Everest Base Camp Epic

First off, I'd recommend you check out the picts: https://goo.gl/photos/kDVLEmVm6tT3gt7e9

The Big "E"

Hi!  24 days of hiking and we made it there and back... and we're still alive!  And it was stunning.  That's the short story of this past month; here's the rest....

On Oct 1 I experienced the worst bus ride of my life.  It took 9 hours to go the 188km from Kathmandu to Jiri, where the trek starts.  The bus is clearly made for Nepali sized people, which are kinda like Indonesian sized people - they make me look like a giant.  I barely fit in the seat, not enough room for the 6 of our shoulders across the back, and every bump I am in danger of hitting my head on the ceiling.  Bags are everywhere, people on the roof, and every time we pass another vehicle one of us needs to get off the road.  We finally get to Jiri, only to have Nico puking her head off.... great start, huh?

Jiri

At least she though she was feeling better the next day as we set off to Shivalaya, the first town in.  Soon after though she was still heaving on the side of the trail, and so I ended up carrying her bag (like a Nepali).  We got loads of weird looks, and you can see why...  We did make it to Shivalaya, to the Kala Patthar guest house where we hung out with Padam, the owner.  He is just getting started so we didn't even have to pay for the room!  This is basically how the trekking works here, "tea house" trekking.  You go from village to village and stay in these tea houses where the room is only a couple dollars (if that) but you eat all your meals there.  This section of the trail was very chill without a lot of other tourists, so often we would be the only ones staying in the lodge.  Then we'd get to hang out with the family that runs it and learn some Nepali language and culture.

Chiring and I

The next day Nico was feeling a bit better, and so we set off again for Bandhar.  It was another half day but by the time we got there she was beginning to run a fever...  This fever hung around for about 4 days, and so we just rested there until she was completely better.  In rural Nepal, there are no roads... so the farther in we went the farther she would have had to walk out if it got any worse.  Luckily, it did not.  It did give me the change to hang out with Chiring, the lodge owner there and he even taught me how to read Nepali!  Him and his wife took good care of Nico and also just did their own farming thing.  It was great in the morning when we'd order a muesli with hot milk, he'd go outside and milk his water buffalo, and we'd have it as fresh as it gets.

Finally after the 4 days in Bandhar, we were healthy and ready to continue.  This part of the trek was mostly in relatively low lands (5000-9000ft).  It was lush green hills and big wide valleys, with lots of up and down over passes almost daily.  It was really good to get us into shape before heading up to higher ground.  Over these next few days, as we made some bonds with the other hikers doing this part of trail as well.  We actually spent about 5 or 6 nights in a row with Kristen and James, the UK/Canadian couple, the South Africans - Duncan and Greg, the German family, and the big ol' kiwi group.  It was really nice to hang out with some other people for once.

Sunrise in Bandhar

Normally monsoon is supposed to be done by mid September, although as we have heard in multiple places so far this year, the weather's a changin'...  Almost every day after Bandhar, it was nice from sunrise until about 9am and then the clouds would roll in and by the afternoon it would drop some rain.  This is the high trekking season now for a reason - clear skies.  Oh well, at least down low the people are super friendly, there arent the huge mountains yet, and there is just good cheap food and clean water.

Watch out for those cows!

Being on the trail was always interesting.  Not only is it a hiking trail, but it is the main road between the villages in the region.  We were always sharing the trail with curious Nepalis who wanted to chat, porters carrying everything into the villages, and plenty of farm animals.

The crap weather actually worked in our favor in a way.  Most people fly into Lukla, which we got to after about 8 days of walking.  These are the package tours of people who get their hand held and bags carried all the way to basecamp.  Anyway, this Lukla airport is tiny, and the planes that fly in there cannot land if it is cloudy cause they dont have the instruments that most commercial planes do.  Anyway, as we were passing Lukla, there was 4 days in a row of no flights which meant that there were so very few people on the trail.  Woohoo! No crowds.  Because of this we decided to go right up to Basecamp and enjoy some of the Khumbu valley without the crowds.

Namche Bazaar is the main trading town of the region and is normally packed to the gills with tourists.  We managed to have a guesthouse just to ourselves and this one other guy who got the beginnings of pulmonary edema and had to descend.  He was in rough shape, iv's and rest... This is exactly why we took our rest day in Namche and took it very slowly the rest of the way up to basecamp.  Our rest day in Namche we went for a walk up the ridge above town just to get out and do some walking at higher altitudes.  Finally, we are getting some views of the big ones here.

After the rest day we had only half days (at the most) on the way up.  Namche 3450m, Tengboche 3850m, Pheriche 4250m.  Then a rest day in Pheriche where again, we went on a little walk actually with the South Africans this time.  Now we are finally beginning to really notice the altitude.  Even I would take a few steps uphill and then be gasping for air.  It is also way to easy to just forget to breathe.  I'd be eating or even just lying down, and suddenly realize I feel like I've been holding my breath for 2 mins, but really its been maybe 5 seconds...  The next day, we slowly shuffled our way up to Dukla, 4600m.  At least with this difficult walking we are rewarded with some really cool mountain views (before the clouds roll in at least).

