Pictures from this part of the trip can be found in the gallery.
We were looking forward to getting out of Kathmandu, because the city is smelly, dusty, loud, and always busy. Our flight to Lukla was scheduled for 7:30am, and our tickets said to arrive 90 minutes early. Kumar told us to eat the hotel breakfast at 6am when it opened and be ready to leave at 6:20am. We arrived at 6am only to find that they were just starting to put out food, and our driver finally showed up at 6:40am. We met our guide Mahesh at the airport, Kumar rushed us through airport security and got us checked in, then we found that the flight was at 8am. We got on a bus and drove to the tarmac area and waited. We saw our plane leave for Lukla then waited for it to come back. Our plane eventually took off at 9am. It was a German Dornier 228 turboprop. The flight was loud (we brought earplugs) but not too turbulent. We couldn't see too much due to the fog, and the plane flew quite low. This flight has a bad reputation (lots of cancellations due to weather, dangerous airport in Lukla), but we arrived safely and we landed almost before realizing we were in front of the runway.
We got our luggage then went to a local teahouse for some tea. We think Mahesh wanted to see our reactions to the altitude before starting. We walked maybe 3 hours to Phakding, our destination for the night. On the way, we saw a lot of trekkers and also both mule and cow (hybridized with yak?) animal trains. You had to get out of the way of the pack animals, because they moved pretty much anywhere they wanted. We ate dinner at the tea house, then crashed. The tea houses expect you to eat dinner at their lodge, and in return, you get free or cheap housing for the night. The Hotel Beer Garden tea house was up some steep steps, and we were on the 5th floor in the roof area. It was a long way up!
We had the hotel breakfast (eggs, potatoes, bread, tea). Julie ate one of Ken's pieces of toast and gave him half of her potatoes (our standard routine in places where this "set breakfast" was available). Julie saw a guy with a Vikings NFL hat, so she decided to say hi after breakfast. It turned out to be a group of Australians, and the one guy had been to Minneapolis. It was only after then that she remembered that she hadn't brushed her hair before breakfast. Oops. Then we left for Namche Bazar. Most of the day's hike was not too bad, and we crossed several suspension bridges along the river before leaving the riverbed for a long couple hours on a slog uphill (about 2000 feet altitude increase). The bridges were initially kind of terrifying but we got used to how they moved in the wind and with other foot traffic. We also had a local dog hang out with us for about 30 minutes, including crossing the suspension bridge with us. Julie walked up the big hill VERY slowly, her "normal" pace for the uphills on the rest of the trek. This day into Namche Bazar was one of the hardest for Julie because of the altitude (the worst was Kala Patthar).
Namche Bazar is the "big town" on the EBC trek route, and it is the jumping off point for several treks including Everest Base Camp and Gokyo Lake. We had considered taking the Cho La pass to the Gokyo side higher up, but we realized before we left on the trip that this was probably unwise. We got to Namche Bazar only to find out that our tea house, Hotel Tibet, was near the top of town. The last 10 minutes of the walk were, in some ways, the most brutal, because you were almost done but you weren't sure exactly when it would be done.
Julie got a huge altitude sickness headache upon arriving, and she drank some water and took a nap. Julie still felt bad at dinner but forced herself to eat most of it anyway. That night, following CDC recommendations, Ken gave her some ibuprofen before she went to bed, hoping that would help with the headache.
Today, we did an acclimatization hike from Namche Bazar. The altitude gain from Phakding to Namche is high enough that everyone needs to stay the extra day in Namche in order to adjust to the altitude. We found conflicting sources about how fast you could acclimatize, but the general recommendation is that you shouldn't increase your sleeping altitude more than 300-600m per day without an extra day to adjust. Today's goal was to walk to the Everest View Hotel and Khumjung above Namche Bazar (about 400 meters higher), then return to Namche.
Julie was still not feeling great but better than yesterday, so she decided to give it a go. At least her appetite had returned by breakfast. The walk started with a slog uphill out of town to the Sagarmatha National Park Museum. The museum was small but well worth it, showing history of the Sherpas and the local area. It also had a statue commemorating Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who was the first to climb Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary. The views of the surrounding area were quite beautiful.
We then went up the large hill towards the Everest View Hotel. This is the "standard" acclimatization hike, and there were a lot of people on the hill when we went to the museum, and still a lot (but fewer) when we returned and ascended it ourselves. There was a military helipad near the top, and we were astounded at how close the military helicopter got to us while landing and leaving. We were inundated by dust from the prop wash.
The Everest View Hotel was run by the Japanese (owned by Nepalis), and it catered to Japanese tourists who wanted to fly by helicopter to the Tengboche monastery, then stay at this hotel. Mahesh said it cost $200 a night, which we believe considering the hotel breakfast was $20 USD. Mark was developing a sore throat, so we stopped for some lemon tea with honey before continuing to Khumjung.
