Life of Wry

Trip Day #10, Trek Day #4

Friday, and we’re leaving Namche Bazaar after two days of acclimatization.  Saying goodbye to a very competent and gracious proprietor who runs a wonderful and comfortable inn.  She was amazing.  Feel grateful that in eight days we’ll be back, but not before we’ve had a ton of adventures.

At this point, I certainly have no idea what those adventures are going to be, but I know (or hope, anyway) that we’ll climb another 7,000 feet (give or take) before it’s all said and done,  and we’ll do and see some amazing things.

Altitude is always on our minds.  We know it will get increasingly cold and the accommodations increasingly primitive.  We know, having chosen an alternative route to Everest Base Camp, that we’ll leave the crowds behind… at least for a while.  We know that weather may affect our route and potentially shut down the pass, and if that happens, who knows.  I know we’re in good hands and I’m along for whatever the journey turns into.  I did think that very thought and was pleased I could let go of any sense of pre-determined goals.

There are SO MANY things that could bear on the “success” of this trek.  Many are out of our control.. like the weather.  Or an injury or illness.  Best to just enjoy every moment and not worry about the what ifs.  It’s all part of the adventure, no matter what eventually transpires.

Hmm… maybe I’m a natural-born Buddhist?

Still we had to stay smart and vigilant….  be mindful of altitude, manage our sore muscles, deal as best we could with fatigue, hydrate and eat properly to keep ourselves performing maximally, and have proper clothing for whatever the weather.  There were minor little things to keep in mind, too, like having TP on hand whatever you might need it, or medications you might need during the day or night, having light if/when it got dark, dealing with contact lenses. Much minutia!

It was no wonder it took an hour to pack in the morning– to fill pockets with stuff you needed access to, or strap things onto your pack.  Ziplocks and stuff sacks for every imaginable thing.  It was an organizer’s wet dream, or maybe worst nightmare.

The Diva of Detail was Karen. She had equipment, gear, fixes, remedies, solutions, and gizmos for every eventuality. As long as she was around, we knew we were okay.

Thankfully, a lot of this got much easier the longer we’d been on the trail, but it was also true that we were dealing with new situations with each passing day (going higher, getting colder, growing wearier..)

I got to a point where I didn’t want to think about any of that stuff.  I just wanted to be present to the mountains, and alone with my quiet mountain thoughts.  It seemed to this point it was all about our systems and logistics and conditions and planning.  I just wanted to be.  I wanted this experience to be about communing with the highest mountains in the world, under dramatic conditions, far away from my daily life, physically challenged, immersed in a beautiful and foreign culture!

And it was. Plus, we had Karen.

Anyway, here’s the trekking profile for the day:  We’re going to climb 400 feet out of Namche (this was a LOT easier today than it was yesterday), walk nearly level for a couple miles (wow!), climb steeply for another couple miles, lose the 1200′ we’d just gained over the next mile (now that’s a bummer!), then climb steadily for another couple miles, ending the day seven miles farther and 2000′ feet higher.

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For me, this turned out to be a very, very nice trekking day.  The magic of day #4.  Here are some shots:

First thing in the morning, we were going to say so long to our buds from Australia (Emily, Rie and David, front row to my left).  They’re heading off to climb Island Peak, then on to Everest Base Camp.  We are not sure we’ll see them again so we took a group shot.

Immediately following this group photo, I looked to my right, and snapped this one.  It amused me–cyber cafe, high speed satellite.. and the ubiquitous yak.  A little new-and-old juxtaposition thing.

Same thing to the left–highly modern, high-tech outdoor gear on sale, while cows march down the cobbled, dirt path in front.  No herder to be seen.. just renegade cows.

As we walked through the streets of Namche on our early morning departure, a few people were gathered for tea and breakfast on the balcony of the Everest Bakery.  A very huge view and dramatic setting. Namche’s location on a sloped plateau, utter dwarfed by monster mountains all around, is just impossibly, jaw-droppingly scenic.  But I’ve probably mentioned that already.

After about thirty minutes, we’d left the streets of Namche, traversed around a big hill and finally had a view of the trail ahead.  This is what the flat part looked like; we’d be traversing around this mountain for a couple miles.  It is very exposed, but wide enough not to be scary.  It was a very steep canyon, however;  the Dodh Kosi river is at the bottom, about 3000′ below..

It was also insanely crowded.  Not in all spots, but enough.  I was not prepared for this many people.  As it turns out, while March-May are great trekking months in the Himalayas  (and the season when most ascend Everest), the top trekking season is October-November, when the crowds really spike.  I just can’t imagine what that Fall experience is like (besides warmer, maybe, with swollen rivers and waterfalls from the summer monsoons).

After a couple hours, we got to a crossroads.  The vast, vast majority of people will bear off on a trail that heads northeast to Tengboche.  We’ll head almost due north toward Gokyo on a 6-day alternate loop.  I can’t overstate how grateful I was that we did this.  On our way down, we’d rejoin the main trail, and would, ourselves travel through Tengboche (fantastic place).  For most who hike to Everest Base Camp, they’ll hike in and out on the same trail.

