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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    2
    Giorno 25

    Day 25: Kala Patthar

    14 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -12 °C

    Everest Base Camp may be what everyone sets out to do, but in my opinion, Kala Patthar is the real jewel in the trekking crown. Kala Patthar is a 5,645 m vantage point with gorgeous vistas over mahoosive peaks in every direction. It sits some 300 metres above Base Camp and comes with an even more stark view of Everest unlike any we'd seen before. So with the hour barely 6 am as we departed Gorak Shep, we were delighted to bear witness to the perfect conditions: shimmering snow, unblemished blue skies, and the sun's rays gently easing in the day from over the Himalayan horizon. It was peaceful bliss. Or at least it would've been if not for the punishing ascending altitude we were about to undertake.

    As we began our ascent, we were surprised to see other trekkers descending already, at 6 am? That's keen, we thought, as we continued to shuffle our way up the icy incline. Thomas seemed to be coping okay but I've got to say, it was the hardest 'easy' climb I've ever done; wheezing for breath after every few steps and ascending in painful slow motion. I say 'easy' climb because, if not for the altitude, it really should've been. But my god, altitudes that high can be crippling not only on the legs, but on the lungs, and even the brain too, taking sheer determination to stagger to the summit. It had taken us three hours to complete the 500 m of ascent, and our prize: front row seats in an amphitheatre of dramatic snow-capped mountains, headed by its showpiece: Mt Everest, the tallest on Earth. Perhaps ironically though, Everest was probably one of the less impressive views, with Pumori, Lingtren and the nearer Nuptse jarring into the sky, all appearing larger. Still, we lingered on the view out in every direction, and gawped at the climbers' route up to Everest's summit via the wild Khumbu icefall and lumpy Hillary step. Here, we also enjoyed some more enthusiastic celebrations and snapped plenty of photos in the still solitude of the summit. I also got to wave my Kala Patthar hat from the very place it described.

    The descent back down was much more brisk, and upon returning to the teahouse, we decided on the first food of the day. I knew something wasn't quite right: I'd felt hungry, but also that I didn't want to eat. Still, I picked away at a pancake and we eventually set off on our way back down. We'd made it barely a few steps out from the front of the teahouse when I then paused to put on my sunglasses, turned, and threw up both violently and repeatedly. Shit. Vomiting isn't a particularly good sign when it comes to altitude, and combined with the symptoms both Thomas and I had been experiencing over the previous couple of days, we decided we needed to take more responsible action and adapt our plans. We had previously intended on attempting the giant Cho La pass over a glacier to Gokyo lake, thus hoping to end today in the village of Dzongla. But feeling rough in ourselves, we instead descended back to Lobuche, where we'd evaluate our plans going forward.    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Giorno 24

    Day 24: Everest Base Camp

    13 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -12 °C

    Time for a much overdue footprint if phone signal permits. Our experience of Lobuche was relatively pleasant and the night nowhere near as cold as we'd expected.

    Our first mission getting going for the day: get to Gorak Shep. Gorak Shep is the highest settlement anywhere before Everest Base Camp at an altitude of 5150 m, where atmospheric oxygen levels are 50% what they are at sea level, so as you can imagine, everything feels a lot more lethargic up there.

    This section was split into two parts: the first, a gentle amble up the valley; the second, a tiring scramble up, down, forward, and back over the glacier's scattered scree. After a few draining hours, we reached Gorak Shep and whacked down our big bags into our room, before slumping into the dining room for some lunch. At this point, Thomas confessed his questionable condition (altitude sickness is a bit like that, you can feel decidedly unwell but sort of confused as to how?), while I was also showing some signs of being worse for wear (namely, extreme tiredness and an aggravated cough famously dubbed as the Khumbu cough.) Anyhow, we mustered our strength and decided to push onto Base Camp while we still had the chance.

    By this point in the day, the regular afternoon clouds had begun to roll in, and the mild-sounding 2 miles onto Base Camp was beginning to drag, as we again navigated haphazard boulder fields which mounted the glacier. Turning a corner, you get your first glimpse of Base Camp itself, practically a vast city of yellow and orange tents which sprawl precariously all the way up to the Khumbu icefall. With our destination in line of sight, we descended a ridge and just like that, we'd made it!

