Everest trek - Day 10 - Everest base camp

5170m to 5300m (+130m)
5 hours

Up at 5:30am. I was already wearing most of my clothes in bed so I put my boots and jacket on and headed out into the freezing morning with Helen and Dave. The forecasters were correct - the weather had completely cleared and we were surrounded by incredible snow-covered peaks, tinted blue in the early light - quite a sight! We decided to have a walk part way up Kala Patthar for a bigger glimpse of Everest, as you can only see the summit from Gorak Shep (you can't see it at all from Everest base camp). Coming down were Tom and Verena - they'd started at 4am - Verena said she was sick in the night but took a diamox, and this morning felt fine to go even higher - hardcore German lady!

We didn't spend long up there today - tomorrow we were going for the summit. Once the sun was up we went back for some food, and to say goodbye to Tom, Verena and Martin (who was still sick). After a quick breakfast and some take-away cheese chapathi's we set out for the camp. Just out of Gorak Shep is a memorial for Rob Hall, the legendary climber who died trying to rescue members of his group in the ill-fated 1996 expedition.  

After these memorials Dave said he was feeling a little odd and had to sit for a while. Soon he had a splitting headache and nausea - the morning Kala Patthar trip to 5270m had tipped him over the edge. We sent him back to the lodge and told him to take diamox and paracetamol. Altitude sickness is closing in - and me and Helen look at each other, wondering when it's our turn! We continue without Dave just have a look at the path to base camp, It tidily follows the ridge on the edge of the glacier. We come across another altitude casualty sitting on the ridge looking pale - he was with his friends and they'd just decided to turn back. The route's easy until you step onto the glacier, where it suddenly becomes hard to make out - you snake between huge green lakes of melt water and ice cliffs, in parts there's shale on ice shale and you find yourself slipping about! Rocks balanced on top of each other (cairns?) and yak dung are the best clues as to the path. In the spring the hundreds of tents extend almost to where you set foot on the glacier but now, with minimal climbers, the camp is far away at the base of the ice fall. While crossing you can hear creaks and groans, invisible underground rivers and (by far the most nerve-wrecking!) huge rumbles from avalanches high above. The landscape looks like the moon - only grey rocks and ice as far as the eye can see. It took about an hour to cross the glacier to the camp then the clouds moved in and it started to snow - no views of any mountains! There was a Korean team, a large Japanese team (who didn't want visitors so they wouldn't get sick) and a friendly Polish team who were climbing Lhotse. Some of the tents are perched so precariously above crevasses they look completely unsafe! We gather some souvenir stones, speak to the Polish team, get some pictures and start the clamber back, ecstatic that we'd actually made it! The snow is heavy now and we shelter behind a rock on the ridge and eat the cheese chapathi's.

Helen at the end of the ice fall - note the crevasse! 

Tents perched 

Polish team - and MonstaB

Melt water lake

The edge of the Khumbu, and the ridge back to Gorak Shep

Back at the lodge Dave's still feeling rough, but a little brighter. Me and Helen slump into the restaurant completely spaced out and exhausted, still expecting the altitude sickness to claim us any second! My appetite is enormous (a good sign that altitude sickness won't come) and I eat pasta (also finishing Helens pasta), 11 potato and cheese momos then another 10 buff momos that the Monks gave us! 

That evening is an incredible sunset. The colours are unlike any I've ever seen before. Reds, oranges, purples, blues. The blue is so blue that it looks unreal! Soon the sky is blacker than black and we head back in to get some sleep, ready for a 4am start.

Everest trek - Day 9 - Labouche to Gorak Shep

4940m to 5170m (+230m)
4.0km - 5 hours

Despite the gradient being gentle out of Gorak Shep the lack of oxygen and the cold morning make the first half an hour feel heavy. The weather cleared a lot though and we're surrounded by mountains, with only the summits hidden. Today's dog is George, who likes to eat yak dung. He's quite well known on the route has many names and has been seen as low as Thukla and high as Everest base camp! We take the left fork past a Sherpa carrying a ridiculously long pipe and onto the Italian research pyramid. The scientists are only here in the spring, at the moment it's only Nepali caretakers, but they show us around. Inside it's tiny, with little rooms full of interesting boffin gadgets you want to touch!

