Gorakshep to Lobuche

Up at 0515, checked weather. Beautiful clear morning with peaks all round.

Tried washing hands at the outside sink but water was frozen so I used some of my bottled water. I've watched the dishwashers at work on the yardand it's amazing that they can get things sanitary with limited water and dust blowing through.

Watched kitchen helper get up from his foam pad on the floor in the common room, hitch up his pants and commence his morning duties.  Watered the entry mat, cleaned ashes from the common room stove, reloaded it with dried yak dung patties in preparation for tonight's fire and in between served tea and coffee to trekkers and porters.

Mike was feeling better this morning so we headed up Kala Prathar, the local viewpoint. It's 18,204 feet high, a difference of 1,329 feet from our teahouse. We struggled up the trail but the result was well worth it.

The views were spectacular. I think I've used up my store of superlatives on this trek, but today's views topped them all.

Everest is the one with the cloud cap. 

We had an  overhead view of the Khumbu ice falls, Everest base camp and the route up the glacier and Everest itself. Because we were so much higher, the mountains in front of Everest were lower in perspective and Everest really stood out.

Back down Kala Prathar, we had a late lunch and then started down to Lobuche. Light snow flurries bothered us for any hour or so but we made good time and arrived in Lobuche at 1645.

Gorakshep to EBC & Return

Wednesday, May 30th

Just after I got up I went outside and took this pic of the sun rising behind the mountains.

Left the teahouse at 0745. Mike feeling a little better after breakfast but still feeling the effects of mountain sickness.

We walked across a dry lake bed that had been full three our four years ago, according to Ramesh.

Here Mike and I are ready to start the climb

Russ is in the international hospital in Kathmandu. Jeff decided he needed to be with his father-in-law so he caught a chopper out yesterday morning leaving Mike and me to continue the trek. We continue, thinking often of Russ.

We followed the west side of the Khumbu Glacier.  The glacier is receding with a heavy overburden of rocks and debris with open spots where glacial lakes show through.

As we approached EBC, we walked on the glacier, carefully. We never knew when a patch of sand and gravel was a thin veneer covering slippery ice. Here and there we saw a stone supported by a pedestal of ice.

The Khumbu ice fall feeds the glacier. In this photo the ice fall is coming down from the right and curving around to join the glacier.

 
Since the wall of the glacier valley is higher than the receding glacier, we were a little over 18,000 feet before starting down to the glacier and base camp where we posed for photos, ate a picnic snack and started back down.

 From base camp, Everest isn't visible. I got this shot on the way back down.  Everest is the dark peak in the middle.

Back at our teahouse I screened and culled photos and began writing.

Lobuche to Gorakshep

Depart at 0720, May 29th 16,170 feet.

This is the day for the Everest Marathon, EBC (Everest Base camp) to Namche Bazaar.  It's a tough one with high elevation,  terrible track, pedestrian and yak interference.

As we left out teahouse this morning, we sawthe Lobuche check station, marking 7.5 km into the race.

Marathoners padsed us all morning.

Our trail led (surprise,  surprise) up. Sometimes the trail was so broken up and full of boulders, I wondered how the yaks negotiated it.

In fact, two didn't. We came around a bend in the trail and saw two dead yaks at the bottom of the rock slide marking the edge of the trail. It looked to me like the animals got too close and the edge gave away.

I resolved to be even more careful.

Despite the dangers, the yak trains continue to serve as the transport system of the day. See how they pick their way through the broken trail.

We followed the west side of the Khombu Glacier as  we  worked our way up the edge of the valley created by the glacier.

The glacier is melting back and leaving lakes which are subject to burst the earthen dams and flood the area below.  We saw warning signs in several places about the dangers of glacial lake flooding.

Starting down, I thought we would be crossing another river.  As we climbed down into the valley, I saw that we were walking on a glacier that had fed into the Khumbu. Now it too was melting, leaving a massive overburden of rocks and debris.

We crossed the small river on a natural stone bridge, subject to collapse at any time and changing  location from year to year as the ice below melts and the rocks shift and settle.

Up one last hill and then down into Gorakshep. W arrived at 1234 and 16,925 feet.  This is where we're staying.