Finally, some downhill work to Khumjung! Ken and Julie were distracted by the local kids playing soccer in a field (and thinking that this would be a BAD idea for our unacclimatized bodies) and reached town far behind Mahesh and Mark. We had lunch at the Amadablam View Lodge and Restaurant, where we had our first taste of Hot Orange (i.e. hot Tang). It became a regular staple for us at future meals. We stopped by the Khumjung Monastery and the Hillary School (secondary school) on our way back to town. We exited the school area through a locked gate. There were several cows inside the school grounds, and they were keen to exit after us.
As we left Khumjung, it started raining, so we pulled out the rain gear and pack covers before returning to Namche Bazar via Syangboche. After a little while, we got snow and eventually hail in addition to rain. It was a long trek downhill, among a lot of animal trails where the "right" path was not defined. We learned that we go downhill even slower than we go uphill.
It was the local market day, so once we got back into town, we visited the market in Namche before returning to our hotel. On the walk back, Ken unsuccessfully looked for some gloves/mittens at various shops. He had already been running into problems with his hands being really cold (Raynaud's?) and he was looking for something heavier than he had, but not as big has his huge snowboarding mittens. Oddly, he found several single mittens that would work but no complete pairs. Mark had more luck, and bought a hat for wearing indoors at the tea houses.
Julie was quite tired by the time we got back to the hotel. At dinner, some people got the "sizzler", which sounded really good for when we returned later in the trek.
Today's goal was to trek to Tengboche, home of the famous monastery. After climbing up the hill to leave town, we had a fairly easy downhill that was fairly crowded (a lot of other people had the same idea as us). Eventually, we descended to Phunki Tenga where we crossed the river, then had a tea break. We then immediately started walking uphill to Tengboche. The main trail was quite crowded to Tengboche, so we took the more rugged "upper trail" instead of the more popular "lower trail". We were the only foreigners on the trail, but it was used by a lot of human and animal porters who were also escaping the big crowds. The upper trail had the same elevation change as the main trail but was quite a bit steeper. It started raining while we were hiking, so we were happy to be walking uphill because the trail would have been treacherous downhill.
Tengboche doesn't have a lot of rooms, so we were happy to get a triple room at the first tea house in town. We had a big advantage over the self-supported groups, because Mahesh would call ahead for a reservation, and the porters arrived early with our bags. Otherwise, we would have had to stay at Deboche, which was a 30 minute walk further down the trail. Only really large groups could get a reservation ahead of time.
Immediately after arriving, we headed over to the Tengboche Monastery, hoping to see the 3:00pm Buddhist monks' ceremony, but there was only one monk so no ceremony that day. So, we headed back to the hotel and got changed. About an hour later, the skies cleared briefly and we got our first views of Mt. Everest in sunny skies. (Ken mostly got these views from the room, because Mark and Julie inadvertently locked him in -- always a risk with the way the latches worked at tea houses.)
The trek to Dingboche was better than Julie feared. There were some bigger uphill sections but overall not too bad, and better than Namche. Tengboche wasn't that great of a town, so it was just as well that we left. We originally had an acclimatization day scheduled in Tengboche, but everyone was feeling OK, so we decided to push on. Julie was hoping that her altitude sickness experience at Namche wouldn't be repeated (it wasn't).
Around 15-20 minutes into the hike, Ken found himself not feeling very good -- out of breath and stressed. He stopped, drank 1/4 liter of water, and ate a Larabar. He felt better almost immediately, and based on what we've read, we theorized that it was lack of carbohydrates that caused his problem. (In Tengboche, he was able to get eggs for breakfast, but there were no non-wheat carbs available.)
Today was our first experience with people we ended up calling "zombies" -- other trekkers who, for one reason or another, did not appear to be all there. When we ran into a zombie, they were often wandering on the trail as if they didn't realize anyone else was there. We weren't sure whether they were tired, altitude sick, or just strange. Often, they weren't even carrying their own day pack, and sometimes we saw one end up on a horse later in the day. There was one particular group of Indian zombies that we ran into every day between Tengboche and EBC. They made it (somehow) but it wasn't clear they even knew where they were. Creepy.
Mahesh mentioned that the Dingboche valley is often quite warm, which turned out to be true for us. The weather was nice, and we felt good enough, that we all decided to take hot showers after we arrived. (These were our first showers since leaving Kathmandu.) The shower was 10 minutes of hot water, in a little hut outside the main building.
