Off the Couch and On the Road

With quite a few people suffering a bit of altitude sickness, we al took the trek up to 4850m very slowly – a breath after each slow step, kind of like walking on the moon I guess, except they get way cooler outfits. And can fly.

Anyway, I was one of the few who had a great night sleep the night before, and wasn’t suffering any breathlessness or headaches at all, so really enjoyed the walk. Once we hit the top of the mountain we sat behind some rock boulders that sheltered us from the ever-present freezing winds, and sunbaked for about an hour while our blood thinned and we acclimatised to the altitude. It was lovely.

Unfortunately a couple of peole in the group didn’t make it to the top, but only one wasn’t able to make it to the minimum altitude required, so I’m not sure if she will be able to trek with us tomorrow.

It was encouraging to think Base Camp is only another 500m higher, and only about 4 days away. As we have been taking one step at a time, it’s surprising to see how far we have really come. We have seen some groups with really bad altitude sickness, even people coming down from Base Camp with blue lips, and a lot of them seem to be rushinjg through without acclimatising properly, which is pointless, but each to their own I guess.

After we descended, the free afternoon was spent chilling out (literally, it was cold) and dreaming of food. I don’t think any amount of food could have satified our appetites at that point, we were burning so much energy. But it seemed the higher we climbed the less they fed us, which I’m sure was for the benefit of our health at that altitude, but still left us dreaming of food.

-Sarah

Today was technically an easy trekking day – only ascending about 500m at a very gradual pace. The altitude however left everyone breathless and slowed them down to what I call ‘Sarah’s Pace’.

The forest track, which so far wouldn’t look out of place in an Australian National Park (except for maybe the sherpas. And yaks) slowly turned into a Lord-Of-The-Rings-esque barren landscape of rocks, sand and low bushes, with an old wooden bridge every few hours used to cross the white-water rapids beneath us (holding our walking poles and calling out ‘One Ring To Rule Them All’ in a Gandalf voice also kept us entertained).

It got significantly colder, and we arrived at Ding Boche, at 4343m, by about 2.30pm.

The tea houses we have stayed in have all been basic but comfortable, simple hard beds in rooms made of pine, with a common room where it is usually warmer and where we spend the afternoon reading, writing and chilling out before supper, and prior to crashing at about 8pm.

Tomorrow is another ‘rest day’ to acclimatise. Which means another crazy walk up a vertical mountain and back down again. And I am running out of Mars Bars. But Frodo survived, and he didn’t even have sherpas. So I should be fine.

-Sarah

We head of with our daypacks and walking poles early the next morning after beakfast, (Pease note the very casual mention of walking poles. This is intended to add professionalism, authenticity, and a general perception that I actually know anything about trekking. Take it or leave it.) and spent the morning descending 200m on a rocky, sandy trail with fantastic views.

The weather was really warm, sometimes with a chilly breeze, but overall an enjoyable walk. We ate lunch ate a tea house – soup and nam bread – and then had to ascend 600m in the afternoon, to the same altitude we climbed the day prior, though at a more gradual rate. It was still tough though, and I have decided there are a few rules about trekking:

1) Don’t look up. Looking up is kind of like seeing how they make sausages. You don’t want to know, you just want to enjoy the end result. Just look at your feet and keep going.

2) Once you have looked at nothing but your feet for half an hour, and then look up to realise your group is walking 10m above you on a completely different path, make sure you take your camera out and take some photos of ‘the view’ from ‘that great spot down there’.

3) If your breathless, slow, trip on rocks or anything else that would otherwise class you as ‘unfit’ or ‘completely uncoordinated’, blame the altitude. It’s all about blaming the altitude. Why not.

We arrived at our tea house at about 2.30pm and sat by the fire playing cards with another amazing view in the background. I was hanging out to wear my super hot down jacket and gloves, but it wasn’t quite cold enough, especially inside, so I had to settle for a beanie and scarf. Maybe tomorrow.

-Sarah

Today was a rest day. A day of rest, of acclimatisation, where we could look out over the snow-capped mountains and sing edleweiss, if we so chose.

So what did we do but climb another mountain for 4 hours, only to come back down again. I understand the reasoning, I do, but to climb down knowing you have to just climb back up tomorrow is a bit daunting.

It was a tough but great trek though, and there were a few who mentioned that they didn’t feel like taking photos because they felt you should have to put the effort in to deserve that view. Except I didn’t think anyone would believe me if I didn’t have proof, so I took photos.

After lunch back at the tea house, we wandered the street stalls and found an internet cafe, which was a great idea. We also ate chocolate doughnuts, which wasn’t a great idea. If it’s not packaged by Coke or Mars my friends, it’s not 100% safe.

But my stomach didn’t let me down, which was a good thing, because there is really nothing between breakfast, lunch and dinner and with my appetite I resigned myself to the fact that this would be a self-imposed diet.

Until I found enough snacks to keep me going for the next few days. Two words – Coke and Mars. Coke and Mars.

-Sarah

It was a tough trekking day, but we took small, slow steps, took deep breaths and made it to the small town of Namche Bazar in just under 7 hours. The views were spectacular, and apart from a bit of nausea and a headache (which was fixed with the panadol), I felt fine. And pretty chuffed I just climbed a mountain. A massive fuck-off mountain in fact, until we saw some sherpas carrying massive wooden boards on their backs, which made me feel much less impressed with my efforts.

The stuff they carry up and down the mountains is insane – sometimes they had such a momentum going that when you saw them coming from behind or ahead you would stop and rush to the side of the track to let them pass. We also used this technique for bulls and yaks, which wasn’t as interesting, with bulls and yaks having massive horns and all.

But it was a great day, and considering it was our highest ascending day we felt a real sense of accomplishment. Supper that night was pizza with yak cheese with carrot cake for dessert, which would be our last western meal until we descended. And, although we would acclimatise at Namche Bazar for two days, we would still have to follow the acclimatisation rule of ‘climb high, sleep low’ which meant another trek tomorrow.

As we were eating, the clouds outside were actually lower than we were, with snow-covered mountains not that much higher. It was spectactular.

An early night with a few sore muscles followed, and I had a vague hope that maybe I will have an ass of steel by the time I hit the beach in europe. I will just have a horrific t-shirt tan is all, but a great ass, which may or may not make up for the tan, I haven’t quite decided yet.

-Sarah