Ama Dablam...

wearing everything I had getting carried down on a donkey

Then things started getting real rough.  I woke up that night multiple times really nauseas.  I hate puking, so I wouldn't let myself do it, plus that would mean getting out of my sleeping bag in my boxers in 30 degree weather.  Diarrhea in the morning... I did manage to get my pack on and walk the 2.5 hours and up 350m to Lobuche.  Luckily the South Africans were looking out for us and they reserved us a room at the nice lodge in town before it got all booked up.   I made it up there, was feeling okay, ate a snickers (first thing of the day) and had some tea.  Then it is a bit of a blur, but I got real nauseas, started puking what little I had in my stomach followed by blood, and then realized I needed some real medical attention.  Luckily there is a western doctor in Pheriche, and luckily I had Nico to help me out here as she organized a porter and a donkey to carry my sorry ass back down a couple villages to where I could get some help.  US$110 for a donkey that did not want to move.  The porter dragged it down the hill with my bag on his back for a few hours... Got to the clinic where they gave me some meds and I was finally able to keep some water down again.  Apparently in the mountains you'll see 3-5 helicopters a DAY medivacing people out.  Mostly due to altitude sickness, but the second most popular reason is dehydration due to diarrhea.  Thankfully I was not one of them.  Luckily it was a classic food poisoning and the next day I was eating again, and the day after that we were back on our way to Lobuche.

The weather was finally starting to clear up and we were on our way once again.  It was way easier getting up those hills the second time.  We managed to get into Lobuche by 10am, among the first into town to find that the only room available was a single bed for the 2 of us.  This is where it starts to get tough being an independent trekker.  In Lobuche and Gorak Shep there just isnt a lot of accommodation and it all gets booked out by the big tour groups way in advance.  By this time all the people who were stuck in Kathmandu for 4 days due to cloudy weather have now caught up to us.  Anyway, we went on a little walk before it started to snow that afternoon to officially break 5000m for the first time!  And of course we got a glimpse of what was to come...

Knowing that Gorak Shep was tight, we set off at 6am the following morning in the gloomy clouds.  Amazingly though as we got up even higher, it started to break a bit for some of the most stunning views I could have possible imagined.  It was pretty amazing.  Then even though we were the first ones into town that morning, the first, there was not a single room available.  F'n tour groups.  At least there was some open dorm space, which I think is where the porters usually sleep, but at least it was a bed indoors.

Later that day, amongst the snow and clouds, we set off to basecamp.  It was really neat to see things like the Khumbu Ice Fall and finally Mt. Everest poking out above the Nupse ridge.  It was like a dream finally being there.  Standing at 5364m, 50% oxygen and looking at the largest mountain on Earth!  Then we were brought back to reality as more and more people piled into this "tourist" base camp.  (the real one was about another 30 mins walk, but there were no expeditions at the moment...)  We joined some crazy guys from this UK group that we had talked to the past couple nights, who had brought up whiskey and cigars to celebrate their accomplishment.  A bunch of us even posed for a "topless basecamp" photo, freezing our asses off - but I still need to get a good photo from one of them from that.

We finally made it to basecamp!

Then that night (actually began way before that night) Nico started to get sick again.  The "Khumbu cough".  The air is so cold and dry up there that almost everyone gets a bit of a dry cough.  Except for Nico it just kept getting worse and became rattly and constant.  That evening she even developed a fever.  Although luckily after starting on some 5 year old amoxicillin that I had been carrying around, and 11 hours of sleep, she woke up feeling a bit better.  And what a wonderful day it was.  We walked up to Kala Patthar, with the best weather one could possibly hope for.  Finally!  the weather has turned and it was clear all day.  Kala Patthar is a 5600m/18500ft high mountain that is a dwarf compared to those surrounding it.  There are mountains still rising about 2 miles above us!  The scale is so difficult to comprehend that everything just looks so close even though it is still miles away.  All the shit that we put up with getting here, was worth it for this:

Down that valley is where we came from the day before

After spending nearly 1 hour up there in beautiful clear calm weather, we finally started down and then head all the way back to Pheriche.  Now that we are not limited by how high we can go, we actually made it all the way back to Lukla in 3 days.  (it took over 10 to get on top of KP from Lukla).  Every step forward we lost altitude and gained strength.  Now even at Pheriche, ~14000ft, we felt great and could breathe easily... except for Nico's persistent cough.

Then back at Lukla, on the 25th of October (after starting this adventure on the 1st) we finally flew back to Kathmandu.  It is a sketchy little airport with tiny little planes, but it was really awesome to zip by above the passes that we had walked over in the beginning of the month from Jiri.  The plane actually follows the same path back, and what we walked in 8 days, we flew over in 10 mintes.

The Lukla Airport

It was two totally different worlds going from the Jiri section to the section above Namche.  Once above Namche you are with the crowds of big package tour groups, food prices immediately triple, people are less friendly, and the Khumbu valley might be the most germ and disease ridden place in the world except maybe behind Kathmandu... yay mass tourism.  But everyone is really there for the mountains which truly are spectacular.  It was tough when we could not see any mountains for a while due to the crappy weather, but once that broke we were so lucky to be amongst the highest areas on the planet.

Sunset from Gorak Shep

Once back in Kathmandu it was really nice to finally take a shower again (too cold to do it above Namche, so 13 days or so without...) and do some laundry.  And then get ready for our next adventure!

Jay, one of my best friends from Bucknell, has just arrived yesterday and will be joining us for the next few weeks.  We've had about 2 days to recover (enough, right?) and in less than 8 hours we'll all be getting on a bus to go out to the beginning of the Annapurna Circuit to do it all again!  So, don't expect to hear from me until, oh, say the 14th or 15th of November!