night.
The hike was pretty and quite easy. We went through small villages and had to stand on the side every few minutes to make way for a group of yaks carrying everything from blankets to water to backpacks to rice. We zig zagged over the river and crossed beautiful suspension bridges with prayer flags flying off the sides. It was that much nicer after the hectic cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Kathmandu.
November 26th: Monjo to Namche (Day Two)
Today we had a “short” hike from Monjo to Namche Bazaar. The climb went from 9,317 to 11,286 feet or from 2840 to 3440 meters. The climb was very steep the whole time. We did get a nice river walk at the beginning though. But once the climb started, it just kept going. We got here finally and were very happy we kept going to Monjo the day before. This climb is supposed to be the hardest on the trek, so, it was nice to have time to do it slowly. Also, the clouds roll in eacj afternoon, so we wouldn’t have been able to see the first views of Everest that we were able to see today.
Namche is full of lodges and hiking stores. Everything is quite a bit more expensive than Kathmandu. Internet is 10 rupees per minute while in Kathmandu it was 20 rupees per hour. We spent the rest of our day trying to plan our trek so we can acclimatize enough, but not take too long in the highest altitudes. I think we will have a few long days ahead of us, but it will be worth it.
The food has been much better than expected, but it’s all very expensive, so we spent a lot of today budgeting as well. Thankfully there is a western union in Namche that offers a fairly competitive exchange rate.
It’s pretty unreal how much there is here, considering we are in the middle of the Himalayan Mountains.
November 27th: Namche Acclimatization
We slept in a bit today and had a nice big breakfast. We then got ready for a hike around Namche of about 350 meters; apparently it helps a bit with acclimatization. We took some smaller, less travelled paths. We passed tons of prayer wheels and ‘mani’ walls—which I will have to google later, but they are small rock plaques with writings on them dedicated to the dead. Sort of like hundreds of gravestones.
The hike was hard, we were both out of breath after only a few stairs. But we got used to it by the end and are feeling much better now. We saw the airstrip above Namche at probably 3700 meters. It must be one of the highest in the world. After a bit of rest, we continued on to the guest house at the top of the hill for some views of Everest. We sat and enjoyed the sun while taking in the views. It’s surprising how warm it is here still. At 3700 meters in almost December it’s over 15 degrees Celsius in the sun. We were wearing t shirts and had our pants rolled up.
We started our descent to Namche and followed the ridge down. It was beautiful, with Everest behind us and the river and valley with mountains we had already climbed through in front of us. There was no one else around us, except a few yaks that mistook us for shepherds and followed us for a while. They were pretty close to us. They look like bulls, so it’s a little scary, but most of them are fairly passive.
We came back and had a snack and a nap then some dinner. We are trying to hydrate as much as possible now for what will be a long 8 or so days!
November 28th: Namche to Tengboche
We thought today was going to be a light, easy walk of around 4 hours. Unfortunately, we hadn’t looked at the map properly…although only a total increase of 400 meters, we were going to have to do 600 in the last stretch from going down just before into a river valley.
The trail climbed up and down for the start until descending all the way down to the river. We had some vegetable soup and bread before starting the climb. It took us almost 2 hours of uphill to finally reach the village of Tengboche.
The village is very small - there are maybe 4 guesthouses and a bakery. The largest monastery in Nepal is inTengboche, although it doesn’t really look that big. We can see Everest through the window at our lodge though, so that’s a bonus.
It was still super warm today. We were both hot all day until about 3 pm when it starts to cool off. The food is getting pretty boring, and we still have 9 days left. Hopefully we can find something better in Pheriche.
November 29th: Tengboche to Pheriche
Today we took our time walking to Pheriche. The altitude is starting to really affect both of us, it is getting hard to climb stairs and hiking is getting tougher. Luckily, neither of us are showing signs of altitude sickness. Just less oxygen up here at 4270 meters.
It was a nice hike though, not too hard and we stopped for a nice big lunch. Pheriche is definitely more built up than Tengboche, although there isn’t much here either. It is a small assortment of guesthouses in the middle of the Himalayas on the side of the river. There are maybe 14 building here. However, our guesthouse does have an indoor toilet and hot shower (unlike the last place). It has been 5 long and dusty days since our last shower, so we threw down some cash for one today.
