3-04-2012 – Khumjung – Rest Day

Altitude: 3790m

Atmospheric Pressure: 675mbar

Temperature: 8DegC

What a great night!! I ended up not taking the sleeping pill, but still managed to sleep almost straight through. And I feel so much better for it.

I woke up half way through the night with a big headache and took Neurofen to get rid of it and went back to sleep.

As I get up, I’m ready for breakfast, a couple of eggs on toast and plenty of drinking water.

My stomach is still churning and making weird noises, but at least I feel much better, let hope this time it’s for good.

Today is labeled as a rest day, but there are a couple of short walks planned, more like sight seeing, to the Everest hotel and to a view point of Ama Dablam.

Monica thinks it’s better for me to stay at the lodge and recover, so I use the time to shower and catch up on blog and pictures.

Khumjung is the home of our serdar Sherpa Purba Tashi, and we’re staying at his lodge.

Khumjung also seems to be a big village, with the huge “Hillary” school and lots of buildings and houses. When I ask why the school is so big and how many kids leave here, I’m told that the school also look after the kids from Namche, meaning these kids come up and down to the school every day!! A 400m ascent at 3500m!! Sherpas in the making!!

Also, today Russell and Purba are going up all the way to Base Camp, and as is tradition, they burn juniper on the fire to wish them good luck on the mountains. We won’t see them until we get to base camp ourselves, in more than a week.

As the day progresses, I start feeling worse again, with nausea, and by dinner time, my stomach is trying to have discussion with the outside world!!

Rather than wait to see if it passes, I speak to Monica who gives the usual pills to block top and bottom exits but also puts me on a 3 day antibiotics course. Lets shift that f@@@ing bug!!

Lets hope the night goes OK too.

2-04-2012 – Namche Bazar – Khumjung

Altitude: 3400m to 3790m

Atmospheric Pressure: 700mbar to 675mbar

Trek: 1 Hr 30 / 3Kms

This was a very bad night, got 1 hour sleep before midnight, but then was awake till 5, with multiple trips to the toilets. It would appear that the bug is back after all.

I waited for breakfast time to catch Monica, the expedition doctor. She gave me the full compliment of medicine, anti nausea, anti diarrhea and antibiotics as it’s been 3 days of unhappy stomach.

Today should be an easy day, 400m of ascent, which should take us between 1 and 2 hours. We’ve got the morning to look around Namche and we’ll set off after lunch.

I skip the looking around bit and as I hang out in the dining room, waiting for the others to come back, another trekker walks in and hears the discussions about stomach bugs. Turns out, he’s on his way down from higher up on the trek, as it’s been 1 week with the stomach bug which he hasn’t been able to shake off and his group have asked him to go down the mountain as he’s getting too weak. After 4 days of taking Imodium, it just wasn’t going away.

Luckily for me, we’ve got Monica, and hopefully, the antibiotics will help me.

After taking the tablets, I manage to go straight to sleep (anywhere I can find) until lunch time and feel much better for it. Not quite ready to try food though.

I set off with the front of the group, thinking the sooner I get to Khumjung, the sooner I can catch some more sleep.

However, the going is very, very slow. I’m dehydrated from the diarrhea and low on energy level from lack of food, and going up that hill almost feels like summit day (!), lots of breathing, resting on my walking sticks and tired legs, quite a few people catch me up. This is hard work!

When we eventually arrive, I also have a headache, probably a combination of the dehydration and altitude.

As soon as we arrive (3:30), it’s straight into my sleeping bag for some more sleep, until dinner which I decide to brave.

I eat very little, but it’s a start. I’m just not quite ready for the different tastes, but I’m starting to drink more, hoping it will help with the situation.

The problem I have now is that, as I’ve been sleeping all day, everybody has retired to their rooms and I’m not that sleepy, of course. Luckily, Monica’s given me a sleeping pill to help with this. Lets hope I don’t sleep through “important” events though!!

Tomorrow is a rest day, so if I can get some sleep, food and drink in, things will start getting better.

1-04-2012 – Monjo – Namche Bazar

Altitude: 2850m to 3400m

Atmospheric Pressure: 750mbar to 700mbar

Trek: 6.5Km / 2:30Hrs

A good night sleep, the stomach is improving but I was still awake from 4am, must be jet lag, I waited for the 6:50 alarm while listening to music.

650m ascent planned for today, getting up to Namche Bazar at 3400m. Yet again a very iconic name and place for any trekking in this region.

Breakfast goes down without problem, which is sign of things getting better on the stomach side.

We’re off at 8am for this ~2hours trek to avoid the heat and people on the trail.

The path undulates a little for the first hour, then goes up for the full 650m for the last hour.

