Take two buffs!

A trek to Everest Base Camp

Dave, Sarah and myself at Everest Base Camp

It was still dark and very cold as we climbed up to the summit of Kala Patthar, about minus 10C and windy. We clambered over the final rocks to see the sunrise over Everest, Nupse and Lhotse. My buff was over my face to give some protection from the cold. I was breathing heavily; trying to get enough oxygen into my lungs in the thin freezing air and trying to ensure there were no gaps between my hat and my down jacket. I had been wearing the buff continuously for several days and nights:- it had protected my face from the cold, the sun and the dust; it kept my neck warm at night and covered my hair whenever I wasn’t wearing a hat as it hadn’t been washed for nearly two weeks and was sticking up in all sorts of directions. I had also developed a high altitude cold and cough ensuring that the buff was now truly disgusting as I tried to keep my mouth and nose covered… I should have brought two!

Sarah and our guide, Chet, both looking cold near the summit of  Kala Patthar

Dave, Sarah (our daughter) and I were on a three week visit to Nepal, organised for us by Darren and Clare of “Mountains in Mind” in partnership with their Nepali agent “Himalaya Expeditions”. The itinerary included Everest Base Camp, via Gokyo Lakes and the Cho La pass, and the summits of Gokyo Ri and Kala Patthar. This trek is more demanding than the more usual normal Everest Base camp route and promised to take us onto quieter trails.

As we reached the summit of Kala Patthar at 5550m, the sky began to lighten and the 360 degree view of the tallest mountains in the world started to reveal themselves. This was literally and metaphorically the high point of our trek and we were thrilled that we had manage to reach this final summit. The view was truly amazing.

Kathmandu

Hindu Temple in Kathmandu

We had arrived in Kathmandu more than two weeks previously. Kathmandu is quite a shock – the population has increased dramatically over the last twenty years - the roads are chaotic with cars, buses, motorbikes, rickshaws and pedestrians. There is a lot of building work going on after the earthquake, with piles of rubble waiting for re-building so it is extremely dusty and a haze of smog seemed to cover the city. However, we enjoyed our couple of days sightseeing – going to visit the temples which are World Heritage Sites and marvelling at how much had been restored in the two and a half years since the earthquake. A saving grace was that the part of the Thamel district where we were staying had very recently become pedestrianised, meaning that we could browse the gear shops – you can buy and hire any kind of mountain equipment in Kathmandu, some of it genuine and some not - and the souvenir shops without fear of getting runover.

Days 1-3 Starting the trek

I was ready to start the trek and see the real Nepal after a couple of days of hectic city life. We took the first flight out of Kathmandu to Lukla which is considered one of the most dangerous flights in the world as pilots have no margin for error when coming into land with a very short runway before the mountainside. I enjoyed it!

Our guide, Chet, provided by Himalaya Expeditions, hired two porters  to carry our main bags and we began walking carrying just a day sac each. There is a good undulating trail out of Lukla and we headed for Phadking for our first night. 

Hotel at Namche Bazaar - this is a relatively luxurious lodge!

Our accommodation on the trek was in lodges, also called tea houses. They all had a dining/sitting room with a cast iron stove in the centre of the room. These rooms were often beautifully decorated and but the bedrooms, sleeping two people were quite basic. Meals and drinks were included in the price of our trek and this made life simple as it meant we did not have to carry a lot of cash – there are no ATMs on route! The lodges sold Mars Bars, Snickers, Pringles and beer – all of which got more and more expensive as we progressed up higher. This is not surprising, as everything has to be carried in by porter or on the backs of yaks or mules but I wasn’t going to pay $4 for a Mars Bar! Porters are supposed to be restricted in what weight they are allowed to carry but in reality they often carry more than they should for extra pay. We came across one young porter carrying 90kg uphill. All the lodges had Western toilets – more about these later.

The first view of Everest

An early start on the second day meant that we got to our lunch stop by 10:30am. We knew we faced with a big climb of 600m to Namche Bazaar (3440m) after lunch so we ate plenty, fortified for what lay ahead. It was steep but our guide led us up slowly resting frequently at designated resting places where stone benches were provided for resting porter loads. We had our first view of Everest!

We had two nights in the famous village of Namche Bazaar, most of which has been re-built since the earthquake. We took the chance to have a shower – $4 each but worth it as this was to be the last shower for more than two weeks! 

