Everest Base Camp Trek: Intro and First Week

Note: This is a long post. Be forewarned! Pictures will be uploaded to a new album soon, I hope… keep your eyes peeled. Also, because of the way I’ve decided to detail out my Nepal trek, I’m not going to do a day-by-day account as usual… 

Note (9/2012): At his request I have changed the name of my Nepali guide and removed his picture.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written and as I sit here thinking about how to tell you about the last two plus weeks, it seems impossible! I’ve settled on a way, though… I wrote in my private journal almost every day during my trek, and so I will quote from that and show pictures to try to take you through the major excitements of my Everest Base Camp trek.

First, it’s important to introduce one major character… Jan Croft. I know Jan through my father, who worked with her and got to know her while he cooked at the Duke Rice Diet center. Jan is seventy years old and as energetic a lady as I know. She’s been to Nepal twice before and has trekked to Everest Base Camp once already, to celebrate having beaten breast cancer. This year she trekked to Base Camp again, to celebrate her seventieth birthday in style. She’s a short, determined southern woman with shoulder-length blond hair and snapping blue eyes. Jan was a research chemist in earlier days, and traveled abroad a bit in Europe, learning German and some Russian in order to translate chemical patents and other work-related materials. She got into real estate about twenty years ago and gained weight as she buried herself in her new career. In the early nineties, she had a wake-up call when, upon finding a local fast food joint closed for breakfast, her hands started to shake. Several years later, she celebrated losing over a hundred pounds by going to Nepal for the first time, inspired by a National Geographic article about the trekking there. Having not been able to climb a few steps years before, in 1996 she completed two strenuous treks in Nepal: the Annapurna Circuit and a trek to Tengboche to see Amadablan, a famous mountain in the Himalayas.

Now that you know a bit about Jan, let me tell you in a combination of words and pictures about the last sixteen days of Nepal trekking that we undertook.

16 Apr 2011

Arrived in Phakding, Nepal, today, via a trek (~3 hours, ~4 miles, 270 ft descent and 260 ft ascent) from Lukla. Flew earlier this morning from Kathmandu to Lukla.

[Note: notes in this and the next blog post will indicate something I’m adding now that wasn’t written in my journal. They won’t be in italics, to differentiate… hope that makes sense!]

[Note: That airplane ride was exhilarating and terrifying. For the first half, the Himalayas were in the distance, snow-capped and mystical. For the second half, we were flying through the mountains… I mean, their summits were above us. I could make out details of homes in the hills and tree branches, that’s how close we were to the mountains. And the landing… we dropped altitude like a rock and bounced twice before skidding to a stop on a short runway that is laid out on a steep hill. We landed at the lower end of the hill and climbed the hill as the plane rolled to a stop.]

Our guide is Rimu (24 yrs old), the assistant guide is his younger brother, Nuru (19 yrs old), and we also have a porter, whose name I can’t recall. [Jan] is worried she won’t make it to Everest Base Camp and I’m trying to encourage her. I’m feeling fine so far.

Nepal is so different, again, from every other place. My brain is exhausted from traveling. I may end this trip in Israel… not sure yet. I’m feeling a bit short-tempered and not too tolerant lately. But I don’t really want to go home yet.

My head is spinning!

Only brought this journal on the trek… no computer or iPod or books.

Hotel: Prince of Everest Hotel in Phakding.

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17 April 2011

Arrived Namche Bazaar today! Eight hours of climbing, over 800 meters of elevation gain, and I’d say maybe 5-7 miles. Jan had a tough time but just trucked on up. Hope I’m like her at age 70! Lots of steep switchbacks. I would say it’s hard but not horribly difficult. The worst part for me was in Namche, climbing HUGE and uneven steps to our hotel.

Views today were stunning. Didn’t get to see Everest (too cloudy) but tomorrow I will. Our porter’s name is Pasang. My feet don’t hurt today!

[Note: On the first day, I wore my tennis shoes and my feet ached pretty good that night. On this day, I wore my hiking boots, which thus far haven’t seemed to be very comfortable. Guess they just needed to be broken in, though, because my feet felt great… thus the odd comment.]

Got Nuru to chat a little today. More tomorrow!

Hotel: Tashi Delek in Namche

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18 April 2011

Hiked up to Everest View Hotel, where I am now. Lots of steps and up, up, up. Jan went back to Namche halfway up at Rimu’s suggestion, to save her energy for EBC [Everest Base Camp]. So, I’m with Nuru and a friend of his. I can see Thamsherku, Amadablam, Nuche, Everest and Tauche. Also, Portse, which is where we’ll trek to in two days (after staying in Khumjung for a night).

I’m in a foul mood today, no real reason. It’s clearing a little with the climbing, panting and sweating, but only a little.

***

Clouds moved in pretty quick at the Everest View Hotel, so after some tea, which I got enough of to share with Nuru and his friend… [Half a sentence written here… sorry!] … We made good time back down to Namche, where it turned out that Jan had bought thing neck gators as gifts [for me and our crew]. After a brief rest, we had lunch … The clouds moved in and big droplets started to fall before I made it back to our guesthouse [from an errand I was running]. Also, a sudden need for the toilet hit me and I had to change underwear – yuck! It started to rain, hail, thunder and lightning in earnest! Jan napped and I went to the common room [all lodges had a main dining/common room where guests could hang out any time] to watch the storm, which didn’t last very long.