Ken was last, and the sun (and warmth) had gone away by the time he showered, so he was quite chilled by the time he returned. Fortunately, Julie had also been cold and had laid out her sleeping bag, so Ken warmed up in Julie's bag. While waiting for the shower, Julie spoke to an Irish couple who were trekking the same schedule but 1 day ahead.
The room was really cold after the sun went down. We put on long underwear and went to bed after an early dinner. This building had a "flush" toilet where the flushing was a barrel of water that you poured in after using the toilet. It was kind of gross, but it was better than the squat toilets after Julie realized that she tended to splash a bit on herself while using it. Not a big deal while wearing hiking shoes and gaiters that are already covered in animal poop and urine from the trails, but not desirable while wearing "clean" clothes.
We didn't have to pack the bags today, so we set the alarm for 7am. Unfortunately, we were running late, and needed to treat water, and didn't leave until about 8:15am. We went to Chukkhung, the next town over, about 400m above Dingboche. Most of the trail was a gradual ascent, with lots of rocks and animal trails. Julie found herself getting out of breath and having to slow down.
"The boys", as we called the porters, came along because they were bored and had nothing better to do. They're 16 years old and were on semester break from school, so they decided to pick up some extra money by being a porter. They were learning English, so we talked to them some. They were rather shy (Julie suspects that her being a woman didn't help either). They had been doing a good job, always on time, delivering bags, reserving our room ahead of time, etc. so we were happy they wanted to come with.
We went to the ridge just past Chukkhung on the way to Island Peak base camp and got some great views. Then, we went back down to Chukkhung for lunch. It was here that Julie first cut her boots on some rocks. (They continued disintegrating during the trek and will have to be replaced.)
We expected to have a "toilet story" from this trek, and Chukkhung wins the prize. The toilet was an outhouse just outside of the main town, with a semi-functioning door which you latched with some rope. The "toilet" was a 2 ft x 2 ft hole about 6 feet above the bare rocks, on some shaky wood cross-beams. Julie used her Whiz Easy to avoid squatting over the creakiest part and hoped she wouldn't fall in. Mark seemed more concerned by the orange stuff sprayed on the rocks below. Whoever that belonged to couldn't have felt very good when it came out.
The way back to Dingboche was easier but much windier. Ken used his old snowboarding gloves to keep his hands warm. We packed our things and treated water, then played cards in Mark's room. It was cold but tolerable with the blankets. Ken and Julie did some yoga in their room, then we ate dinner. Mark finally ate a hot sauce that was too hot for him (his pasta didn't have a lot of flavor, and he added a bunch of hot sauce without tasting it too first) and couldn't finish his meal.
A huge group of Chinese hikers had arrived during the day, and they pretty much took over the place at night. As a whole, they were pretty clueless, and one nearly set the dining hall on fire by putting his painted water bottle on the wood burning stove. (Another was stopped from putting her plastic bottle on the stove.)
Today's hike started with a fairly gentle incline for a while, along a high plain where there was no true "trail". A lot of people, and some animals, were headed up the trail that day.
Julie started feeling the altitude after a little while, and fortunately Ken noticed she was struggling and suggested a chocolate break right as she was starting to have a meltdown. (Think Prof. Lupin: "Have some chocolate, you'll feel better.") The chocolate was a big help, and she did feel a lot better after that.
We eventually descended to a river crossing, then had to go uphill to Dughla. The "bridge" across the river was rather rickety and not confidence-inspiring. However, we knew that yaks crossed that bridge, so it should hold our weight. The woman in front of Julie right before the bridge (one of the zombies) was absolutely terrified of the bridge and stopped to let us pass. Just after the bridge, we turned a corner and saw a dead yak. We hurried on to Dughla.
We decided to take a tea break at Dughla, because there was a massive hill just after the town. The hill was incredibly crowded, with only one good trail in places, but people wanting to go both up and down. Julie walked very slowly up the hill but made it. She was surprised to find she wasn't the slowest person on that section.
At the top of the hill, there was a set of stone memorials to climbers who had died on Mt. Everest. Julie found the memorials to Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, two of the climbing leaders who had died in the 1996 climbing season recorded in the book Into Thin Air. She also talked with some Bulgarian trekkers when she stopped by the memorial to Bulgarian climbers. The rest of the trek to Lobuche was fairly mild in comparison.
Lodging in Lobuche was also tight, but since Mahesh was friends with one of the lodge owners, we were able to get a triple room. This one was on the ground floor and quite cold. It didn't help that all the tea houses leave their front door open except during overnight hours.
We chatted with a solo American trekker named Heather, whose travel companion had been airlifted due to altitude sickness at Tengboche a few days earlier, and also a climber from Montreal who was attempting his second try at Everest this year with the Seven Summits company. The previous year, he developed the "Khumbu cough", then pneumonia and made it to Camp III before having to abandoning his attempt due to illness (he lost 30 pounds in a month). He had spent the last 18 months training at the Olympic-level training center for Canadian athletes like Mikaël Kingsbury (one of our favorite moguls skiers).
