Day 7, November 17th
What to do?
What was planned as a reasonably easy day turned out a little tough. We are now a day ahead of schedule. This afternoon we had a big meeting with our guide and Cody and Taiga to decide the best plan ahead. Using the day to acclimatise later in the trek isn't smart as the idea is to not hang around above 5000m. Having said that we would be happy to get the trek finished a day early in order to increase our chances of getting a flight out (Lukla airport has been closed for 6 days now). All the advice we have received is to take it quietly on the way up as altitude sickness can hit quickly. We have resolved to take the wise, cautious approach and still take our acclimatisation day tomorrow, albeit with a hike up several hundred meters then back to where we are, Dingboche, 4420m.
It was lovely and warm in the sun this afternoon, so most people had an outside wash, I shaved and reckon I smell like a flower. Meanwhile the boys made snowmen (amazing how their energy returned once the snow was in sight). The goal is to really freshen up before the last few days attacking EBC. Having said that, today we basically walked around what has become our favourite mountain, Ama Dablam, or I'm a Dumpling as we say. It is a beautiful mountain, not as high as Everest but it is the most technically difficult mountain in the world to climb.
Day 8, November 18th
Cards anyone?
To help with the acclimatisation we hiked about 250m up in an hour then the boys tried to build comfortable chairs out of rocks for an hour. We returned to our Dingboche accommodation for a restful day. The highlight, though, was that it started to snow at 3pm today. Very light so we shall see if it continues. Everyone staying here has retired to the communal dining room as the fire is going and it is freezing. Cody, Taiga and I have started playing cards with a group of "30 something year old" lads from NZ, and I have now left them to it. C & T are having so much fun and it is funny to be hearing them referred to as "Codes" and "Taig" in the cards session. The room has around 30 people in it, either huddling around the fire, reading, or observing the young boys battling away at cards. As the sun goes down, it is a nice place to be.
Day 9, November 19
The big freeze
We were scheduled to do an easy day but decided to set out early and see how we felt at our destination. We were there by 11am and charged on to Lebouche. My tummy complaint has returned so I'm a bit low on energy. We hit the sack at 6:30 pm and were to be greeted to our coldest night. Inside our room our drink bottles froze solid. The toilets froze over! I got no sleep after 9pm. At this altitude, your normal rate of relaxed breathing just doesn't get enough oxygen into your system so you keep having to take a deep breath or two, otherwise you feel like you are drowning. This isn't conducive to getting to sleep.
Day 10, November 20th
Top Base
Today we hike from Lebouche to our top "base" of Gorek Shep. It was quite a tough trek as it had a lot of up and down. I'm struggling a bit and we are trying to establish what the cause is. I have a splitting headache. A couple of panadol will do the trick.
We are now in Gorek Shep sitting in the sun room, chatting with people from Belgium (Cody and Taiga are teaching them card games), the US, Wales and Aussie. Out the window I can see the highest cell tower in the world. Nikki from the US teaches the boys a new card game called Yaniv. They proceed to learn it rather too well and beat her. We are mulling over the plan for the next two days. Dawa our guide is keen to not spend too much time at this altitude. We have two goals; EBC as well as summitting Kala Patthar, higher than EBC and allowing better views of the mountains. There is debate over whether the sunrise or sunset views from Kala Patthar are better. Anyway, EBC is the main goal so we will do that first thing tomorrow.
Day 11, November 21st
Top Day
Today was a top day for several reasons. The boys goal of EBC would be achieved at a height of 5320m, their Top Spot. It had been a warm night, well as warm as you get up here. We set out at around 8am and a combination of the incline, the low temperature and the high altitude meant it was no easy feat. But achieve it we did, including two, year four boys from TSS on the Gold Coast, Australia. Lots of people on our way down congratulated the boys. Several things had to be done at EBC including leaving some prayer flags, sticking the 1001 journal sticker up and photographing it, getting some good EBC photos, putting up the Australian flag etc. We actually lingered for a couple of hours as it was fun and no one else was there. As we started back it looked like we had left it too late to make an assault on Kala Patthar. We made the hasty decision that Pemba and I would "give it a crack". We ran all the way back to Gorek Shep (I was quietly pleased as I actually had him puffing a few times). 15 minute turnaround to eat, repack our bags, change some clothes and head for three hours straight up. We summitted (ie the classic very, very top) Kala Patthar 5540m and took a few photo's. We then had to wait until sunset to get the best Everest shots. It was absolutely the coldest I have ever been, but it was worth it. We high-tailed it down in 40 minutes sharing one headlamp. We stopped on the way to get some more photo's as the moon peeked out. I wished I had a tripod but probably would have struggled to set it up given the cold. We entered the communal eating area to a cheer from my family. Over ten hours of hard yakka so comparable to an Ironman race. Lisa had ordered me "Sherpa stew" and it really hit the spot. The family were happy with the photo's too which was nice.
Day 12, November 22nd
5 does not equal 9
Time to head down the mountain. One son has had a bit of a chest complaint so we thought we'd just see how we went, with the ideal goal of Pangboche, where we had stayed before. The estimate was five hours. It took us more like nine, mostly due to poor estimation. We were not happy trekkers arriving at our destination, despite the eating area being nice and warm. A day that was far too long and a rest day might be in order for tomorrow.
From Steve
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