Haha, I actually wrote too much so I have to split my latest entry. Sorry, but I have a lot to say and I'm sure you are interested (or at least I hope). Ok, so after I went to Chitwan I headed out for what I thought would be an 18 day trek in the Himilaya to Everest Base Camp. You have two options when you start the trek:
1) Fly into Lukla. From Kathmandu, the 30 minute flight is hair raising at best. The Lukla airfield, at little over 1,000 feet long (10k foot altitude) is strictly STOL (short take off and landing) operations. The runway is at a 20 degree upslope, and landing is only possible into the mountain. There are few aircraft that are designed to land at this type of field, and the Twin Otter is the best. There are a few airlines that fly from Kathmandu daily, and despite all the trekkers that fly into Lukla, and the dangerous nature of the field there have been few accidents. However, that all changed when I was on my way back home. I got word in Namchee Bazaar that Yeti Airlines had a most unfortunate accident flying into Lukla the day before I was heading out. Eighteen passengers died when the Yeti flight was on final approach and encountered turbulence.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the top of Everest in 1953 was the one who originally conceived of the Lukla airfield. Its original intent was so that supplies could be flown into the Khumbu region (Nepali Himilaya) to develop and build the utterly lacking school system. He would later go on to curse the development of the airport when in a freak accident his first wife and daughter were killed while trying to land in Lukla. He also learned later in his life to hate the field when he realized what easy access it gave to the public, and the impacts said trekkers were having on the Khumbu environment.
2) The other option is to walk in from Jiri. A short bus ride from Kathmandu, this is where the road ends, and it begins an uphill/downhill (repeat) 6 day walk to Lukla. This is not the preferred method to acess the Khumbu, but does save $$ because you dont have to buy the flight, and therefore is done mostly by independent shoestring backpackers.
Other than these two options, there are no roads. Everything has to be carried by human or yak power. Every little grain of sugar, potatoe, piece of wood, bucket, chain, nail, etc... has to be carried up the mountain by a porter.
I was terribly mistaken when I first heard of the job of porter. I associated it more with a guy in a suit waiting outside of a luxury hotel, but in mountaineering a porter is a man (99% of the time) whose sole job is to carry shit on his back. He doesnt care what it is - yak, garbage, people, a stove... it doesnt matter. He gets paid by the kilo, and the faster he moves, the more money he makes. Porters are the backbone of the tourist industry in the Khumbu region, and are more often than not poorly educated, illiterate, and have absolutely no means of accessing health care. As you go up the mountain and you see all these westerners trekking with brand new high performance breathable/warm but light/gore tex/vibram outfits, you see the porters calmly moving along in nothing more than sweatpants and slippers all while carrying 2-3 times the load of an individual trekker. They dont bathe because there is no facilities for them to do so, and whats the point anyway - they only have one pair of clothes. They dont have fancy air circulating/suspension systems for their rucksack - they have a basket with a rope that they attach to their heads to carry their loads. If you ever want to be inspired to do something with absolutely nothing then you should look no further than the Sherpa people of the Khumbu.
Ok, now that you understand a little how it works let me tell you how you can do a trek in the Khumbu. You can either:
- Start in Jiri or Lukla
- Go to Gokyo or Base Camp (or both)
- Hire a guide or porter (or both)
The majority of people on the mountain fly into Lukla, go to Base Camp, and hire a guide and porter. Me, I wanted a challenge so I flew into Lukla (didnt want to add 12 days to walk from Jiri), went to Gokyo and Base Camp, and hired nothing. I really liked being what you would say is an independent backpacker.
Pros
- I was able to create my own agenda. If I got altitude sickness I could stay at a town, or descend with no worry about what "the rest of the group was doing". Also, I was not pushed by a guide to go faster up the mountain than I would have liked because he had to get back for the next group. This fact alone made it more safe to go as a independent trekker than with a guide or with a group
- I could go at my own pace. This is not so much a problem if you hire your own guide or porter - the most impacted is groups. I found that depending on the day I would vary my speed a lot. Some days Id go slow (for my pace) and look around a lot, take side trails, etc... Other days I would be like a vicious dog attacking those hills, passing everything and anyone in front of me.