This is the rest of the town

Unlike the other towns we've seen, where water is gravity fed through pipes from higher sources of water, this town is above any source of water so water has to be packed up from the river. There's no running water anywhere and bottled water is about $4 per liter.

We were scheduled to visit EBC this afternoon but Mike has been flirting with mountain sickness. Ramesh changed the schedule so we'll go up there in the morning.

Dingbouche to Loubouche

Monday, May 28th.

Departed 0740.

Snowed during the night. I Got up for a bathroom visit at 0200. Clear skies, bright moon and shiny fields overpowered most of the stars.

This morning the clouds parted and I got this shot out of our open bedroom window.

 leaving our teahouse, Ramesh led us straight up the nearby hillside. I think we followed a goat track until we got on top and found the main trail. We gained 850 feet in an hour. A strenuous start on the day. Looking back down on the village we could see the fields and buildings outlined with snow.

Stopped at Thugla, 4,620 m (16,320 ft) for tea and biscuits.

There are lots of trekkers and pack trains on this part of the trail. I saw some organized groups of 16 trekkers plus guide and porters.  I'm glad we have a small group.

Arrived at our destination at 1300 and 17,170 feet.

When we checked into our room the temperature in the room was 42° F.

Tengbouche to Dingbouche

•  Sunday, May 28th. Left Tengbouche at 0820 12,400 feet.

Down to the river and across on a suspension bridge next to a collapsed angle iron bridge.  Looked like an earthquake had taken out the rocks and supports for the far side, putting the rocks, supports and  most of the bridge in the raging river below.

Up out of the river canyon was a long tough pull. Gained 1250 feet in a hurry then it was a series of hills following the river up toward the sky.

Fields fenced with stone walls were occupying the flat ground between us and the river.

Trail in places 18 inches wide with a long rockslide to the river on one side and rock wall on the other. Mountains on every side watching us struggle up the trail.

Arrived at Dingbouche 1445 at 14,465 feet.

 They had a fire in the common room so it was a warm place to have dinner and socialize. During our dinner I counted approximately 60 people in the common room.

Decision Time

There comes a time when the leader of any group must make difficult decisions. Today it was time for Russ to make a difficult call.

The injury a week or so ago was painful and slowed him down but he has been a trooper, keeping up a good attitude and encouraging us toward each day's goal.

His hip had improved but last night he developed a strong pain in his chest wall or diaphragm, causing breathing problems, especially with his left lung. Needless to say, at this elevation it is essential to have lungs that are working well.

Despite his strong feeling that he was abandoning the group and deserting his post, he made the difficult decision to be air evacuated out to the international hospital in Kathmandu.

The chopper that was originally booked had to be diverted to make an emergency evacuation from Everest base camp, but another picked him up at 1400 and took him to Lukla awaiting further transportation to Kathmandu. 

This incident reinforces the importance of having a knowledgeable and experienced guide.  The proprietor of the Nest Hotel in Lukla is an old friend so Ramesh called and made arrangements for him to meet Russ at the airport, transport him and baggage to the hotel and arrange further transport to Kathmandu. In Kathmandu, Ramesh will have his brother meet Russ and make all arrangements for hospital, hotel, etc.

This efficient operation takes a big load off Jeff's mind, allowing him to help the rest of us continue our trek knowing his father-in-law is in good hands. 

We all wish Russ the best, with a speedy trip to the hospital and a quick recovery. 

With Russ on his way to help, Ramesh decided it was too late in the day to make a start for our next stop so we're staying here again tonight and will make an early start tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, we have a good view of Everest, when the clouds allow. 

Thus is the view out our bedroom window. 

This is the same shoot with telephoto.  The peak in the center with the condensation cloud blowing off to the right is our mountain. 

A walk around the grounds yielded some shots of different rhodies.  At this elevation theY tend to be smaller bushes instead of the trees we saw at lower elevations. 

It'll be a long day tomorrow with another two thousand foot net elevation gain so I'm going to post this entry and then get a good night's sleep. 

Namche Bazaar to Pangboche

Ramesh knocked on our door at 0430 this morning. Time to jump into our clothes and make the early morning hike up to the viewpoint we visited yesterday.

I had a restless night so opted to pass on the early morning climb in favor of letting my body get a little more rest.

It turned out to be a mostly clear morning with good views of the surrounding peaks. Mr Everest was visible but a long way off yet.

