The Trek of a Lifetime

We dodged a bullet last night and finally escaped Lukla. A little background info on Lukla: it's a small mountain town built around a very busy airport that services the region and tourist industry. The only problem with this airport is that during the monsoon the clouds can get very thick, making flights impossible. We arrived on Sunday hoping to fly out the next day, but the clouds rolled in and didn't clear up until Tuesday morning. Luckily we had an Irish Pub and a good coffee shop to help us out on our stay. When the clouds broke on Tuesday, everything looked good until one of the planes crashed into the end of the 18 degree sloped, 400 meter runway (very minor, no injuries). After they cleaned it up we fought the mayhem of hundreds of angry and stressed backpackers and got out on one of the last flights.

Now for the trek: Excellent. I'll divide it into a few categories: The Terrain, The People and Places, The Effects on Kyle's Body.

The Terrain. Like I posted before Namche, everything is a tough hike. The grades are very steep and the lack of oxygen at the higher altitudes definitely makes things difficult. I ended up starting the trek with a girl from Chicago named Heather and a guy from Germany named Robert. Robert ended up taking a different route about three days in, and we ended up grouping with another hiker who split with his partner, Emin from New Yawk, and we continued together for the rest of the trip. We put in some hard days, hiking over difficult terrain. The most noteworthy of these were the day of Gorak Shep (the town right before the Everest Base Camp, at 5100m), where we hiked two hours to Gorak Shep, then hoofed it up to the peak of Kala Pattar (5500m), where we had amazing views of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse. Then there was Cho La Pass. That was the bear of them all. We started at 6:30am, climbed up to the pass through a scrambling route, onto the glacier of the pass, then back down a steep snowy slope on the other side, up a valley, down another one, ending up at a small town. Then the hike up Gokyo Ri was a tough 600 meter vertical gain to supposedly amazing but cloudy views that day, but still was awesome (pictured below). The peaks of the Himalaya's are nothing but amazing, the majesty of the Rockies cannot even begin to compare. At about 4000 meters you're above the treeline, and at about 5000 meters there's hardly a plant or shrub around, and it gets cold.



The People and Places. The Sherpa people are an amazing people. Everyone we met was very friendly, all the Guest House owners we very hospitable and helpful, notably one Guest House owner in Gorak Shep that was nice enough to check up on me when I was sick. The Porters are beyond insane. I couldn't believe it when I first arrived and was being passed by these 130 pound men carrying over 100 pounds of gear on their backs. We even saw one guy hauling a heavy cabinet on his back! And the loads are usually suspended by a strip of cloth around their heads and waists. Not anything you would call ergonomic. The towns are usually pretty simple places. Namche (pictured below), the trekker hub and capital of the region, is full of Guest Houses and services for the trekkers. The higher up you go, the more simple the Guest Houses become. Namche you could expect a nice cozy room with a bed and an end table with a seperate bathroom with a western toilet and sink. The higher you go, it turns into small rooms seperated by the thin plywood, hard matresses and a bathroom with a squat toilet and no sink. I was lucky enough to find a gas fired hot shower in Pheriche, but in Phortse it was a bucket of hot water and a cup. After a week of not showering, that bucket of hot water was better than sex. After a hard trek, time is usually passed in the dining room of the Guest House, where everyone socializes and plays cards around a stove usually fired by yak shit. The food is hit and miss, lot's of dishes are centered around yak cheese, which is a potent dull flavor (if that makes sense). Spaghetti and French Toast became a staple for me.




The Effects on Kyle's Body. Thanfully I didn't really have any bowel problems on this trek, which could be very bad at high altitudes. The altitude did hit me though, and only me out of the three of us. I started getting bad headaches in Pheriche. After a semi-acclimatization day at Dingboche (100m higher than Pheriche) they seemed to go away during the day but would return in full force during the night for the rest of the trip. At Gorak Shep I was the worst, I had the sit out the trek to Everest Base Camp and try to rest because of a fever and loss of appetite due to the steep ascent to Kala Pattar the day before. I was kinda bummed out about not making it to Base Camp, but my trekking partners told me it wasn't worth it, and I'm more than satisfied with the views of Everest from Kala Pattar. The descent to Louboche helped a little but I ended up vomiting the next morning, which drained me for our plan to cross Cho La Pass that day. Luckily that wasn't possible and the next day I was feeling ok enough for it. It wasn't until we crossed the 4000 meter mark that my body finally righted itself and I was back in full action. This trek was definitely the hardest I've worked my body in succesion. And it shows; I've dropped probably around 10 pounds and gained a couple of belt notches. The beard: I went for 15 days without shaving, but sadly my beard didn't end up looking that great. Damn did it feel good to shave. I'm still sporting the goatee though!

All in all, I had a great time. I tested myself and my limits and came out ahead. We finished a seventeen day trek in thirteen days, climbed two 5500 meter peaks and crossed a 5300 meter glacial pass. We kicked ass and took names. And I have one huge bragging right over anyone: I did it with a pack second only to the Sherpa's in terms of weight (heavier than any other trekker we met), no Porter or Guide, and I did it with Acute Mountain Sickness. I made some good friends along the way, one of which I'm about the head to India with tomorrow. Kyle came, saw, and conquered.

*Apparently I forgot the SD card that has my Everest pictures at my hotel, so I'll edit one into the post at a later time. Here it is! The view from Kala Pattar! I tried labeling the mountains, but in case it's not clear, Nuptse is the main mountain in the picture, and Everest is on the left shoulder of it, the peak with a skiff of clouds blowing off it.