Along the way, some fantastic trail building!  Trails and bridges built into the steep sides of rugged mountains.. with stunning vistas and dramatic drops.  Gorgeous views of Everest, Ama Dablam, and others.

It’s steep.

We then arrived at Mong La for lunch.  This is a shot looking back south to where we’d just hiked.  Loved this trail.

This is the restaurant where we stopped for lunch.

And I guess Rick took a picture of the loo.  Which, I thought was good to show here.  Rocks to stand on, hole in the ground, a bit of bark.  Looks like some guys weren’t paying much attention to the target.

This is the Mong La stupa.

Mong La is beautifully situated with views that take your breath away.  I didn’t get a very good overview of it, so am borrowing this photo I found on the web (thanks to yetizone.com):

While waiting for lunch, I watched this little guy.. a sherpa in training.  His mom was the cook in our tea house.

In fact, his mom is the women in the stripped shirt.  This is their busy kitchen.  We’re the only customers; those are our plates set out on the table to the left.  Hom (polka dotted hat) is helping with some of the prep… he often did that.

This is Rick’s picture of the dining room.. the usual bench seating around the perimeter.  Killer views out the windows. We sat inside because it was so windy and cold outside… though clear and beautiful!!

Here’s Karen, eating fried noodles with vegetables and egg.  Happy Karen.

And Laura, taking her usual nap.  Happy Laura.

Ready to hike again after lunch.  We are going to drop steeply down to a town called Phortse Tenga.  There are definitely fewer trekkers along the trail, but still plenty of pack yaks.  The trail is relatively narrow and there is a very steep drop off.  The thing to note in this picture is the sprawling Sherpa village of Phortse on the opposite side of the canyon.  This is not to be confused with Phortse Tenga, which is on our side (the west side) of the canyon, and which we’re on our way to.  Phortse picturesquely sits on a flat-topped ridge overlooking the confluence of the Imja Khola and Dudh Kosi rivers.    We didn’t go there, but if we’d been snowed out on the pass a few days later, we’d have had to come back, and likely would have returned on the east side of the canyon through Phortse.

Here’s a closer shot of Phortse.  You can see more of the terraced potato fields and homes and some of the trails leading to/from.  It is a truly awesome setting.  The corners of the world where people live…

Our drop after lunch in Mong La is steep, over 1000′ in about a mile, and that brings us to Phortse Tenga.  That took us about half an hour.  We stopped briefly, then started the final ascent (2 miles, 1200′ or so) to Dole.  There are rhododendrons scattered throughout this forest and later in the season, they will be in full bloom.  This is also the forest where musk deer and pheasants are regularly spotted.  Saw no musk deer, but I saw a couple of pheasants.  I did love the moss hanging from the trees and the flaky red bark.

Typically, when the trail steepens, they’ll build stone steps.  This keeps the trail from eroding and makes it more easily passable for pack animals.  Since all transport and travel between villages happens over these trails, it’s critical that they remain useable.

It’s very cold and the waterfalls are still almost completely frozen.

On our way up to Dole, we met a woman named Allie Pepper.  Allie is a 35-year old Australian woman, a mountain guide who’s climbed many of the world’s highest peaks, who was planning her first ascent of Everest.  She was planning to do it alone (one sherpa/guide), and without oxygen.  When we saw her, she was on her way up for 5 weeks of training, climbing and acclimatizing and was planning her Everest ascent around mid-May.  We learned later that she did, in fact, succeed, at least at getting to the top.  It’s a fascinating story that you can read about on her blog  here.

This is Allie (a picture borrowed from her website):

She offered to take our picture, and then took off; she was headed to Machermo, our destination the day after Dole.  We look sort of cheesy here.

We got to our tea house in Dole after about 2 hours of a grueling climb.  It was about 3:00 maybe.

Hom had to haggle a little to secure rooms for all of us, I’m not sure why; the place was nearly empty.  The rooms were nice and very basic: two beds, a window ledge big enough to hold toiletries and such, hooks on the wall to hang clothes, and a light bulb overhead.  There was a toilet down an outside corridor, just past the yak head on the wall.  I roomed with Leslie this night.

We ended up hanging out in the dining room for hours, mostly because we were tired and it was the only warm place to be.  There was one Russian guy and one German woman, Reggy, not together.  Reggy is someone we’d get to know well and spend a lot of time with (so remember that name..)  At around 4:00 the proprietor, a sort of crazy woman, lit the fire, which was fueled with yak dung (see basket-full below).  We all sat around the fire and talked, including our porters and guides.  It was really low key, lovely and fun.  We ate cookies and drank tea, our usual afternoon activity.

Tea time morphed into dinner time.  I had garlic soup and momos (those veggie dumplings), others had sherpa stew or dal bhat.  And tea.  Drinking like crazy, so knew I’d be up a lot at night.. didn’t look forward to that.

This was where Laura said to me for the first time (of many): “Suck it up, princess.”  (Which I actually got a kick out of..)

I’m so not a princess and I’m definitely not complaining.  In fact, feeling confident and loving every second of the trip so far.  I’m sore, my legs feel weak at times and it’s a lot harder than I thought it’d be.  But I’m feeling now like it’s going to be very doable. Very much settling into the rhythm, and digging it.