We left Namche at 0830, climbing up to 11,500 feet before starting our descent to another river.   At 10,500 feet we crossed the river and stopped for lunch. Russ making slow progress today. 

When the clouds clear, there are huge peaks seemingly near enough to touch.

We saw another remarkable load, this one consisted of pine timbers, approx 3"x4"x11'. I estimated his load at 250 pounds. He had trouble making some of the switchbacks on the trail. 

Farther along we encountered a bunch of curious mountain goats observing our progress. 

The wild blue iris are just beginning to bloom. 

In a wet spot on the trail, we saw the elusive Nepali pheasant, Daphne. The cock flew off when I approached but the three hens let me take this photo. One is far left center the other two are showing their trails on the right side toward the bottom.

After lunch we climbed up the mountainside through more rhododendron forest, from 10,500 feet at lunch to 12,300 at our hotel in Pangboche. It was a tough climb and Russ was making heavy going.

 Russ and I arrived in Pangboche at 1730 and 12,320 feet.

Rest Day in Namche Bazaar

If the weather had been clear this morning we would have left at 0530 and climbed an hour to a vantage point in the world heritage park at the high point in Namche Bazaar. As it turned out, Ramesh recconoitered and found clouds blocking the view so tomorrow we will rise early, climb to the viewing point and see if we can catch our first glimpse of Mt Everest.

After breakfast, Ramesh invited us to visit a museum. We wandered up the hill past some large prayer wheels being repainted.

We had a bird's eye view of the many hotels and guesthouses that comprise a good part of Namche.

Farther along we found a man sweeping the street in front of his shop.

Next thing that caught my eye was the community library. 

I've seen many signs of community organization for the betterment of the Nepali people. Some appear to be home grown, but many are sponsored by community organizations in other parts of the world. 

As we were coming back down from the park, we saw the Namche women's group working their way up the hill picking up trash on the trail.

We visited the free museum.  I enjoy visiting museums of all kinds. This one dealt with the flora, fauna and geology of the park with a special section on climbing. The exhibits were good but the building, as are all, was unheated. After awhile the mid- fifties temps drove me back outside where I visited the plaza dedicated to Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.

In another part of the park I found this monument to Israeli - Nepali friendship. The two rocks on the monument are from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on our world. The Nepalese sent Israel rocks from Mt Everest, the highest point

On the way back down to our hotel, we saw these dung patties drying on a wall. After they're dry, they'll be used as fuel.

From here we

Phakding to Namche Bazaar

Wednesday, May 23rd

Had breakfast (bowl of oat porridge and two hardboiled eggs for me), checked out and were on the road at 0800. We knew it was going to be a strenuous day, so no dilly dallying.

I watched the crew working on this new house. Two men inside and two out chipping rocks  with rock hammers to fit in the walls. They use reinforced concrete in the bond beams and columns so the new houses should withstand earthquakes much better than the old technique of stacking rocks to make all the walls. 

There is amazing scenery. unfortunately the photos don't do the scenery justice so I won't include many. 

Saw this electrical splice right alongside the trail.  It looks like the main feed for the village.

Tough trails again today.

Russ is doing better today but it's almost all uphill from Phakding  to Namche Bazaar,

Here we are at the entrance to the park. 

 

 There was a booth on the left where tickets were sold, manned by Nepali civil servants, and a checkpoint on the right manned by soldiers. Admission fee was 7,650 Rupees (appro $75) per person

Leaving the checkpoint, we climbed down tho Nepal's longest suspension bridge. Looking across, we could see why it was necessary to cross. The east bank was sheet cliff with no place for a trail. 

We stopped for lunch in the last village before Namche. Feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the big climb to Namche, we crossed the river again and climbed toward a rather intimidating sight. 

 

Looking upriver at Nepal's highest bridge.  The lower one is the old bridge, not used anymore. The higher one we crossed. Had to remove my hat because the wind was blowing so strong, was afraid I'd lose it.

From here it was all uphill.  Switchback trail cut into steep mountainside got tiring fast.  Finally we broke out into a small rest area at about 10,000 feet. We enjoyed a short rest then made the final climb up to Namche, arriving at our hotel in the lower part of town at 1600 hours 1 and 10,881 feet.

Lower entrance to Namche Bazaar.