    We afforded some subdued celebrations, hugging each other and enjoying the 5,364 m altitude as our trek's main objective. We then joined the queue (yes, queue) to get a picture with the famous 'Everest Base Camp' boulder and newly installed Hillary and Norgay sign where we commemorated our place under the world's tallest mountain with some quietly pleased pics.

    As we still mooched around at Base Camp, the heavy clouds began to spew spatterings of snow down: the start of the 5 cm of snowfall forecast for the afternoon! Fearing a blizzard, we lumbered our way back to Gorak Shep, admiring the surroundings as they turned from snow-dusted to snow-buried. Still, we got back in one piece (or two pieces), tucked away some food, and hunkered down for the coldest night yet: Gorak Shep is so high and so cold that they don't even have water.    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    1
    Giorno 23

    Day 23: Dingboche to Lobuche

    12 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -4 °C

    We tried to navigate our own way around a lump of earth straight out of Dingboche to avoid climbing it (for no reason other than we're lazy to be honest) and in doing so, accidentally took an unnecessarily indirect route to the start of the path towards Lobuche.

    The route which followed was a dusty and gentle incline, but with the altitude it soon became apparent that Thomas was struggling with lethargy and lack of being able to take a satisfying breath. And it's true, everything and anything can tire you out up here and it does make you feel extremely slow. But after he managed to collect some air, we shuffled on towards Thok La pass, negotiating a half-frozen stream set in the moraine on our way. Thok La was the most tiring portion of the day, another upward endurance test where stopping every few steps became basically mandatory. But once we finally reached the top, there were mass monuments to all those who had died on Everest down the years, while the outrageous view from every direction was joined by a new glaciated feature: Pumori peak. With the ground levelling out, we entered the final valley which leads up to Everest Base Camp, and new peaks unfolded as appropriate. Rolling into Lobuche, it's been business as usual in unwinding and recollecting our sanity at a teahouse, this time at an altitude of 4,920 m. If all goes to plan, and we weather the -30°C night (possibly exaggerating but not sure), tomorrow we hit Everest Base Camp.    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
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    11
    Giorno 22

    Day 22: Nangkartshang

    11 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -7 °C

    We woke up at 6 am to a frosty morning, with our window iced over blocking our view out to Ama Dablam. Hauling ourselves out of the warmth of the sleeping bags and into the frigid air, we downed a feast of porridge, omelette, jam toast, fried potatoes and tea for breakfast, before heading out to tackle Nangkartshang. The conditions were once again lovely, and the weather here takes a quite consistent pattern: beautifully clear in the morning and clouding over by mid afternoon without fail, hence our eagerness for an early start.

    The 732 m of steep, steep ascent up to Nangkartshang's 5073 m pinnacle was a laboured one, with us stopping regularly to catch our breath in the thinning air and question quite how we could possibly only have ascended about 50 metres each time we'd stopped for a break. Still, the early morning stillness, combined with the peaceful solitude and grand vistas out to some of the largest peaks not only in the region, but also the world, encouraged our efforts. The increased leverage brought us level with some giant glaciers and a great angle of eagle eyed observation over the valley. The views from the vantage point as we broke the 5000 metre barrier were so beautiful in every direction and we agree that they rank among some of the best we've both ever seen. But how were we managing in the altitude? So far, okay. Minus a pang of dizziness from Thomas at the top, which was easily solved with some ibuprofen, we've been doing pretty alright so far (without trying to tempt fate. 🤞) And so, we sat at the mountain's pointy bit for well over an hour, just staring out at the jagged peaks while big birds of prey circled overhead (and Thomas spotted a marmot.)