The second day at Namche was no rest day though – we climbed up to the Everest View Hotel at nearly 4000m. This claims to be the highest hotel in the world - it reminded me of an Alpine ski-lodge. Tourists are often helicoptered-in to this hotel and regularly fall ill with altitude sickness as a result. It is essential that you take time to acclimatise when going on any trip above about 3000m, gaining around 300m of height per day and taking a rest day every three days. It is good to climb higher during the day and descend to sleep. Even with this slow approach, you notice the lack of oxygen. You feel out of breath, even when not doing very much. You sleep fitfully and your heart rate increases. Headaches and lack of appetite are common. These symptoms can become serious and High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema or High Altitude Cerebral Oedema can be fatal. Our itinerary allowed plenty of time and the short trekking days in the first week gave us time to enjoy our first taste of the Himalayas.

Resting on the trail

 Day 4-7 Getting higher 

One of many bridges on the trail

We set off on the fourth day on a quiet trail through pinewoods to the village of Khumjung. The walk took the morning and we spent the afternoon wandering around observing village life. The main activity seemed to be washing clothes under communal taps. Yak dung “cakes” were slapped onto sunny walls to dry for fuel, potatoes were being stored in soil-covered heaps in the fields. We visited a monastery which was being restored following the earthquake and was being hand-painted with intricate Buddhist designs. They even had a Yeti scalp in a glass case! The young monks were using i-phones which was strange to see. We also visited the Edmund Hillary Secondary School which is in Khumjung, many of the students board there during the week as it is the only secondary school for miles. There was an election campaign going on with political parties with loud hailers, otherwise the village was very peaceful.

The next day we continued up to Dole, through scrub, seeing the spectacular Nepali national bird which is an iridescent blue pheasant-type bird called a danphe and then the following day we continued up to Machermo at 4470m. The landscape had now become more tundra-like. We passed several yak herders “farms” – just a few fields where the yaks breed during the monsoon period. They are valuable animals, worth $1000 each, and apparently can be quite aggressive, although they appear to be docile when fully laden.

There is a clinic in Machermo – primarily there to treat porters when they are ill (they don’t have to pay) but it also treats trekkers (whose insurance companies pay!) It is staffed by volunteer doctors from the UK. They give a talk each day on acute mountain sickness which served to reassure us that our symptoms were normal and that we were acclimatising well. We bought extra paracetamol and started to take Diamox to assist with acclimatisation. This gives you pins and needles in your hands and feet which is interesting when walking over rough ground. Following the acclimatisation guidelines we had a further “rest” day at Machermo, although we did climb to 5000m on a morning walk with stunning views of Everest and Lhotse. In fact there were mountains just everywhere!

Day 8 & 9 – The exciting part begins

The third lake and "Gokyo Resort"

By now it felt like the trek had really got going and we were about to embark on the more serious section. I had been looking forward to getting to Gokyo as several people had told me that it is a beautiful place. It is. There are several lakes, each more stunning than the last until you reach the small settlement of Gokyo. It consists purely of lodges and more were being built. The only thing is, it is not a natural place for a settlement and it was really very bleak with strong winds howling across the lakes. The walls of the lodges are made from sheets of plywood and the wind was finding its way in, so it was very cold. All lodges have same basic menu – Dahl Bhat (rice and lentils with some vegetable curry) was standard and very acceptable but there were also fried potato dishes, fried rice dishes, fried noodle dishes and even fried macaroni dishes, usually with cheese or eggs. Perhaps it was the altitude, but by Gokyo we were finding the fried food rather greasy and it got a bit difficult choosing what we wanted to eat at the next meal, as our guide wanted us to do, after having just finished the previous meal!

Sunrise from Goyko Ri

Next morning, we got up at 4:30am to walk up to the summit of Gokyo Ri (5357m) starting in the dark at 5am under a beautiful clear starlit sky. It was steep zigzags at first and very hard to breath in the cold air at this altitude. However, we went slowly – our guide was very good a setting a suitable pace and Everest, Lhotse, Manaslu and Cho Oyu, all over 8000m came into view as dawn broke. We reached the prayer flags at the top in two hours and then descended to the lodge for breakfast and got warmed up. After a short rest we continued on our way traversing the Ngozuma Glacier which was easy to cross as the ice was covered in scree and rock and there was a cunning route through marked with small cairns. We arrived at Tagnak in time for lunch and an afternoon’s rest before the next day which we were expecting to be the most challenging.