- If you hire a guide there is quite a bit of interaction between you and them and it is hit or miss whether the guide will be good. In most countries, in order to be a guide of any sort you have to have some level of qualification. That is not the case in Nepal. There could be a chance that your guide can barely speak English, or doesnt really know what he is doing. Most are not specifically trained in altitude sickness, and some even have very little experience. If you do hire a guide you are with them 24 hours a day, and if you dont get along its not so easy just to let them go (as in the case of if you were traveling/trekking with somebody you found along the way).
- Without hiring a guide I would be able to spend significantly less money, which helps with the budget and to make sure Im able to get home somehow when the world tour is over.
Cons
- I wasnt supporting the local economy. With the downturn in tourism in Nepal hitting its highest point in 2003/2004, the country could definately use the additional income.
- I could totally get lost. There is a point on the trek called the Cho La Pass at 5,330 meters (17,500 feet) where just 5 or so days before I went there an Indian fellow died. There was marginal snow cover, and him and his buddy lost the trail got lost while walking a few meters from their group. One decided to go back, looking for the lodge and the other forged on. The man that went back to the lodge lived to tell the story - the man who went on got further lost and eventually froze to death. I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but I do have an excellent innate sense of direction and am pretty good with a map. I was willing to bet I wouldn't get lost.
- With a guide arranging everything, there is no need to worry about where to sleep or any necessary arrangements because he takes care of all this. With the high season for trekking just around the corner there was a chance that by being alone if I showed up to a town that all the lodges would be sold out. This often occurs at Lobuche on the EBC trek.
- I could get sick, and there would be nobody there to help. Well, most guides only have rudimentary first aid training, so if I went with an average guide you dont get a whole lot of confidence from them. Most large groups who have booked their trips online, or in the west have adequate first aid training and equipment but they pay for it. If you book online, or in the west expect to pay 7 to 10 times what I managed to pay by doing it on my own (3-4 times what it would be cost to book a similar trek locally). I educated myself before I left regarding all health risks that I would face on the mountain, and felt that this adequately prepared me for my journey. The predominant issues that come up:
- AMS (acute mountain sickness): Comes in many forms, but is your body's natural reaction to the change in altitude. Mild symptoms include drymouth, peeing a lot, light headaches, nausea, sleeplesness, crazy dreams, and they only get worse from there.
- HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema): Basically your lungs fill with fluid, you get really sick, and die within 24-48 hours if nothing is done. Proceeded by AMS.
- HACE (high altitude cerebral edema): Basically fluid develops in your brain, and causes a stroke. Like HAPE you basically die if nothing is done. While I was there, two Aussies got HACE and had to be helo'd out. Also, it had to be no more than 20 minutes into the start of my grand expedition, and I saw a porter being carried down the mountain who was really sick. The poters dont get a helicopter rescue because they have no money, and as a result most of them die before they can get treatment.
- HAFE (high altitude flatuluence expulsion): My favorite - no shit, this isnt even an excuse for being all nasty up on the mountain. For some reason this happens, and there is only one cure - lettin er rip.
- Diarreah: Lets get serious here. With all that nasty food "that food that even the maggots wont eat - BLM" that I eat on a daily basis, my stomach has formed an iron lining that is impenetrable to bacteria, infection, electro magnetic pulses, etc...
- Sprained anke: I think above all this would be the worst. I had bought pain killers to reduce swelling in case this happened, and some weird athletic tape type stuff. In OCS I had shin splints and a sprained ankle on the same leg, earning me the knickname "hobbles" and still managed to complete the 21 mile hike and 12 mile run during SULEII. I could have pushed with the pain, but luckily nothing ever happened.
- Giving up: Actually this is the worst. Some people just straight up cracked on the trip. Being away from home, in a really dirty environment, pushing yourself everyday is not for everyone. I saw some people just turn around because they were fed up.
