Everest trek - Day 11 - Kala Patthar then Pangboche

Kala Patthar
5170m to 5600m (+430m)

4:30am. Wakey wakey! Today was the going to be the highest point of the whole trip, with some magnificent view of Everest hopefully! I didn't get an inch of sleep - I was excited about today and mild altitude sickness is ever-present. I wake Helen and Dave who aren't feeling so good with slight headaches and also had no sleep. Out into the silent mountains the stars are brilliant. With headtorches we set off to the base of Kala Patthar and begin the slog up. There's a few torches already on the hill and more coming behind us. Helen and Dave decide to wait at the point we reached yesterday which I then thought was about half way - this was not the case. I press onwards and overtake a group of Italians. I have to stop every few minutes to catch my breath, and also the unveiling views. My heart is pounding against my chest every time I start moving again and I feel light-headed. Just when you think you've hit the top there's more! The top section has larger rocks and requires a little more navigating. After an hour of steep trekking I finally reach the prayer flags and weather station, announcing the summit - at 5600m (over 18,000 feet) I imagine this is as high as I'll ever be, using my legs!

Everest is mostly visible. Only a section of the western Cym hides behind Nuptse. The Everest south ridge past camp IV (26,000ft) and up to the Hilary step is crystal clear and the wind-blasted summit (still 2km higher than me) looking formidable. Anti-clockwise from Everest I could see Kumbutse, Lingtren, (the beautiful, and my favourite) Pumo Ri, Chumbu, Lobuche, Awi, Mehra, Nuptse and Lhotse. Being at this height, around all these giants really makes you feel everything, your senses are alive - the hairs on my neck stood up and a warm shiver passed through me! 

30 minutes later and the masses were approaching so I decided to make my decent. Going down is much easier, skipping across the rocks and almost running on some sections. I get back to the bottom with a light head and aching knees, and head for the warm lodge where Helen and Dave are waiting with some breakfast - I'm famished!

Gorak Shep to Pangboche
5170m to 4000m (-1170)

After breakfast we grab a quick photo with the wonderful Himalaya lodge family then it's down down down. There's no set plans on how far we're going to go today, but (as usual) I have an idea that we'll go as far as we can as fast as we can, seeing how far it's possible to get down in one day! Helen and Dave didn't initially share this unnecessary determination but we still made very good time! We hopped it over the glacier bridge that we struggled with before (someone had repaired it) and promptly into Labouche for a cup of sweet black tea. The hill down to Thukla seemed long, even longer than going up for some reason. There were now more and more people heading up, looking punished by the gradient! All of these people had walking poles - I don't understand walking poles - are they for actual support when walking? Most people just seem to tap rocks with them before taking a step, like they're testing if it can support their weight or not. I can only think of Stevie Wonder when I see trekkers in sunglasses with walking poles. Maybe if I'm old and wobbly and still trekking, I'll get some.

We hit Thukla at 12:30 and hide from the water now falling from the sky. Once clear we quickly make our way down to Penriche (via a muddy bog) to see how it's different from Dingboche (stay in Dingboche!). More black tea with a particularly cute companion dog (who's name I forget) and we're walking again. Now about 3pm and we're fooled thinking we'd arrived in Pangboche, but we then realise it's the next village, 30 minutes further down the valley! Legs with no energy, shoulders and back hurting we slouch into the same lodge, and same room we'd occupied on the ascent. I wouldn't recommend going this far (20km) in one day (especially after climbing Kala Patthar with on no sleep) - Dingboche would be a sensible stop! 

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 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