Day 10 – Illness strikes

I had been worrying about the next day. We were due to cross the Cho La pass and we knew there was going to be ice. Fellow trekkers had reported high wind causing skin to blister, people slipping and sliding and difficult terrain to negotiate. We again set off before it was light but, unfortunately, Sarah was ill with an upset stomach and after an hour we had to turn back. She retreated to her sleeping bag, in between rushing to the toilet. Dave and I had a couple of short walks in between checking on Sarah and enjoyed a bit of Himalayan sun. We talked to our guide and he said we would be able to catch up a day if Sarah got better but that if she didn’t we would have to retreat to the clinic at Machermo to see the doctor and then work out a lower trek. By this point lots of people in the lodges were ill – either with the altitude or with upset tummies. Every day we saw people being evacuated by helicopter down to Kathmandu. Three of a French party of eight were taken down. And we came across one sole survivor of a group of twelve, all the rest of whom had gone down.

Yaks descending the trails

Sarah did get better during the day – thanks to one dose of antibiotic purchased in Kathmandu on the recommendation of the Lonely Planet guide. The doctors at Machermo had explained that the sickness and diarrhoea when travelling is usually bacterial and does respond very quickly to this treatment. However, it wasn’t a nice place to need the loo every few minutes. The toilets at this height had to be flushed with jugs of water taken out of a barrel as the normal flushing system was not plumbed in. Toilet paper had to be put in bins. The traditional outside long-drop toilets might have been nicer! There were no sinks with running water either – we used a lot of hand gel.

In the evening in the lodge, it became apparent that a man was missing. He had come over the pass from the other direction and his porter had left him to descend on his own in order to get a room booked for the night. The man never turned up. In the dark his porter, accompanied by some others, went to look for him but did not find him. The porter had his sleeping bag and down jacket and it was -6C! It turned out that he spent the night amongst rocks, was found the next morning by his porter and bought down to the lodge. He was apparently no worse for wear. I’m not sure I would have survived a night out in those temperatures!

Day 11 – The Cho La pass

Sarah felt a lot better the next morning and managed to eat half a chapatti so we set off once again in the early morning to attempt the pass. We walked steadily up the valley, gaining height for about two hours. We climbed more steeply for the next few hundred feet and then descended a bit, before the final steep scramble to the pass itself. It was all quite straightforward and nowhere as difficult as I had imagined. I have certainly done more difficult passes in the Alps.

Once over the top we had to cross the icefield – I had been worrying about this as well. We put on our microspikes. There were a few steps of hard ice up the bergschrund and then crisp snow to cross for about an hour or so. This again was much more straightforward than I had thought it would be.

We stopped for a picnic of Tibetan bread – a fried unleavened bread and yak cheese which was delicious. We arrived at the lodge where we were due to stay and had a cup of tea. Sarah said she felt fine and she suggested that we should continue to the next stopping place which would take about two or three hours and hence we would catch up our missed day. We had taken just over six hours to cross the pass – most people had taken eight or nine and there were reports of parties taking up to twelve hours. It was nice to feel that we had acclimatised well and all had a good level of fitness so that we were able to enjoy ourselves rather than finding the journey super-tough. Lammergeier soared above us as we joined the main Khumba valley once more. It was an awesome day. The night was spent at Labouche - it was busy but the facilities and food were much better than in the Gokyo valley.

Day 12 – To Everest Base Camp

In the morning, we continued to Gorak Shep, where we were going to spend the night. After an early lunch, we headed to Everest Base Camp (5364m) just below the Khumba icefall. I’d heard that Everest Base Camp was not a nice place, being a dumping ground for climbing expedition debris – discarded oxygen tanks, old tents etc. However, if this was the case in the past, it has clearly been cleaned up. There were no climbing groups there as it was too late in the season.  There was just a small pile of rocks and prayer flags. Photos were taken and a beautiful pink bird called a Rose Finch appeared. There were excellent views of Nupse – most of Everest is hidden from here.

View of Khumba icefall from Everest Base Camp

We walked back to Gorak Shep and enjoyed a great sense of achievement and good food. We had achieved our main objective. This lodge had clean toilets but the indoor ones were taken out of use because the barrels of water for flushing contained so much ice that it was blocking the pipes. Water from the jugs had splashed onto the floor and then frozen – you almost needed crampons to go to the loo! It was -10C overnight and not much warmer inside the plywood rooms. My four-season sleeping bag kept me warm enough but getting dressed became an art form – it was best to sleep in most of the clothes that you wanted to wear the next day.

