Lobuche

Left Dingbuche this morning at 8 for the trek to Lobuche at 16,100'. The team moved strong, and we moved quickly across the wind swept Phuung Karka Valley where we gradually gained altitude and were mashed in with oodles of other trekkers. It's funny how we all seem to be on the same schedule, and we constantly see the same band of IMG, three Russians, and even the German lady who is absolutely in love with Francisco. Every time we see her, she gets all sparkly eyed and says "what beautiful black eyes! and black hair!" It's funny to the rest of us, but I think it weirds out Francisco who patiently smiles back and steps up his pace. The trail moves along the edge of a steep drop-off on the east side of the Lobuche Khola valley, the head of which is dominated by the massive Chola glacier moraine. We all move along, iPods cranking as we wrap around the corner and vector in on the little village of Dughla- a two hotel/ tea house destination midway to our objective.





In Dughla, Francisco, Lhakpa and I grabbed a quick lemon tea before continuing up and bumped into one of our cook staff enroute to Base Camp. He's friendly, energetic, and Lhakpa tells us is among the best. Francisco jumps on his sat phone to make a call while Joe continues on up the hill where the trail gains 600' in altitude. It's not a lot all things considered, but at 15,000' it's a serious lung buster.




After clearing Thokla Pass, site of choltins to fallen climbers, dedicated to those who have died on surrounding peaks. We continue on, slowly, entering another valley and hiking along/ through the moraine of the Khumbu Glacier. This is the glacier dominating the entire southern flanks of Mt. Everest, as known from the Khumbu Icefall and Western Cwm that we'll soon be climbing. No more trees or even Junipers now, we only see grass and snow hidden among the rocks.




Finally, we make the Eco Lodge at Lobuche. To our right, Nuptse dominates the horizon, and we are only about a 6 hour trek from Everest Base Camp from here. The lodge is amazingly nice, including a menu that has Grilled Cheese and Chicken Cordon Bleu! The lodge manager is unfriendly and Lhakpa tells me that last year in Kathmandu the teams tried to get her fired, but no luck. Guess finding lodge managers to park themselves this far out aren't exactly growing on trees. Joe whips out his poker chips and takes us to town, insisting that he's all about putting on the world's highest World Series of Poker in a few weeks. He also pulls out another contraption- an Oximeter (?) which measures oxygenation and pulse rate. It's truly a hit as one after another puts it onto their fingers to see how much oxygenation is going on in each of us. Kathleen, an Australian nurse who has been trekking along with us is surprised to see all of the people who just arrived pulling in numbers like 72% oxygenation, 110 pulse and mentions that a 75% oxygenation rate in her hospital back home would result in a person being thrown on O2 immediately. Then does the test herself and comes in with a 71%. By tomorrow, as we acclimatize our oxygenation rates should be somewhere in the 90s. The human body is such an amazing machine.

Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa

Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa

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Namche Bazaar, Nepal

Lhakpa is attempting his fifth summit of Mt Everest this year and has been climbing in the Himalayas since he was a little boy. Lhakpa's influence on Mt Everest came from his father, who he had a dream about and wanted to follow in his footsteps. Lhakpa grew up in Namche Bazaar and as a result saw many expeditions travel through Namche, the Capital of Khumbu enroute to mountains further up the trail. He started through trekking to Base Camp and other destinations in Nepal, gaining skills and experience along the way. Lhakpa's first Everest summit was in 2003, and has been climbing together with Willie since 2005. In 2004, Lhakpa was an assistant cameraman for the Discovery Channel Everest show on the South Side and in 2006, he was a full cameraman for GMA Network, Philippines. Last October he summited Ama Dablam for the second time, and has summited Cho Oyu twice as well. When Lhakpa first reached the summit of Everest, he felt happy and as if he had done something that he had never thought he would accomplish. Now, he climbs for the experience, camaraderie and teamwork.

Dingboche Down Day

With the exception of an acclimatization hike along an adjacent ridgeline, today's a down day in the lovely urban metropolis of Dingboche, population 200. This town is above the tree line in a wide open area of the juniper scrubbed Imja Khola river valley, in the shadow of Lhotse, due north of us. There's an Internet Cafe' here, advertised as the world's highest and a scattering of hotels are here, too. As with everything, costs have gone up as we continue to trek further and further from civilization. Recharging a laptop battery costs you 250 Rupee here, versus 100 Rupee in Tengbuche. Sodas, candy, etc all increase in cost understandably. Sending two emails, I learned, cost you 500 Rupee- just short of $10.