When the shower was ready, after about 20 minutes, the man called us and we got into the shower room. When we turned it on a fair amount (at home we say a trickle, but here, it was pretty good looking flow) came out, but it was scorching hot. The man knocked on the door to ask about the temperature a few seconds later. He quickly ran back up hearing it needed to be cooler. He ran outside and up the ladder to the bucket sitting on the roof of the building just above our shower room. The bucket contained the source of water for our shower, and he began pouring cold water into it until we told him it was good.
We got to have pizza tonight for dinner and Sam broke our vegetarian fast by having some yak meat in his spaghetti. He was scared he would get sick from it though, so he made me split it with him so we would both get sick together. Ha ha. I think tomorrow we’ll end up going for a small day hike around here and just trying to get used to the altitude.
November 30th: Pheriche
Last night was cold. We could see our breath. Sleeping was pretty tough, maybe because of the altitude, or the food, but we tossed and turned all night.
We stayed in bed late today and got up for a big breakfast. It was nice to have a day off for once, but I think we’d both rather be getting closer to Kala Pattar and being done. There really isn’t much to do here, and I finished my book this morning! There are no book stores till we come back down to Namche. We walked around for a bit and then hiked up the ridge behind Pheriche and sat at the top for a while.
On the way back to our lodge, we decided to play a game of snooker at the highest snooker bar in the world. I was pretty brutal and some Nepalis came in to watch the whole game. It was pretty funny–when Sam would move balls out of the way for me so I had a better chance of getting one in and stuff.
We saw the Everest Memorial—seemed like most of them were Sherpas, which is pretty sad. But there were a lot of names on there. Tomorrow we are going up 700 meters. It sounds like a very tough day, but hopefully we will be ok with the altitude. So far we are doing pretty well I think. I’m sure we will get there.
December 1st: Pheriche to Labouche
Today we climbed 700 meters from Pheriche through Dugla and to Labouche. The hike itself only took us 4 hours or so, with a break at Dugla, but it was pretty hard at the start and most of the uphills. We met a guy named Cal at Dugla and he’s been walking with us for a bit now.
During our hike we passed over the river. It was gorgeous, the river was light blue with snow and ice all along the edges. We found a nice place in Labouche overlooking Everest. Still 200 NPR a night up here — $3 USD. Sam and I went for a walk and found the local dump where the yaks were grazing and the remains of a helicopter or plane had been disposed.
December 2nd: Labouche to Gorak Shep
The walk from Labouche to Gorak Shep was deceiving. On the map it showed a 200 meter increase and what looked like a flat walk other than that. Instead, it was uphill and downhill the whole way. It took us a lot longer than we expected and we were both out of breath for the majority of the walk. We found a lodge at Gorak Shep and had lunch. We planned to go to Base Camp in the afternoon, but it was also a ‘200 meter’ increase and the terrain looked the same as what we had just done. Sam was feeling really out of breath and tired, so a 6 hour trek after lunch seemed like a long way to go.
Instead, we foolishly thought Kala Pathar was a better option since it was only supposed to take a couple hours and was right beside Gorak Shep. Kala Pathar is around 5500 to 5600 meters high (400 meters higher than Gorak Shep), but we had enough time to go very slowly. It took us quite a while to get up there (2 hours at least), but it was painful. Sam was feeling really nauseas and I felt like crap, but we wanted to get to the top, so we kept climbing. We had to stop every 20 feet or so to catch our breath, but we made it to the top. It was a stunning view of the Himalayas and Everest. There were some gorgeous lakes and glaciers behind Kala Pattar that were beautiful as well.
Sam still wasn’t feeling any better after sitting down at the top and ended up vomiting after a couple minutes. We still got a photograph together before running down the mountain. Sam was feeling a lot better on the way down; he practically ran down the mountain. I was still feeling mediocre—my head was still pounding. We had a nap after getting down and he started feeling a lot worse. Cal gave me some diamox for him, but he ended up puking again after taking it. He is having some crackers and sprite now, so hopefully that will settle his stomach enough to get some diamox down and feel a bit better by the morning.
December 3rd: Gorak Shep to Pheriche
I got up this morning and went for a walk along the trail to Base Camp. Sam was still not feeling too great and after puking twice the day/night before, he shouldn’t push it. He was really feeling the altitude.
I had some breakfast when I got back and went to get Sam up. We packed up and went down stairs to get him some food, but everything made him feel ill. He decided on a can of fruit cocktail. But when it came, it smelled like tuna. Pretty disgusting really. So, he had a couple of crackers and we started our descent.