With no gadgets or books, my mind is wandering and I feel unfocused. There are internet cafes but I’m determined to stay out of touch until I return to Kathmandu.

My mood pulled a 180 during lunch without me realizing it. Maybe not bouncy, but at least not crabby now.

Hotel: Tashi Delek in Namch

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19 April 2011

Slept well last night and woke up feeling energetic and happy. Yay! Apple pancake and egg for breakfast, really good but boy am I gassy today! Clouds were creeping around the mountains by the time we got going at 9am. Quite a few steps today but nothing too bad and our trek only lasted three hours, which included several breaks and a half hour visit to the Hillary School in Khumjung. Oh… we trekked Namche to Khumjung, about 2.5 hours, ~3-4 kilometers, and 200 meter elevation gain. As we arrived it started to sprinkle. Maybe two hours later, hail, then rain, then snow. Jan and I were freezing! We got on our down jackets and Pasang got the wood furnace in the common  room started early for us. We eventually warmed up. When the skies cleared, we got magnificent views of Thamserku, Congde and the top of Kinteka. It also warmed up considerably, although it’s still chilly.

Over lunch (before the storm), we met two nice Indian gentlemen who were friendly and talkative. Both seemed fascinated by Jan. Which reminds me! As we climbed out of Namche, I chatted with a well-spoken Nepali gentleman. As Jan caught up, I introduced her. It turned out that he lived in Kathmandu and Jan immediately asked if he knew of an  orphanage or school we could volunteer at. He said yes and to call him when we returned, handing me his card. It listed him as a Colonel in the Nepali Army! [Note: There are two very separate militias currently in Nepal: the Nepali Army and the Maoist military.] It was then that I noticed his attache in uniform and a plain-clothes attendant, both standing nearby. Whoa!

Hotel: Hilltop View Lodge in Khumjung.

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20 April 2011

Slightly quick-tempered today… Jan talking herself into failure (“I’m so slow… how far behind are we?… oh, I don’t know if I can take five more hours of this”) … Anyway, I think I need to just be quiet ...

So, today we trekked from Khumjung to Phortse, about five hours, just thirty meters overall elevation gain and maybe 7-8 kilometers or so. However, we did have some major ascents and descents in there. Overall, not too bad a day! And here in Phortse, it’s sunny and cool with lovely scenery. This village is situated on a graded mountain edge. Like Khumjung, rock walls snaking across the village demark paddocks, gardens and living areas (I think). There are cows and yaks wandering and although cloud cover obscures them, you can sense the Himalayas looming all around. Now and then a craggy peak or soaring mountainside shows through.

Jan is eating next to nothing. Today she’s had two boiled eggs, one piece of plain toast, two squares of Godiva chocolate, two or three Turkish apricots and perhaps a quarter cup, if that, of plain spaghetti. She swears she feels full all the time. Me, on the other hand, I eat like a pig!

***

It’s around 8pm now. Jan’s in bed and I’m in the common room by myself, edging closer and closer to the wood furnace as it cools down. Rimu, Nuru and Pasang are in the kitchen downstairs eating dinner with the teahouse owners. They almost never eat until we are completely finished with our meals. Guess it’s part of the culture of the guide companies here. Anyway, I feel like I bonded a bit with Nuru and Pasang today. I got them to teach me to play their  card game, then to teach me how to count in Nepali.

[Note: Here follows a list of the Nepali words I learned that day, which I won’t list here.]

Pasang and Nuru each have spoken to me once or twice without prompting, which is nice.

Hotel: Sonam Lodge in Phortse

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21 April 2011

Phortse –> Pangboche today, ~5 kilometers, 4.5 hours, a bit of up and down. Not too much overall elevation gain, I think. Some great views of Amadablam and a peak of Everest, though, which is still far enough away to be unimpressive. (Turns out, 120 meter elevation gain, by the way.) … On the trek, I learned:

[Note: A full page follows of Nepali words, most not written by me.]

Above was written by Rimu, who is a bit of a control-type person. This makes sense, as he is a guide and the leader of our group, but it’s annoying when he won’t listen. He also gets impatient when we don’t understand his English, which is ok vocabulary-wise, but he often locks his jaw which, with his accent and bad grammar, makes it difficult. This, along with [when our guys don’t understand] Jan, is eyeroll inducing for me …

Hotel: Himalayan Lodge in Pangboche

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22 April 2011

Today was an easy four hour walk with some elevation gain (400 meters) but mostly at a gradual rate. A third of the way through, one of our guys realized we didn’t have Jan’s black water bottle. Nuru went back for it and met us just as we arrived in Dingboche, where we will stay for two nights for acclimatization. We’re now at 4,410 meters elevation, or about 13,500 feet. It’s cold and my main concern is not having enough warm clothes! Jan was more positive today. Nuru is a bit distant; Pasang cheerful but maybe tired of giving me language lessons; and Rimu is the same.

[Note: More Nepali words listed here.]

Hotel: Sonam Friendship Lodge in Dingboche