    The route back down was relatively straight forward, and after a spot of lunch, we spent the rest of the day taking it easy, topping up on snacks from a nearby shop and tackling each other's wit with more vicious card games (today I'm the curlywurly. 😔) Thomas also has plenty of fun facts on Edmund Hillary now after having finished his book so hit him up for that if you're feeling nerdy.    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    3
    Giorno 21

    Day 21: Tengboche to Dingboche

    10 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -5 °C

    With the night's freshly laid snow turned to ice, we set off for another early start, passing through thick wintry forest right out of Tengboche, much to Thomas' delight. This wooded section took us down through Deboche and Millingo, after which we crossed the Imja Khola via an icy hanging bridge, whose slippery metal panels had my heart rate in tatters. Across the other side, heart rates didn't settle for too long as we then ascended up to Pangboche. Any ascent at this altitude can easily draw breath from the lungs* but truth be told though, it's been a relatively easy day; the whole not-sleeping-500-metres-above-where-you-last-slept thing means that our calves have been coping fairly well (though maybe we've just been distracted by the views all day), especially compared to the ascents we had been putting them through earlier in the trek.

    *Oh, and especially for Thomas who complained about difficulty breathing only to then find out it was literally just because he tightened his backpack's chest strap too tightly (this is an Oxford Scholar we are talking about btw 🤦‍♂️)

    Following Pangboche, the path opens up into a stunning wide valley, where the river torrents under the towering watch of white peaks, including Everest, Nuptse and friends. As we headed up and beyond the conical summit of Ama Dablam, the views became panoramic and we enjoyed the depths of the Himalayas in their full glory. Once again, we managed to reach our destination, Dingboche, before midday and chose a teahouse (which is delightfully quiet) almost at random. As a result, we are sleeping at 4,410 m, which is similar in altitude to the height of the Matterhorn (although comically still remains closer in altitude to sea level than to the summit of Everest itself.)

    After a lunch lull, where we fuelled up on food and I had a nap again, we decided to head up the valley towards Chukhung, stopping at every shop to ask for their price for Oreos on the way. Our leisurely stroll took us up towards a peak decorated with a textured glacier, which we speculated to be Baruntse while we also saw some real meaty yaks roaming the tundra. And that was about that for the day! The views just keep getting better and better, and we look forward to tackling 5,073 m Nangkartshang for our acclimatisation day tomorrow.

    (Also, we absolutely LOVE yaks, they are such majestic creatures.)    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Giorno 20

    Day 20: Namche to Tengboche

    9 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -2 °C

    We left Namche early and were some of the first trekkers to hit the trail for a crisp, pristine morning with flawless skies laying bare the stunning mountain scenery. The first section from Namche was relatively flat, allowing us to take everything in without breaking too much sweat, probably our favourite part yet. After the path then dips back down to the river at Phunki Thanga, another rickety hanging bridge leads onto a security checkpoint manned by army personnel. Getting our credentials checked, our next task was to tackle a steep climb for the remainder of the day up to Tengboche, with Thamserku and its glacier staring right back at us. It was hard work, but at the top our day's walking had been done, and only by midday. We celebrated by enjoying some very tasty lunch, including outrageous chocolate cake and a cinnamon swirl before settling on a place to stay.

    We head to our first teahouse: do you have a room for the night? 'No'. Damn, okay no worries, we thought, so we head to the second teahouse. 'Fully booked.' Okay, getting worried now, head to the third teahouse. Room? 'Yes of course.' Phew, we thought, hoping that this is just a reflection of the few places to stay in Tengboche and not of the state of play beyond Namche. I then passed out via a nap after our early start while Thomas continued his reading of Hillary's book about his adventures until we dragged ourselves from weariness to go and check out Tengboche monastery. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the monastery itself, but the chanting monk from within ushered us over and gestured to tie a piece of red string around each of our necks, which we think is a blessing for our onward journey up to base camp. Final actions for the day were to book ahead a place to stay in Lobuche given today's scare and munch down some dinner, where Thomas experienced the generosity of unlimited rice while eating his Dal Bhat.    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
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    1
    Giorno 19