Yesterday after we rolled in, both Francisco and I had raging headaches that we worked through by hypersaturating with water. It took me about four hours to get over mine, Francisco had his a little longer but was the savior that volunteered up Tylenol that finally kicked it for us. I credit my headache to the speed hike to the monastery yesterday- a dumb move in retrospect. Given that my last name isn't "Sherpa", I deserved what I got.

It was also yesterday at the height of our headaches that Joe volunteered up about something called a "Hypoxemeter"- you wear this contraption while working at home, etc and it can simulate up to 29,000' or so. Joe had been wearing this thing for weeks leading up to the trip, and feels great! Francisco and I feel like a truck ran over our head yesterday. Thanks for keeping that a secret, Joe. We love you anyway. Francisco and I hydrated like crazy and finally pushed through mid afternoon. You could tell when we were doing better because we sat there like lumps until the headache broke, and then -poof- chatty. True to form, Francisco found four great trekkers to talk with: Anna and Xavi from Catalan, Federico and Luisa from north of Lake Como. They are staying in our hotel and are headed along the same schedule to Everest Base Camp. They left this morning for Lebuche, so we'll see them again tomorrow.

Spending the rest of the day lazing around and preparing for tomorrow, the weather turned quickly- which seems to be a trend. This morning we didn't even have a breath of wind. By noon, clouds had formed in the upper reaches of the hills- specifically Lhotse, which is right in front of us. At 4pm, snow was falling and the temp dropped like a rock. Then by 8pm, the wind had died off and it was fairly pleasant, although still cold.

On our acclimatization hike, we ascended up to around 4,800m, or 15,700'. This, to prepare our bodies for higher climes as we go. All along the ridge there are mini stupas and cairns to mark our path, which made for a nice measuring stick as we went.

14,137'- Dingboche

Everest with massive winds on the summit as seen from the trail.

Starting to wind our way higher into the Himalayas, we woke this morning to cloudless skies. Our team set out ahead of the massive numbers of IMG (International Mountain Guides) clients that were sharing our hotel last night. After a few minutes, we came to a stop in order to visit a local Buddhist nun. Lhakpa explained that for the last 20 years she had been living in what can only be described as a Spartan shed- one bedroom, one story, made of wood and stone. Unheated, half open to the elements. She looked completely cheerful, despite also looking sun weary and leathered over. She asked Lhakpa where he was climbing, and after he told her she brought out the special blessing guns- she tied a special red string around our necks, gave us an apple, and then a mint throat lozenge. She also gave us three orange colored balls that were powdered and about the same size as a BB. "You eat it" Lhakpa said. Ok, bottoms up. They were sour, tangy and indescribable in overall taste. They were for good luck, so I ate 'em. But I'm not pulling them out as party snacks any time soon.

After about an hour, Everest came into full view- complete with massive winds raging off the summit. Joe commented that we still have close to two months until we are going for the top, which is good- given that today we were seriously feeling the altitude. Francisco said at one point "Yee! And I'm having trouble at 4,000 meters!"

It continued to turn into another lung buster- Lhakpa wanted to go see another Lama enroute, and at one point he said "let's go"- branching off the main trail on one that was noticeably more steep and putting it into high gear. Joe and Francisco wisely declined but curiosity got the better of me in what would become a been-there-done that experience. "Wait.. what?" Why can't the Lama live on the trail? Oh man. here we go. By the time we reached the Lama's monastery, we had put on 600' in elevation and I was a breathless, sweaty mess. We entered the monastery of the Lama and grounded our gear. I met another guide- Tim, from Canada. Really nice, he was much more grounded than some other guides we have come across so far. He has been guiding in the Himalaya since the early 90s and just came off Ama Dablam a few weeks ago. He chuckled at how wiped I was but talked with us about some of his experiences, which are many.

After the ceremony, the four of us rejoined and continued on our way. As we ascended higher, we basically said goodbye to trees.. this is the last of the ones we saw before vegetation eroded into scrub. The remainder of the terrain is rock and wind-swept sand. And man is it windy today.