As soon as we started climbing out of Gorak Shep, I realized how sick I felt as well. It took a lot not to vomit up my breakfast and my head was pounding. We made it down to Pheriche, about 900 meters less than Gorak Shep. Sam and I hadn’t had anything to eat yet or drank much water as it made us feel sick as well. Sam was feeling really shitty from the altitude sickness plus not eating all day and being dehydrated. We forced some spaghetti and water into him and he looks to be a bit better. This lodge is really nice—hopefully we’ll have a good sleep and be in top form for tomorrow.
December 4th:
Today was a 7 and a half hour day. It was a long one. The Everest Marathon was on today and ran from Gorak Shep to Namche. At 7:30 am (an hour after the start time), they were already passing by Pheriche. We followed them down to Namche although there was a lot of uphill. Today is the first day we could breathe properly again while trekking. We were at a pretty good pace—we passed a number of sherpas and Sam had a head to head with a 12 year old boy. The boy refused to let us pass him, but we finally got by him, and then Sam beat him up the hill. He was pretty proud.
We stopped for lunch at Phunki Tenga again and there was no one there. Many of the menu items were now unavailable as it’s ‘off season’– after only 10 days. We had some spaghetti and a boiled vegetable sandwich. Yum.
All day helicopters have been flying over us. It turns out the Prime Ministerof Nepal was announcing a new Bill committing Nepal to a reduction in Global Warming and better environmental practices and the press conference was on top of Kala Pathar. When we arrived In Namche, I had a hot shower. it was unreal. I washed my body about 7 times. Then we shared a “yak sizzler” and an apple pie for dinner. The hotel manager called down to Lukla for us and booked our tickets for the 6th to fly back to Kathmandu. Now, just 6 hours of hiking left to get to Lukla.
December 5th: Namche to Lukla
We woke up today fairly late after another good sleep—around 12 hours again. And yet Sam still has trouble getting out of bed in the morning…
The hike was supposed to take us 6 hours, so we figured we could do it in 4 to 5 hours and take the morning to relax. We had a slow breakfast and then tried to sell some of my hiking gear. We were declined by most of the shops, but told to check out the Tibetan market. We went down and there was immediate interest. All of them were trying on my jacket, offering various prices and check out all the pockets and zippers. In the end, we sold it for 950 NPR (under $15 USD, but enough to pay for lunch and juices all the way to Lukla).
The walk to Lukla was gorgeous—I’d say this walk and the one to Labouche were the priettiest with the river and mountain views. Of course Kala Pattar tops it all. It took us 3 and a half hours to get to Padking and another 2 and a half to get to Lukla. It was 6 hours total and the sun had started to set when we got in, thankfully we already had accommodation and flights for the following day.
Our hotel was nice—only two other people were staying there. The staff was hilarious. The youngest kid was sweeping and mopping the floors while dancing and singing along to blasting music of “Macarena”. We had a few beers to celebrate our trek and told him to turn it up.
December 6th: Lukla to Kathmandu
Our flight this morning was supposed to be at 7:00 AM, BUT DUE TO FOG OVER Kathmandu, it was delayed. Also, there was a country wide strike on, so there were no taxis at the airport in Kathmandu. A few days ago, some police had a dispute with some Maoists and ended up killing 4 or so (depending on who you ask). So, the Maoists were holding a country wide strike to protest police brutality.
When we finally did take off at around 10:30 or so, it was great. The flight was loaded quickly—under 5 minutes to disembark and board—of course no cleaning took place all the seats had spilled rice under them. When we got to Kathmandu, there were people everywhere, trying to figure out what to do. A rickshaw to town was 1500 NPR when a taxi is usually less than 200 NPR. We walked over to the international terminal where we had heard there were busses waiting. The Tourist Only busses were waiting there for times like this. It was only 100 NPR each and it dropped us off right in Thamel. The only cars on the road were police, ambulance and the tourist bus. It was a very strange sight—highways with people strolling down. It must happen quite frequently though, because the guide books warn tourists about it.
Finding anywhere to eat was really difficult. There was a small Korean restaurant that was open off one street that seemed to take us ages to find. While we were eating, people were throwing rocks at the gate and yelling things (most likely threats). When we left, the man had to sneak us out. It was really strange to see it all shut down like that: no obnoxious singing that sounds like karaoke from the bars, no flashing strings of coloured lights and no bikes or cars honking as they zoom past—it was nice.