    Day 19: Namche Bazaar

    8 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 0 °C

    Waking up at the early dawn, I peered blearily eyed out upon the proud peaks overlooking Namche, their snowcaps bathed in red light and obscured through the condensation-spattered window. Once we'd eventually gotten up and enjoyed a hearty breakfast a good hour or so later, we set out on our acclimatisation hike for our rest day, heading up to the famous Everest View Hotel. Again, powering past the lacklustre tour groups, we ascended up to 3,880 m and over a bowl of chips, gazed out upon the colossal view towards Everest. Although the grandeur of the view was largely subdued by the now lingering clouds, we picked out Lhotse on the horizon while the spearheaded summit of Ama Dablam, a nearer, more dramatic peak dominated the skyline at 6,814 m.

    After taking in the view, we headed down into Khumjung, where we paid the nominal fee to see the village's monastery, home not only to fine intricate Buddhist shrines and artworks, but also to the scalp of the 'yeti' discovered by Hillary and Norgay during their expedition. Who knows what the strange, furry and coconut-like 'skull' actually was, but the fables did make for an entertaining visit, and we were soon on our way back down into Namche, passing through the national park museum on our way, where we learnt a little about the folklore of Tenzing Norgay and a lot about Thomas' enthusiasm for snow.

    Treating ourselves to some tasty lunch toasties, it was finally time for a resupply, and we hit the town hoping to stock up on suncream, snacks and sanitiser. As it turns out, Thomas and I take quite different approaches to negotiation, Thomas preferring to apologise to everyone he didn't (and did) buy anything from, while I preferred to attempt to lowball unnecessarily. Eventually, we picked up everything on our shopping list, even haggling for some warm yak-wool hats, while I replaced one of my trekking poles which had decided it preferred not to function a few days back. With that, we returned to Green Tara, the hotel where we're staying, and had a tea party with Boston-native Renée (by which I mean we ate dinner with her), before hitting the hay for tomorrow's section to Tengboche.    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
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    Giorno 18

    Day 18: Phakding to Namche Bazaar

    7 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C

    A brisk morning jaunt took us beyond the schools of sluggish tour groups and through the continuous teahouse options of Zamphuti, Toc Toc, Benkar and Chumoa before arriving in Monjo. Our priority in Monjo: to secure some permits to get into the national park, and we figured the more people behind us, then the shorter the queue into Sagarmartha might be. This wasn't quite the case as there weren't many queues at all, but instead tour guides all jostled to secure passage of their own clients while we were left working out where exactly we needed to register ourselves as independent hikers. Between making the mistake of waiting at the wrong desk, we managed to secure trekkers' cards to be able to pass through the region's checkpoints while we also handed off the conservation area fee to some official. Just as we'd been sent off through our final booth, it was looking like we were in, or so we thought, when suddenly some army man pulled us to the side right in front of the entrance gate and demanded to know if we had a guide. Shiit, we thought, assuming the worst: Nepal had recently implemented a law that every trekker has to be accompanied by a guide, and despite the Khumbu region refuting that, we were momentarily fearing being turned away. As it so turned out, nothing to worry about; as soon as we admitted to our guidelessness, army man seemed only to go on some long speech about some basic rules including how we weren't to teach anything unsavoury to any monks (damn, there go my plans.)

    Regardless, we were in, and the scenery through the preceding section and onto Jorsale was immaculate, with the enigmatic blue waters of Dudh Koshi river churning through the valley headed by the towering Thamserku peak. And of our five river crossings of the day, we had to turn back from halfway across one hanging bridge when we saw a file of Dzo's (yak-cow hybrids) being marched at us in the other direction. When one of those things comes stomping at you, you get out of the way, and a hanging bridge isn't exactly the place to gamble on width for two. Our next eventful river crossing came after a snappy lunch stop, at the famous Hillary bridge, a particularly long and lofty hanging bridge, which, whether for the effect of the turbulent gusts of wind, or the synchronous steps of several trekkers, the bridge swayed temperamentally back and forth (a bit uncomfortably so for my liking.)