Back to the main path it runs up a little valley parallel to the Khumbu glacier. Ton, Verena and Martin carried on ahead as they were going to attempt EBC that afternoon. All around were little (I think they're called) Picas, curious little furry mammals the size of chinchillas skipping around the rocks making funny noises. At the end of this little valley is a short but killer climb - my lungs were heaving and heart thumping when I got to the top, my blood crying out for oxygen, my head feeling light. After a little rest to let a yak train past there's a small walk to a ridge - when you reach the top you're treated to an indescribable first view of the mighty Khumbu. This is the worlds highest glacier, its source is at 7,600m! It must be over 1km wide in places, tearing its way through mountains on its way down the valley. It's picked up millions of tons of debris at this point and looks like a river of rocks, but looking closer you can see bottomless crevasses, ice caves and emerald green lakes dotted about the surface - truly an awe-inspiring, natural wonder - impossible to depict in photographs, but here's some anyway!

The gigantic Khumbu glacier - gobsmacked!

Looking north to Everest base camp, Lhotse up to the right in the clouds

After we closed our mouths and gathered our thoughts we started back on the path to Gorak Shep. There's a second, smaller glacier joining the Khumbu from the left which you have to cross. The path now is just some lightly trodden stones between boulders as you head down onto this glacier. There's a loud waterfall noise coming from a big gorge ahead. The path leads you to the top of this gorge, just under the end of the glacial ice wall, where you cross the melt-water river. To the right, looking down the gorge, the water disappears off into a Khumbu abyss; to the left a huge dirty wall of ice drips and occasionally dumps its rocky cargo into a pool next to the crossing. The crossing itself is just big rocks and looks sketchy; we wonder if we'd strayed from the main route. We hadn't seen anyone else for ages. We hang about for a while trying to decide what to do when three Sherpas come, and skip across the rocks. They can see we're unsure and come back to offer a hand across - we gladly accept and I give them Rupees for the help!

Exhausted we keep on going but it feels like a never ending sea of rocks. Just when you think you might see Gorak Shep there's another ridge of rocks! Finally we pop out on top and there it is. We follow the ridge and head into the Buddha lodge for some black tea and a rest to gather energy. The owners ask if we want a room too; we tell them we're going to look about and they say that if we don't accept the room now they will charge us more when we come back! Of course, we now have no intentions of staying here and head up to the Himalayan lodge - which turns out to be the highest sleeping establishment in the world! The rooms are basic but clean, with blankets. The restaurant is big, warm and friendly. The family are lovely - I would highly recommend this lodge, it was my favourite of the whole trek (and I thought the lodges would get worse the higher you were!)

Gorak Shep - perched on the side of the Khumbu

The monks from Tengboche were there, and had set up a Puja in the restaurant, playing drums, cymbals, gongs and pipes, and chanting for hours and hours. On a table they had offerings of food and drink and occasionally took things out and brought things in. They were very kind and brought us offerings of biscuits, chocolate cakes, nuts and fruit to our table. Apart from the monks (and our three friends on their way to Everest base camp) we had the lodge to ourselves. We had word that after our plane arrived the weather was bad at Lukla and no more planes could land for 5 days, and after that there was a 2 day pilots strike - which would explain why nobody else seemed to be up here in the mountains! Spaced-out and feeling an odd pressure on the forehead we tried to relax with digestives and milky coffee. Looking out of the window with the Monks playing their medieval sounding instruments as the soundtrack a man in a large puffa jacket appeared on a horse - the whole scene was reminiscent of Monty Pythons Holy Grail.

At 4pm the three returned from Everest base camp. Martin wasn't good, he had developed a pounding headache and nausea on the way back. He said he'd "never had a headache like this before" - he looked extremely ill. It was now getting dark and there was no chance of descending now. We gave him some diamox and paracetamol and told him to drink as much water as humanly possible. We also got him some garlic soup but he couldn't eat, so he went to lie down on the opposite seats. With pure comic timing the Monks suddenly piped up again - he then went to bed. Exhausted, we went to bed soon after. I got into bed in my trousers, t-shirts, fleece, beanie hat and had three thick blankets - it was extremely cold!!

Everest trek - Day 8 - Thukla to Labouche

4600m to 4940m (+340m)
3.0km - 3 hours

It rained all night, and is still raining this morning but the clouds seemed thinner and were moving faster, giving us more and more faces to drool over. I had a very good nights sleep last night so was ready for action, which is good as the path out of Thukla is immediately up, for a long time. In fact most of today's 340m vertical is in the first hour or so. At the top of the first section are many memorials to dead Sherpas and climbers, including Scott Fischer who died in the 1996 Everest tragedy.