We tried treating water with the Steripen in our room after dinner, but it refused to work in the cold temperatures. So, we started sleeping with the Steripen so we could use it when we got up. Unfortunately, Julie didn't sleep that well during the night.
Today is Everest Base Camp! We hiked for several hours to Gorak Shep, had lunch, then hiked another couple hours to Everest Base Camp. The trail was up and down the moraine left by the Khumbu Glacier, and eventually we were walking on the glacier itself. Ken was excited to be walking on a glacier, which he had never done before. The ice pinnacles in the glacier reminded us of the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon.
It was exciting to see Everest Base Camp with all the climbing tents, since all the climbing teams were arriving in preparation for their summit attempts in May. We did not wander too closely to the climber areas in the Base Camp, because they want to keep an isolation area from the trekkers to avoid spreading disease to the climbers. We spent about 30 minutes at Base Camp, then returned to Gorak Shep. It was starting to get cooler as we returned, so we were happy that we had not stayed longer or arrived later. We were quite happy when we reached the level area near Gorak Shep. As we neared the village, we saw several dogs running full speed towards us. We then watched them go up a steep slope and chase one of their companions. We were surprised at how fast they could climb the hills around us.
Gorak Shep is quite busy and difficult to get housing and it's also really expensive. We were in another triple room this time, although this one was larger than the one at Lobuche (but it also had a broken hallway window that we ended up having to get plugged with a spare blanket). We had a dinner reservation for 6pm, only to find that someone else had our table at 6:30pm, so we didn't have anywhere warm to stay for the evening. We ate our meal, then went back to the room. We were planning to treat water with the Steripen, but had a difficult time getting any water to even treat. As a result, we purchased 6 liters of water at $4 USD a bottle. We were happy that we didn't have to buy water for most of the trip.
Neither Mark nor Julie slept that well that night, due to altitude and/or stomach issues. Ken slept fine in his warm hat, eye covers, and earplugs. (In fact, for the entire trek, Ken continued to get better sleep than he had gotten in the several months before leaving.)
We had to get up quite early, before 5am, for the trip on Kala Patthar. The typical weather pattern was to have clear early mornings, then clouds come in around 10am. Since Kala Patthar was about a 2 hour ascent, we wanted to leave at 6am so we could arrive around 8am. Fortunately, the sun rose about 5:15am, so we never had to walk in darkness. Unfortunately, the hotel breakfast opened at 6am so we had to eat Larabars for breakfast. It was pretty cold when we left, but everyone was fairly comfortable wearing the normal trekking clothes (puffy jacket and light long underwear on top, hiking pants and light long underwear on bottom) plus ski mittens. It had snowed overnight, so there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground as we started.
Julie really struggled today. She used her usual slow pace to manage how far she could walk, but it was difficult for her — some combination of too much altitude, and not enough sleep, food, or water that day. Ken was feeling fine, and he was a big help. Julie's Platypus water reservoir tube froze, so Ken poured some of the water out of the reservoir into a bottle, which helped a lot.
The temperature warmed up fast as the sun came out, and Ken accidentally managed to get a great picture of the sun rising over Mt. Everest because Julie happened to be taking a break when it happened.
The warmer temperatures after sunrise were a mixed blessing — the warm temperatures were useful, but the snow started melting, causing the surface to become quite slick. Julie slipped and fell on one of the steeper sections, but a Nepali guide was taking a break nearby and gave her a hand. We made it to the top of one of the ridges which had good views, almost as good as the top of Kala Patthar, and we made the decision to turn around at about 8am. Our highest elevation was 5380 meters (17650 feet) per Mahesh's altimeter watch.
Julie was disappointed to not make the top, but it was the right decision to turn around when we did. She was ascending so slowly that it would have taken a while longer to get to the top, and by the time we would have made the top, the best mountain views would have disappeared in the clouds. We got views that were nearly as good even at the lower elevation we stopped at.
Like Julie, Mark was not feeling 100% for the climb. He was several days into some stomach problems, and we had to stop during the descent for him to find some rocks to sit on.
After finally returning to Gorek Shep, we had breakfast at the lodge, then descended to Lobuche. It started snowing as we reached Lobuche, so we were happy that we were done hiking (a lot of people descend to Pheriche instead). This time, we had a double room and single room on the upper floor, so although it was cold, it was much better than the previous visit. Mark took a long nap after arriving. Mahesh spent the afternoon working the counter in the tea house room. (He seemed to have a good relationship with the owners.)