After a few hours, we topped 14,000' and started dialing in on Dingboche. The trail wound down toward a river and then shot straight back up the side of the opposite hill which was cold, dusty and windy. Not exactly a morale booster, but still- we knew we were close. Here's a picture showing how excited we were when we first saw that the trail didn't stop where we had hoped it would.

Finally arriving an hour later, we grounded gear and had a great lunch at our stop for the night.- the Snow Lion Lodge. How awesome would it be if we really saw a Snow Lion. Our team has a rest day here tomorrow, although Joe is thinking of doing an acclimatization hike up to one of the stupas a few hundred feet above us. He's a madman.

Deboche

At 8am, Lhakpa, Joe, Francisco and I set out from Namche Bazaar for Tengbuche. Willie stayed back to fight off a slight cold he picked up thanks to Kathmandu pollution and to make sure that our permits are finalized. Within five minutes of leaving Namche, I felt like a lung was going to pop out of my mouth. It was steep, and you truly felt the altitude- even after two days at elevation. So not a nice way to leave first thing this morning.

But then, the trail quickly leveled off and we meandered along, putting on close to 600' in elevation as the trail slowly wandered around and into the Dudh Kosi river valley. The word Dudh means milk in Nepali, and this river maintains is silty white color from its glacial source as it carves its way down through the valley toward the sea.

Off to the right, we occasionally made out Aba Dablam and before the clouds moved in for good, pieces of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse were visible in the distance, rising to the sky. At one point I asked Lhakpa what he thought the first time he saw Everest- was he freaked? Was he excited? He told me that when he first saw Everest, he decided he wanted to climb it.

The day was a bit chillier than we had expected, and clouds came and went all through our trek. Topping out at 11,900', the trail then dropped over 1,000' down to the river through Rhodedendron forests, kalma moss, and pine tree clusters before we arrived at a small village called Phunky Tenga. "I want to bring you... to Phunky Tenga.." wonder if we could make a song out of that. We stopped here for lunch and recharged before kicking it again and putting in another hour push up to 12,800". We were all pretty happy with how strong we felt and even with another lung buster switchback leg to this tail we were cruising, iPods cranking.

Initially, the trail was packed with trekkers and climbers but that thinned out as we approached Thengboche but it truly was an international scene. At one point, I passed a group of 5 and as I said hello, received back "Aloha", "Bon Jour", Namaste", "Hi", and "Buenos Dias". Today we met or bumped into climbers and trekkers from Iran, Russia, France, Germany, and the US. Most people speak English so it's easy for us, but Francisco seems to be a curiosity for some reason. He's from Guatemala but everyone seems to think he's from somewhere else. The Iranian guy spoke in Iranian to him, Nepalis think he's Nepali and there's a wide array of guesswork as to what his nationality is. He's really good natured and so it's just as funny to him as it is to the rest of us.

We arrived at Thengboche somewhere around 1pm and Francisco and I immediately went to check out the monastery. Too cool! Thengboche is home to the region’s largest monastery, a destination for monks of all ages throughout the country to practice and study Buddhism. We met a monk who gave us a history lesson on the Buddhist Temple we were able to gain entry to and told us that his desire is to be a lifelong monk there. His father is an "Ice Doctor"- one of the guys who goes into the Khumbu Icefall every year to fix lines and had just recently come through enroute to Base Camp. Then Lhakpa took us on an extremely special and unique visit to the Lama- essentially the head spiritual advisor for the Khumbu Valley and who is responsible for that entire Temple complex. Seeing the Lama was a very important stop for Lhakpa and he invited us to come along, which we knew was special. The four of us were then admitted to the Lama's private quarters where we removed all hats and shoes. We offered donations to the Lama, who accepted them and blessed our trip. Lhakpa and the Lama seemed to be quite at ease with each other and as for Francisco, Joe and I, we were just happy to be included. The Lama asked us to bring a Tibet flag to the summit.. we laughed. I'm pretty sure he was serious.

We then descended 400' down to Deboche, deep in another forest of rhododendron and inside the Imja Khola river valley, a tributary to the Dudh Khosi. We'll call it a day here and then set out again tomorrow. The team is strong, moving fast and no altitude issues. Keeping our fingers crossed it continues that way.. and that it warms up a little. Frikkin' cold...