Typical day starts by waking up at like 5:30, eat a hearty breakfast, and around 6:00 or so you head out. The duration of the days trek depends on the ascent profile. The number has been widely disputed but your body in general cannot acclimatize to any more than an increase of 400 or so meters per day. Any more than that, and you are putting yourself at risk of HACE, HAPE, AMS, etc. mentioned above. On the way down - its a free for all. You can walk sunrise to sunset. You can go more than the 400 meters per day, but you have to make sure your sleeping altitude is within that guidelines (ie: you can summit a 900 meter peak, but come down to a village 300 meters above the last one you slept at). By the way, all these altitude guidelines are meant for 3,500 meters to 5,500 meters. If you are climbing at anything above 5,500 meters your body fails to acclimatize and you are basically ruining your body slowly by slowly. That is the reason that nobody in the world lives above 5,500 meters.
Typically most of the treks on the way up can be completed by a group in 5 hours or less. For me, I was making it a challenge to test myself to see how fast I could go and would usually end up going faster than everone else I could see on the mountain. What was taking a group 5 hours, I could do in 2.5. This meant I had more time at the lodge for resting and sightseeing around the village where we were staying.
I suppose this is what I meant when I say that it wasnt that hard. I have done some hard things in my life, and it takes a whole hell of a lot to really get me to the point where I have to declare it hard. I would say that doing the trek was hard, but if you have an open mind about it and arent turned off by cold, bed bugs, rats, no toilets, food that looks a little funny, headaches, very little sleep, etc. then I have no doubt you will be able to do it. I am not going to sit here, and tell you how hard it is and how you cant do it just to make myself seem cool - that would be pointless. I think everyone reading this can for sure do it if you are determined.
For me, I thought it was easy. All I had to do was to remember the training I did with the Marine Corps at OCS, and everything I did in the Khumbu was a walk in the park in comparison. Your experiences will be different, but for me all I had to do was remember some of that shit I went through in the past, and it was all ok from there.
Anyways, I will say that I didnt choose the most easiest route. I will just put it this way:
- If you only have a limited holiday, or need to check it off the "to do" list then you head to Everest Base Camp
- Other option is only to go to Gokyo, up the western side
- If you have more time, and you are strong you go to Gokyo first, then over the Cho La Pass and then do the Everest Base Camp. By far the hardest thing to do in the area is the Cho La Pass, and every single guide book and lonely planet will advise against it. They all will tell you that you need crampons, an ice axe, a guide, etc... Fuck that! Warnings like that are for the people who have marginal common sense, and can easily get themselves in trouble. I would say if you think you can handle it then you can, and have a go at it on your own and make it a challenge. I remember looking at it for the first time, and just thinking that there is no way possible to go up that mountain, but when I was at the top you have no idea how good that felt.
Itinerary -
Night Town
1 Lukla (to acclimatize from coming from Chitwan)
2 Phakding
3 Namchee
4 Namchee (acclimatization day)
5 Khumjumg (saw Hillary's wife here)
6 Dole
7 Macherma
8 Gokyo
9 Thalnak (summit Gokyo Ri in the morning - 5360 meters [17,600ft])
10 Lobuche (go across Cho La Pass - 5330 meters [17,600ft])
11 Gorak Shep (visit Everest Base Camp - 5364 meters [17,600ft])
12 Pangboche (summit Kalaa Pattar in the morning - 5600 meters [18,400ft])
13 Lukla
I managed to shave a bunch of days off the trip by going super fast, or pushing beyond what a normal itinerary would include. My original three week itinerary also included a couple days buffer in case I got sick.
For example, I pushed and combined four days of walking into two on the way down, did the Cho La in one day, etc... This allowed me to get back to civilization earlier than I had expected. I didnt shower the whole time, and wore the same clothes so I was really looking forward to a shower and a real bed. I also wanted to get back so I could unwind for some time before I head off to Thailand. For the last 6 or so countries, I have been in an extreme rush to get from one end of the country to the airport to fly out, and that kind of sucks. This time I figure Id take it easy and have a nice slow exit to Nepal, as opposed to running like a crazy man to get my plane. Oh my god, if I told you about how I made the exit from Argentina, and how crazy that was Im sure you wouldnt even believe me... lol.