    Once relievedly stood on the other side, the final obstacle before Namche Bazaar was a 500 m ascent up through dusty forest. Although drawn out and occasionally hard work, this stretch was relatively uneventful minus a momentary view of Everest and witnessing more abuse on the horses who were transporting goods by their keepers. At the top, we stopped at the checkpoint, chatting to American Rachel in the queue. Shortly after, we arrived in Namche, which itself is a bizarrely big and well provisioned town given its 3,500 m elevation, allowing us a generous selection of places to stay. After narrowing down the options, we slurped up some chocolate pudding and settled in for tomorrow's recommended rest day to help along with the acclimatisation.    Leggi altro

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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
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    Giorno 17

    Day 17: Puiya to Phakding

    6 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Today marks ten days of trekking, over 100 km of distance and 15,000 m of elevation changes from Jiri.

    Setting off from Puiya, the aroma of horse manure present in the air was at an all time high as whole schools of mules would come paraded through the narrow paths by strict horse masters, who took no invitation to beat their animals quite viciously and unnecessarily to keep them in line (horses and yaks are used to transport everything beyond where jeeps can access here). It was also interesting to witness the attempted extension of the jeep road, big JCB excavators drilling away at the cliffside presumably wanting to take accessibility as far as Namche. On our descent into Surke, the constant stream of aircraft coming into land at nearby Lukla was quite the sight, and Lukla itself is quite the airport. A steep runway barely 500 m in length, bookended by a sheer cliff one side and a sheer drop the other, just watching planes come into land was scary enough.

    After a hop back up to Chaurikharka for lunch, where I got my daily coke fix and we savoured spaghetti, an omelette and some chips, we finally merged onto the tourist trail beyond Lukla. And the difference was quite startling, with crowds of dazed looking old tourists bumbling through the much gentler and more commercialised path in constant streams of tour groups, each of which look comically like the team-building outing of some office company in Slough. This is quite a starked change for us, having gone from over a week of near-solitude to negotiating the hiker traffic. Still, we pushed on and finished in Phakding, where we found a practically luxurious alpine cabin style teahouse complete with en suite hot shower and western toilet! To celebrate, we gorged on pizza and I fell asleep before I even managed to find out that Bournemouth lost to Luton (then waking up at 3 am to write this, you're welcome goodbye.)    Leggi altro

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    Giorno 16

    Day 16: Jubing to Puiya

    5 aprile, Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    If yesterday was the downhill day, then today was definitely the uphill one, with 1,500+ m of steep ascents up through Kharikhola, Bupsa and Kari La.

    Before all that scrambling though, just leaving for the morning as usual became something of a struggle. And not for any of the normal reasons: as we'd left our window open while packing up our things, a monstrous winged beast kamikazed its way into our room like some buzzing Chinook locking onto its target. We both took one look at this thing and noped our way out of that situation, fleeing our room without hesitation, deserting our belongings and hiding behind the door from the wrong side. This insect, which we later discovered to be called a mammoth wasp (literal species name), was MASSIVE, with a chunky black torso and a buzz like an industrial lawn mower. Once we'd waited out the 'death hornet' as we'd called it, to leave back out through the window from which it came, we were able to make our way, but quickly came across another oddity in nature, witnessing streams of caterpillars following one another everywhere and all over the forest, apparently going off on little adventures to pupate into butterflies together.

    On the more human side of the climb however, our progress was slow in the heat, and we worked our way laboriously up to Bupsa for some lunch. Here, Thomas was particularly feeling some struggles on the ascent, but we took the time to unwind over some mango juice and spaghetti while a small Nepalese toddler took an eager interest in us. The way up from Bupsa to Kari La proved much friendlier despite the elevation gain, especially with the wider, more gentle paths which are used for jeeps up until Thamdanda. Between Kari La and Puiya, we witnessed whole herds of horses (or maybe mules given their donkey likenesses?) hauling supplies and gas bottles up the mountainside, and then the end of the road (/dirt track) where colossal landslides had taken place, trapping some vehicles and straight up destroying others. This evening, we've styled out our exhaustion by going head to head playing cards, where of course I won, (but Thomas might tell you differently.)    Leggi altro

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