Beyond Namche – At Altitude

We stayed 2 days in Namche (3450m) and bought some windproof trousers to add to our down jackets. We had been warned it was going to be much colder – and it was. We continued up to Tambouche, where there is a famous monastery. Georgia found the hill up quite challenging but we got there eventually. The days were much shorter as altitude played a big part. Suddenly we were gasping and going even slower along the Nepalese Flats! We stayed the night at Deboche and then continued to Pangboche for the following night.

It was at Pangboche that we witnessed a huge wake-up call. Late in the afternoon a man was walked into the lodge – hardly able to stand. It turned out he had Severe Altitude Sickness. We spoke to him – he was from England and he briefly chatted about his trip. He was in a tour group – and hadn’t felt right (tight chest) from when he was in Namche. The  remedy is to descend and quickly. He had been unwell for 3 days and not eaten anything. He was with a trainee guide, who wanted to feed him. The real problem was his breathing – as our guide book explained along with the other serious symptons he had. However he had a terrible night and we listened to him gasp for every breath. In the morning they decided to chopper him out. It was really frightening, but showed us how fickle the effect of the mountains can be on different people. This sickness doesn’t seem to strike anyone in particular for any reason, but you do have to listen to your body and respect the environment. It was quite frightening to witness this – we were later to see more cases, but not as severe.

We continued onto Dingboche (4350m) and then onto Thukla (4600m). There was a maximum of 4 hours walking each day. So the novels and playing cards got a work out! We decided to stay in Thukla overnight to acclimatise. The following day we attempted to go up the big hill and over the pass to Lobuche, but we had woken up to snow. When we attempted to go up there was a blizzard, and the weather was closing in quickly. We got 3/4 of the way up and Georgia felt dizzy and her breathing was tight, so we decided to go back to Thukla. We experienced temperatures of -15 degrees that day. We were the only people in the lodge and spent a nice night with the staff talking around the fire.

We tried to make the pass again the next day – the weather was much clearer, but still chilly! Georgia was still the same – and we had not got as far as the previous day. Once we went back down she was fine, and still is!! We decided that the girls would go back to Thukla and spend our third night there. We encouraged Richard and he decided he would carry on and try to get to Everest Base Camp and Kala Patar, where you get fantastic views of Everest and many more gorgeous mountains. We left Richard at 10.30 heading for the top. He got to Lobuche (4940m) and then headed for Gorek Shep (5170m) He made it and decided to head for Base Camp – he got half way there and wasn’t feeling 100% so headed back to the lodge.

The next morning he attempted Kala Patar (5554m) early as the sunrise is an amazing time to see the peaks in all their glory. It was bitterly cold -30ish and he reckoned his hands were frozen before he got out of the lodge. Once again he got half way and turned back. However he did manage to get some photos and can say he got near the top.

We were surprised to see him coming back down the hill at 10.30am the next day. It was 24 hours since he had begun his solo trek. He admitted it was really hard going and he had missed his support crew. He followed some porters down and had made it in under half of the time that it had taken him to climb up.

So we were a team again and the only way was down!! We continued taking a slightly different route through Pheriche and then back down to Namche. The journey up took 4 nights and down we took 2. We returned to Namche and stayed at our favourite guest house – Valley View Lodge. This is where we met up with some of our trekking friends. We walked up the hill behind Namche (much to the crews delight!), and had a good view of Everest on our last day.

Before we left Namche we received blessing/good luck scarves from our lovely hosts. We then continued down. We had a night in Benkar and then we headed for Lukla. (Check out the videos on You Tube of the Lukla Airport)

We learnt some valuable lessons about trekking and living in this harsh environment at the top of the world!

Some of the more interesting points were:

• yak cheese is an acquired taste
• it’s not yaks that produce the cheese – it’s naks (the ladies!)
• donkey trains are very smelly when passing you on the trails
• your water bottles do freeze at altitude
• toilets come in various ‘styles’ in the Himalayas
• vegetarianism is the only option
• how many ways can you eat rice, noodles, and potatoes?
• yaks are super hairy and have gigantic horns
• the Swiss engineer amazing suspension bridges
• Sherpas are incredibly strong people – and the loads they carry … wow!!
• toilets can and do freeze completely!
• electricity is not always an option
• body odour is a way of life
• a cultural advisor can be very useful when trekking
• crows (or were they ravens?) make noises like ducks
• dedorant bottles pop their marbles at 3000m when they haven’t been used for a while
• yak dung is ideal fuel for heating, when there is no firewood around
• insulation is unknown in this region
• you know it is cold when the wet wipes you packed (because the running water has frozen) are frozen like a brick!!
• one group of trekkers (who shall remain nameless) insisted they had a ‘minimal impact policy – no hot showers were to be taken’ We smiled as every day they drank copious amounts of coke and ate snickers bars, and only bought bottled mineral water. The impact on the environment of all the packaging?? AND none of it was carried out by them!! Incidentally the Sherpa families are getting wise now, and using more technology. There is  a lot more solar heating and gas heating of water happening.

After all is said and done – it wasn’t all about the destination, it was about the journey!!

We have a truckload of photos – the head photographer is sorting through them and will post them when time permits!! We have another plane trip (or 2) coming up so maybe the end of the week 🙂