I told you that I was going to have a go at it alone, and for sure I like it alone but I also teamed up with these French guys, Olivier and Damien for a portion of it. We summitted Gokyo Ri, did the Cho La Pass, and went to Base Camp and Kalaa Pattar together. They had a bit of mountaineering experience in the Alps, but our skills nicely complemented each other. The only problem was that they barely spoke English. I have travelled with people, while not being able to communicate before, so I knew at the end of the day this really was insignificant. I also met two cool Americans on the trail - Chazz (in his 50s or so) from Salt Lake City, and Chris (guy in 30s from Indiana). Chazz stuck out like a sore thumb up there, with his mossy oak hat, huge beard, columbia fleece, and carhartt shorts - but man was that guy an animal. He would race up and down that mountain like a billy goat.
All while I was going about this trek I was thinking about who would ever do this madness with me. I think there really is only two people who I know who I would for sure do this again with. That would have to be Zach Robertson, and his pops - Lord Vorcon (inside joke). Zach grew up as a mountain man, and can sure beat the hell out of me running up a mountain. Z man - if you are reading we should hit up Anapurna, and some 6,000 meter peaks bud. Let me know how that sounds?
View from airplane on the way into Lukla. If you want to check out the mountains, make sure you sit on the left side of the plane.
Im sure on the pilots checklist, it goes something like this: item 34) Flying into the face of a mountain (check). Co-pilot, we are a go for heading directly into a mountain...
Cool mani stones just at the beginning of the hike.
Nice waterfall near Phakding
There was a 8 year old kid, who was waving a kukri (curved fighting knife synonymous with the Ghurkas) at these chickens making them fight. When I came there he yelled at me "I am Rambo", and then ran off into the woods.
The rules of the land: Dont get drunk, be jealous, angry, dont piss anybody off, dont kill anyone. Its like the 5 commandments. Imagine if the US justice system was 5 simple rules how cool that would be?
Porters doing their thing just after the entrance to Sagmartha National Park
Close up of the loads they carry. Check out that dudes calves. Hes probably 75 years old.
Me just outside of Namchee
At the lodge I stayed in Namchee, aparently Jimmy Carter stayed there in the 80s. They have a lot of pictures with him, and letters of their correspondance saying what a good time he had in the Khumbu, and while staying in Namchee.
Reflection of mountain against the clouds, Namchee Bazaar
More Namchee. Namchee is the biggest town in the area. Its a plane flight to Lukla, and then a 7 hour hike to bring everything there.
Beware of exclamation points!!!!!
View from about 350 meters above Namchee
Good view from Everest Hotel of Lhotse and Lhotse Shar
Me posing with statue of Ed Hillary at Khumjung, where he set up the first school under the Himilaya trust. He went on to build around 200 schools and hospitals in the Khumbu area before passing away. The Khumjung school is by far the best in the Himilaya, and has around 350 students. This is also where, Hillary's second wife, June came to give a speech about how she is now entrusted as the president of the Himilaya trust. More on this later.
Cool stupa in Khumjung
There is a huge problem with deforestation, and the ensuing erosion that happens in the Khumbu. Because of this, the National Park has banned the use of burning firewood so the people have turned to biofuel (capturing the methane gas from poo lying in a well), and burning of yak dung. The yak dung is mashed together into a big pile, and then formed into little chipatis which are then shoved on some rocks and dried in the sun. At night, when the sun goes down and it gets cold they go out and collct the chipatis, break them up and burn them all night long. Its efficient, saves resources, and keeps you warm! Its like a win, win, win.
When your broke like me, there is no options - all you can do is eat onions!
Imagine this being the view off your front porch?
Ok, so these pictures are of June Hillary when she came to Khumjung. All the kids went nuts when her helicopter landed, and she was given so many takas (yellow ribbon around the neck) that, you could barely make out where she ended and the takas began.