Memorials

After the memorials the path goes past the end of the Khumbu glacier, which just looks like a huge pile of rocks. From there it turns right and the rest of the walk following the river to Labouche is easy. I nearly ended up in the river slipping on a stone while trying to fill my water bottle!

End of the Khumbu

We strolled into Labouche, excited to reach 5000m! There's not much lodge choice - high season must be a free-for-all - but now there's no-one else here apart from us and the South Africans who are staying in the lodge next door. We choose the Sherpa lodge, the furthest away as you enter the village, next to the expensive eco-lodge. The weather was spitting something half way between rain and snow and the staff quickly crank up the stove with some yak pancakes and we set up camp in the toasty restaurant. The owner confirms what we'd heard about the weather clearing tomorrow, he says the snow is a good sign, meaning the weather is turning winter and the monsoon finishing - we may have timed this trip perfectly! Me, Helen, Dave and Tom have a hot bucket shower (not together) in an outside corrugated hut. I had one just so I could say I'd had a shower at 5000m! It wasn't as much of shock as initially thought, the worst bit trying to dry yourself and get some clothes on as quick as possible. I had been wearing the same T-shirt now since we'd left Kathmandu, not wanting to change because of the cold! Needless to say I put the same T-shirt back on after the shower!

I get food envy when Martin the Swede orders a giant plate of tuna noodles, so order one too. Later we have snickers rolled in pastry and deep-fried - very tasty, expensive and bad! We play some cards and drink lemon tea. I take a depleted camera battery to the lodge next door for charging for 300 Rupees an hour.

Snickers roll

Everest trek - Day 7 - Dingboche to Thukla

4350m to 4600m (+250m)
5.0km - 2 hours

100th post on this diary!

Almost no sleep last night. It didn't seem like an issue not being able to sleep, it was just some more time to kill, but in silent darkness. My brain felt fresh and wide-awake - I'd read that sleep deprivation was common but had assumed it would be intensely annoying and groggy. I listened to podcasts and music all night! Helen and Dave were also having broken sleep patterns.

There's two possible paths out of Dingboche; one is a gentle climb but longer, from the top of the town; the other is short and steep. We chose the latter which was an exhausting three steps, stop, get breath, three steps, stop, get breath, three steps... and so on to the Stupa. The weather was overcast and windy again, we wondered if we would ever see any mountains! Once past the Stupa and on the ridge the walk is a nice, open, steady climb. Far below on the left are the river and Penriche. We sat down to let an enormous group of trekkers, porters and guides overtake us.



The land is mostly barren now, but if  you look closely there's millions of beautiful tiny flowers carpeting the land!

The path follows the river up, and at the end of the valley is the rocky end of a glacier, a natural dam for a crystal blue glacial lake. Our brief dog companion today was George, who soon decided we weren't interesting enough and went the other way. The path turns right and meets with the river. There's an interesting bridge here, the first section being okay but the next part (which is sometimes washed away) is no more than two thin planks, so requires a little more balance. Over the bridge the path then heads into the three-building "village" of Thukla - the Yak lodge, the restaurant and the Sherpa lodge (no tourists allowed!).

End of a glacier - glacial lake just visible

That bridge!

Thukla

Fluffy exhibition yak!

We had some lunch (I had an amazing Sherpa stew) then the rains came. Also here were Tom, Verena, Martin and the friendly South African couple we'd seen in Dingboche. The South African man had an impressive watch with GPS, an altimeter and many other functions - I was a little jealous of his statistic collecting abilities! He'd received a weather report that the weather was going to break the day after tomorrow - this was great news if true! Two ladies came out of the rain into the restaurant, they'd been to base camp the previous day and said it was snowing, and they didn't see a thing. One of them said she had to try and sleep sitting up at Gorak Shep as she felt like she was suffocating while lying down. The South Africans said farewell, put their packs on and bravely melted into the mist, wind and rain!

Me, Verena, Helen, Dave, Martin, Tom, lodge owner

Our original plan was to stay two days in Dingboche but we read a good acclimatisation schedule suggesting one night in Dingboche and one night in Thukla. It's not immediately clear but there's two types of accommodation at the Yak lodge; one in the old building tucked away behind the restaurant (50 Rupees) and the other is in the more obvious new building (100 Rupees). We didn't see the old building and stayed in the new one but it seemed unfinished, and the toilet was bad! Also staying here were the monks from Tengboche monastery - they were heading to Mother Everest for an annual Puja.

The evening was freezing so the lodge workers popped some Yak "pancakes" into the stove - we all gathered around, scared to leave the warm and get into freezing beds!

