Exploring the Unknown

On Saturday afternoon we flew with Qatar Airways from Vienna to Doha, Qatar and then onwards to Kathmandu. The flight time was approximately 13 hours and there is a 4:45 hour time change. Neither of the girls slept, but amazingly, made it through Sunday and had a great night sleep, so no issues with jetleg.

For those of you have not had the opportunity to visit Kathmandu,the city is chaotic, dusty, nosiy, polluted, and populated. It's risky crossing the street because the traffic doesn't want to stop for pedestrians, although this time, there is one local police officer who does his best to stop traffic to allow pedestrians to cross the street. This typically, allows you to cross half way and then you are on your own. The streets in the Thamel district, the heart of Kathmandu are narrow, the tiny shops are overflowing with goods. Add pedestrians, motorcycles, cars and cyclists, stray dogs and the odd sacred cow, and it's a miracle no one gets run over.
Mind you, there have been more than a few times when Sophie has pulled me out of the way of a moving vehicle when I wasn't paying careful enough
attention.

Preparations for our Everest trek began in Bududapest, where we stocked up on snacks and reliable batteries. That being said, some things needed to be done in Kathmandu, so we have been using our time to get ready for our epic adventure. We have spoken to other trekkers and they always confirm that we did in fact just tell them that we are trekking as a family, with no guide or porter, despite Neve only being 11 years old. We are feeling a bit nervous, but we constantly remind ourselves that we have done our homework. We have read numerous blogs of other travelers who have trekked EBC independently, followed vlogs of other families who have completed treks with their kids, and physically trained by running and working out to ensure we are in good shape. Each time the girls would complain when we did hard hikes to get to our rock climbing spots, we would just tell them it was good training for EBC. The same holds true when the girls ran 5 km with a 290 meter elevation gain in Visegrad, Hungary. David and I sometimes questioned whether we were pushing the girls too hard when we heard about sore muscles, but we reminded ourselves that it was better to be prepared and have done everything possible to trek the 2,805 meter elevation gain required to see Everest over a 10 day period. This of course will not help us in anyway to prevent altitude sickness,a legitimate concern when trekking EBC, especially for Neve since she is younger and altitude sickness does tend to affect younger and older people more, however, we have read up on all the symptoms, and added an additional acclimitization day to our trek to try our best to prevent getting sick, as the symptoms, if sufficiently severe, can be fatal.

We have also been obsessively been checking the weather forecast, which is calling for significant cold spells. There are several afternoons and nights when the temperatures will drop to -18. We have gone through our gear several times and have decided to rent the girls 800 fill down jackets, as we don't feel the jackets we brought for them will be warm enough. David and I are also purchasing better mitts. The last thing we want is to be cold, especially on the day when we climb up to Kalapatar, to get the best views of Everest. It would be a shame to get to the top, after trekking uphill for three hours, only to be able to spend a bit of time seeing Everest due to being cold. The one thing we have not figured out is how to keep our water from freezing, but I suspect two of us will be sleeping with nalgene bottles as company.

The last significant piece that we needed to sort out and finalize was getting enough cash for the trek, as the tea houses will not accept credit cards. We have consulted and re-consulted blogs and our book on Everest to determine the costs for a family of four. Each day we head to the local ATM and take out the maximum amount permitted and hope that our meticulous math calculations are correct. There are ATM's in Namche, but we don't know if they are reliable. It's tricky because we don't want to be short, but at the same time, we don't want to have too much money left over at the end of our trip as in all likelihood we will not be in Nepal again for a long time.

As I'm writing this blog post, David is still crunching numbers with the Everest guide book at his side. Sophie is feeling increasingly nervous as she doesn't want to fail. She keeps asking "what if we can't do it, mom?" She has dreamed of doing this trek for the past 5 years, when she first read Gordon Korman's triology 'Everest." Both David and I remind her that she has done hard stuff in the past, and although this trek will challenging, in the end, I believe we will be successful and see the tallest mountain in the world in all her spectacular glory.

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