We then all gathered in the auditorium of the school, and she gave a speech about how she is entrusted with the future of the Himalaya trust (because Ed died earlier this year), and that the people shouldnt worry about it falling apart. She is a very special woman, and they all look to her like a grandmother. Ed, is looked at like a god. He is considered the godfather of all the Khumbu region, and nearly everyone knows him there. He was a hell of a guy - R.I.P.
Haha, this Argentino was so proud of his trek, he decided to tag the wall in the lodge
Great view from Macherma
Memorial to Italian hiker who died on his way to Gokyo. He got sick, and when they tried to bring him down he died along the way.
Me at the second lake on the way to Gokyo
Walking along the second lake with Damien, and Olivier
Me standing on the top of Gokyo Ri (17,600 ft). These Mike Pizanneli jackets keep you warm!
Damien on his little private sanctuary. Mine was cooler, but I obviously dont have a picture of myself.
This picture was taken on the way to get to the Cho La pass. You have to cross over this glacier, and it starts to get really weird on you. It is all ice, but then its covered in almost an inch of rubble of every sort. For some reason the little lakes that were there were every crazy color you can imagine, despite being right next to each other. There was blue, green, grey, purplish (wtf???), etc. Then there was a point where you couldnt cross the water, so we had to take our shoes and pants off, and wade through this leech infested glacial water that soooooo cold.
And then for some reason there was almost powdery sand (???) it was nuts. It felt like the closest thing you can get to the moon.
If you cut this picture vertically in the middle, that is where you have to go to get to the Cho La pass. It doesnt look doable at all from this perspective, and when they told me thats where you go I thought they were smoking crack. Its a real hard scrabble that takes almost four hours to work your way up the 750 or so meters to the top. Along the way, you work your way up using your hands and fee on nothing but small rocks that are covered in ice and snow. If you dont pay attention, the rocks slip out from under you (or you slip on the rocks), and you can loose your footing real easily.
An Indian guy died probably 5 days before I crossed over the pass, somehwere very close to here. His group was going along, and he got seperated. In the snow and ice, he got confused, and pressed on. He was with somebody else still at this point, and they decided to head back to the lodge. He tried to push on, got lost, and froze to death somewhere up there.
By the way, the mountain area is filled with death. I didnt talk about it much before, but its a real sober experience. Every turn you make, you see a memorial to this person, or that. Just outside of Lobuche, there has to be 100 or so memorials all in this one spot. Most are for people going to the top, but there is a portion for people who do the Base Camp Trek.
But once you are on the top, its AWESOME!!!! You cruise on that glacier in the background of this picture for about a half hour, and then...
You follow this path that goes on the glacier for some more time, and then you descend 500 meters into the valley.
This picture was taken on the way to Everest Base Camp. You walk along on a small trail cut into the mountain that lies right next to the Khumbu Glacier. Its a glacier, but for some reason its covered on little rockfall that makes it grey.
This is me at Everest Base Camp. Its strange going there, because you dont exactly get the feeling you do when you summit a peak. Its kind of like "oh, Im here", because there is nothing that definately makes it EBC (as opposed to the top of a peak). Its just a bunch of tents lying around with porters and sherpas smoking, and waiting for their bodies to acclimatize.
It was really cool, and I walked around with the two Americans that I met there (Chazz and Chris), and we talked with the different teams. At the time there was only three teams:
Korea - 10 climbers, 15 sherpas, Cook, etc. (35 or so total)
France and Mexico - 3 climbers (2 French, 1 Mexico), 3 sherpas
Italy - 10 climbers and porters
I found there was definately more teams on the way there. Right now, in the fall season it is good for climbing, but you dont have the same odds as in the spring. The sherpas told me that American teams, as well as others strictly go to the top in the spring. At that time there can be as many as 60 teams, and base camp becomes like a small city at that point.
In following with the fact that I made the I heart Telephonics Tshirts, I thought I would expand the joke to a more international scale. I first started out with just the Telephonics bit, but then decided that I had to add more.