Yak powered warmth

Everest trek - Day 5 - Tengboche to Pangboche

3860m to 4000m (+140m)
2.2km - 2 hours

Super-easy day today with only a 140m climb over 2.2km to aid acclimatisation. Had a good nights sleep, apart from the occasional rat scurrying noises, and some extremely vivid and surreal dreams (effects of high altitude). One I remember: I visited my friend Paulie who had moved to a huge cave in the mountains with his girlfriend. They were sitting on one sofa each, but they were surrounded by hundreds of other sofas of different shapes and sizes, none alike, and they all had the clear plastic wrapping on. Paulie told me that they were collecting them. That's all I remember.

Dave was feeling much better today and we all had Tibetan bread crowned with a fried egg. There was broken clouds about and this morning and Lhotse, Ama Dablam and possibly the tip of Everest revealed their massive selves - it's hard to explain or record how beautifully enormous they look!

The trail from Tengboche drops steep down into a cool, shady rhododendron forest - this place must be incredible in the spring. We saw two dogs, still joined after mating but facing opposite directions - quite a disturbing sight. The path then passes a nunnery and crosses a bridge over the river, then it's once again up, up, up. On this up I could really feel my lungs begging for the 38% missing oxygen! The sun was now fully out and I switched my trousers and waterproof for shorts and t-shirt. Here we met an Englishman called Tom, a German called Verena and a Swede called Martin.

We arrived at Pangboche at 10:30am and checked into a bright triple room at the Himalayan lodge - run by Nema and his friendly family. As the sun was out we did a little washing and put it out to dry on the wall outside, but of course as soon as we did this the rains quickly came! I had some powerful garlic soup and we spent the afternoon reading, lazing about, eating pringles (300 Rupees) and watching bad Indian soap operas on TV

Room 9 at the Himalayan lodge

Us!

Pangboche fields

Ama Dablam revealing her shoulder

Everest trek - Day 4 - Namche to Tengboche

3500 to 3860 (+410m)
6.75km - 7 hours

Departing a rainy Namche at 6am the route heads east then switches north following the river far below. Occasional breaks in the weather give more glimpses of huge piles of rock; just when you think you'd seen the summit, something else appears higher in your line of sight. I prefer it like this and liken it to a beautiful lady (or man in Helens case) teasing us; If there were no clouds it would be a full frontal - and where's the fun in that?! We stop at the Ama Dablan lodge and Dave, who's had rumblings all morning, has to make a swift visit to the outside long-drop squatter. Maybe those sausages weren't such a good idea. The lodge owners are very friendly, and this would be worth considering as a second acclimatisation day as it's the same altitude as Namche. There's a big outside seating area with views down the valley - we had a quick glimpse of the mighty Ama Dablam before the clouds moved over again.

Feeding the crows 

First view of Ama Dablam

The route then went steep down into the now-thickening clouds. This was where we encountered our first companion dog; they randomly walk about on the trails following tourists and Sherpas and are very friendly and healthy, and greatly appreciate a biscuit or two. I'm ashamed to say I forget the name we issued this particular canine, maybe Hector - I'm sure Helen will correct me in the comments! Eventually you get down to Phunki Tenga and the Evergreen lodge next to the river. There's a sign saying that this is your last chance for refreshment before a two hour climb; this is not the case, there's three or four better cafe's over the river. Also the toilet in Evergreen was bad... very bad! We had a cup of instant noodles each (I had seconds!). Just before the marathon climb is a TIMS army checkpoint but they wouldn't let me take a picture for this diary. Dave was feeling extremely rough and weak, so I carried Helens bag on my front and she carried Dave's, but he still had to stop often for a rest or be at one with nature. We arrived at the top around 1pm and had a welcome cup of sweet black tea - It took well over two hours to get there!

We checked into the Tengboche guest house, a cute little place with good food and friendly staff (one of the girls was particularly cheeky). I had a compact and cheerful single room (blankets provided). There's a bakery next door but it was closed until high-season. At 3pm every day you can go into the monastery and sit with the monks as they chant, occasionally stopping to slurp hot tea. This was the first time I felt the cold, and switched my shorts for trousers. The weather was wet in the afternoon. In the evening the lodge owners lit the stove and we sat in the cosy restaurant for hours talking and discussing statistics! I had a Nepali curry, which was delicious and enormous; the rice and vegetables just kept coming!

Up up up up up up up up...

Bakery - closed :'(