Day 13 – The final summit - Kala Patthar

The view of Everest from Kala Patthar as the sunrises

Again, we got up at 4:30 and left the lodge at 5am. This was not really a problem as everyone goes to bed in the lodges by 8pm. In fact, if the trekkers didn’t go to bed, the lodge staff and guides sometimes just laid down under a blanket in the main room where everyone was sitting!

On the summit of Kala Patthar

It was very windy this morning and we knew it was going to even colder on this ascent. I put on my waterproof overtrousers for the first time just to try to get more wind protection. The climb felt steep at first but gradually my breathing became calmer as I got moving and it was possible to walk steadily upwards. After an hour and a half we reached the summit rocks, the sky was becoming light and we were once again treated to the most amazing views. This is where I was regretting not having a second clean buff with me! We couldn’t stay for long as it was so cold and it took just half an hour to get down. We had breakfast and rather sadly started the trek out, although we were looking forward to being able to have showers.

On the trek out

The first part of the trek out was over the moraine retracing our steps to Labouche, then it was flatter for a while before a big drop down to Thukla for lunch. After this, we descended to Dingboche. The lodge was real luxury compared to what we were used to – there were flushing toilets that worked, and a sink with running water. We were expecting to be able to have showers but now the weather had closed in and there had been no sun. The solar heating was producing only slightly tepid water. Still we made the best of it and felt much cleaner although we did not risk washing our hair. We sorted clothes too, working out which were the least dirty that we could wear until Kathmandu. There was no way they would dry if we tried washing them as it had become much colder now and the sun was only lasting for an hour or two each morning. We felt sorry for people starting the trek up – they were going to have a miserable time without the daytime sun that gave us some respite from the cold at the start of our trek. It was very much the end of the season and by December there would be snow.

Days 14-16 More descending

Namche Bazaar

We asked our guide if we could descend all the way to Namche from Dingboche so that we could spend some time there looking round for souvenirs. It turned out to be the day of the Everest marathon - runners take a couple of weeks doing a more straightforward version of the trek we had done and then they run down from Gorak Shep to Namache Bazaar. We had seen them camping earlier on our travels. There were about 50 runners but the course wasn’t marked and there were very few aid/drink stations. There is also a surprising amount of uphill for a downhill race. As a runner myself this was interesting to watch but I wasn’t tempted! It seems like a lot of hard work to acclimatise and then one day of hell!

As we left Namche the next afternoon to go on our short walk to Monjo and the next lodge, we were in a more populated area, with people growing a few crops, supplemented by selling what they could. We began to enjoy the little things in life as we returned to civilisation - our first cup of tea in a china mug for example! TV was a surprise in the lodge at Monjo.

Day 16 & 17 Back to Lukla and the flight out

Our final day’s trek led us all the way to Lukla. The trail was crowded with mules. Most of the mules were carrying gas cylinders as these are filled in Lukla and must be carried up the mountain and down again empty.

It was very cloudy all day and no flights had taken off back to Kathmandu. Some people had taken helicopters to Kathmandu at great expense – helicopters were flying when the planes couldn’t. We were worried about getting out of Lukla.

The airport at Lulka

The next morning, we got up really early with our guide insisting that we went to the airport for the short weather window expected at first light. There was chaos with people from the day before needing flights, as well as those that had booked flights for that day like us. Our guide knew the system and the staff. He somehow got to the front of the queue and got us on flight number 1. Even this was precarious though. The first in-coming flight from Kathmandu came and there was less than five minutes turn round before we were taking off. It was cloudier and cloudier as we approached Kathmandu and the air hostess - incongruous in heels and makeup amongst walking boots and dirty trekkers - told us we were going to Pokara instead of Kathmandu.  We were looking forward to seeing some of the countryside, expecting to have to get a bus from Pokara to Kathmandu but in fact after about an hour on the ground the plane took off again and was able to land at Kathmandu. 

All that remained of our trip was another day in Kathmandu – lots of time to shower at last! Clean hair and no longer having to wear a buff over it was luxurious!

Buddhist temple in Kathmandu

******

Our guide from “Himalaya Expeditions” was very experienced and extremely helpful, organised and well-equipped. He had a wealth of Himalayan mountaineering experience and knowledge of the region. He even carried tins of pineapple in his rucsac which he shared with us!

With thanks to Darren and Clare at “Mountains in Mind” – the organisation of the trip was excellent. Perhaps add an additional buff to the kit list for next time though! Darren and Clare can be contacted through their website www.mountainsinmind.com.