You cant read it probably, but the sign says something along the lines of:
I heart: TC, Mom, FK, CC, MB, AC, BLM, Rolandos, La Parm, Lola, SG, LG, M"C"A, Rathskellar, LM R&M, Dick Stevens, and NCR.
This picture is of me in front of the Khumbu icefall (on the right), which is from what I hear one of the hardest parts you have to go on to get to the summitt of Everest. Crampons, Ice Axe, rope, and some seriously technical climbing skills are required to scramble up to the top to get to Camp II at 6,500 meters. Above me is the Lho La (pronounced Lola) pass, which I thought would be fitting for wearing the shirt. Its places like that, that seperate the men from the boys. Trying to attempt the Khumbu Icefall as an amateur is like signing your own death warrant.
I was lucky because for about ten minutes, there was no wind and the sun was shining. When it reflects off the glacier it can actually get hot, and I was able to wear the shirt. Otherwise its just Mike Pizanelli jackets for the whole day.
Picture which doesnt properly describe the violence that occurs whenever you witness an avalanche of this nature
Khumbu glacier on the way back to Gorak Shep
View from Kala Pattar in the morning, just before sunrise (18,300 feet). On the way to the top you run out of oxygen about every third step, and find yourself literally choking trying to get more air into your body. Its really weird. At 5,500 meters the relative amount of oxygen in the air is still the same (21%), but with the decreased pressure you are getting about 45-50% less than you would at sea level. This in turn means that your oxygen saturation in your blood will become at most 75% of that at sea level.
By the way, 5,600 meters is higher than anything you will find in the US, Africa (just above Kili), or in Europe
Beers on safari, in the airplane, on the train, on the boat, on the road, in the street, at the bar, on the bar, under the bar, in the movie theatre, in the ocean, and now on the mountain...
What better place to have a beer than 5,600 meters.
Shoutout to camera donors. I am trying today to add more names of those who signed up... Keep an eye out for future appearances of the shirt.
Haha, this one needs some explaining. I was in Kathmandu, and I had to buy a hankerchief or something to wipe the sweat from my brow. I went to a store, and the guy was like - "I think this one is best, i have sold out three times", and I looked at it and knew it was the one.
I dont even smoke, but with a slogan like "God made grass..... Man made booze..... Who do you trust?" I couldnt help but laughing. This picture is from the top of Kala Pattar. In the background is Everest (just to the right of my head)
This is the memorial for Scott Fischer. He was one of the guys that died in 96 on the Everest Expedition that went wrong, and inspired the book - Into Thin Air. He was the one that used the sat phone to talk to his wife while he was stuck up in a ravaging storm.
Tengboche Monastery. I love the Thanka painting!
Outside the monastery
This is just an example of what the trail is like. If you look closely you will see a zigzagging trail. That is the 650 meter trail down from Tengboche to the river valley where you then take a suspension bridge to the other side, and then ascend another 550 meters.
Oh yeah, this was the airplane that the Skydive Everest team was using. They had to rent this airplane from Switzerland and breitling is sponsoring it, and for $33k you can jumpat 29k feet (using bottled oxygen) and land at 13k (Syangboche airfield). Its a tricky thing to do, because a million myriad factors all have to come into play before you can actually have a go at the jump.
Here I am posing with Tom, the leader of the Skydive Everest outfit. Tom is now famous, and while we were there he was interviewed and the clip was eventually aired by CNN, CBS, NBC, etc. You can see more in this video from USA today:
http://usatoday.feedroom.com/index.jsp?fr_story=FRdamp305947
The pictures do none of it justice. You have to see for yourself!
People in Bing - If you are going to Alumni weekend, keep the spirit alive. Dance offs at the Rat earn you double points for the night. Handjobs in the DJ booth gets you 20 points. Tommy Naps stealing the phone from the lobby of the hotel next to the rat, only to smash on the face of McGlinn gets you 10 points. Chris Russel and Alissa Kane reunion is 1,000,000 points.
Vote for the Lama, Boo for 92', and keep it real folks. Later!
B
I'd honestly have to say- that wasnt all that hard PART DEUX remains copyright of the author bejuan99, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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