We’re really deep in the valley, surrounded by cliffs rising up to 4000m and the cobalt blue river running at the bottom, quite a pretty site.

The path crosses the river in multiple places and there are many swing bridges to go through.

Theses days, the bridges are made with steel cables and fencing material to improve safety as well as be “yak” compatible, and obviously, people can’t help themselves and jump up and down and side to side to see who has a poor balance.

However, in the old days, Russell recalls, the bridges were made from wooden tiles and very often some were missing and you had to be careful when crossing the bridges.

Every now and then, we can spot the top of 6000m+ summits sticking out, covered in snow.

About half way up the last hour, we get our first glimpse of Everest and Lhotse, far in the distance and in between the trees. Still, it’s nice to see it’s still there J, although it looks far away and tall.

As we carry on going up, we catch up with porters carrying timber to build houses. The loads look huge, in size and in weight. A few of them are carrying 3m long posts, across their back, making it almost impossible to overtake them, but also, very tricky for them to get up the path whenever the trees make it too narrow. As we arrive in Namche, I discuss this with Monica and Adrian, who say there is a 40Kg limit for porters, but very few people stick to it, and Monica reckons some of the loads were more like 80Kg, crazy!

And with the amount of building work going on at Namche and all across the valley, there are plenty of needs for timber and stones.

31-03-2012 – Lukla – Monjo

Altitude: 1300m to 2850m

Atmospheric Pressure: 885mbar to 750mbar

Trek: 13Km / 3:30Hrs

The plan was to get up and be ready for 5am to get in the coach for the airport.

However, I didn’t have to worry about the early stat as it turns out.

I didn’t feel too sporty last night so decided to skip dinner (as well as having skipped lunch) and I was in bed by 8pm.

I was awake again at 12am with an angry tummy and some fever. I lay in bed watching the hours go by lowly, with toilet breaks to keep me entertained.

At last, it was time to get up, and get in the coach.. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one with stomach problems. Wisey had been 4 times in the last 30 minutes and he wasn’t looking forward to the 40 minutes helicopter ride….. there’s no toilets in those J.

The Doc was also in trouble, but not as bad.

The heli ride went smoothly and we landed in Lukla.

This is such an iconic place for anybody trekking or climbing in the area, the gateway to the whole Everest national park, with multiple trails to choose from.

I’d been thinking and talking about it for a while, but at last I’m here, with the civilization left behind us. Lukla is always the official start of an expedition, time to start walking!

I was still feeling tender, with the fever making me feel quite cold. After more than 24 hours without food, I was running on Coca-Cola to cleanse the stomach and bring some calories in.

The others had breakfast in one of the lodge while I carried on sipping my coke.

We then got going for a couple of hours down from 2850m to 2600m to have lunch ( I felt brave enough to have 4 pieces of potatoes!). The path we took was well worn, and thousand of people use it as everybody starts from Lukla. It’s a little disappointing to see so many people around, and the side of the path is full of different shops, lodges, kit, there’s even a Startbuck at Lukla!!

It’s warm in the sun and the path goes up and down which helps us keeping warm. We’re all feeling the effect of altitude already with our breathing getting heavier.

Another couple of hours after lunch to get back up to 2850m in the village of Monju where we discover our first lodge for the night.

We’re all quite cold as the sun has disappeared and our evening bags haven’t arrived yet.

I elect to get to my room, which I’m meant to share but end up being on my own, and catch up on some well needed sleep.

I’m back down just before dinner and our bags eventually turn up. I can’t wait to get my down jacket on, warm and cozy.

I’m taking it easy with dinner, but still have some popcorns, soup and plain rice. Lets hope this stays down overnight and bring my energy levels back up.

By now, Martin, Karl and Jaco are also mentioning the activity of their stomachs.

Early night again, in bed by 21:00, with a lay-in as we’re having breakfast at 7am.

The group is huge and I wasn’t really in the mood to chat today, so I stayed at the back, stopping to take pictures and take in the views. It’s a very nice valley, but busy already. Russ said it will get better as we get closer to Base Camp.

Tomorrow is another short day which should take us to 3400m by lunch, with afternoon and the morning after to rest.

30-03-2012 – Rest Day / Packing

Altitude: 1300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 885mbar

Temperature: 28DegC

A little jet lagged, I was awake from 4am, on and off.

The mission for this morning is to meet up with Russell to go to his office and try to find my missing kit.

After a big breakfast with fruit salad and croissant, we’re on our way to his office by 9:30. It’s busy time and the traffic is crazy, I’m not usually a nervous passenger, but I must have made “involuntary” sounds more than a couple of times. I still can’t get used to this J!

When we finally get to the office, it looks like any buildings in Kathmandu, very weathered and the rusty gates at the front just about hang together.

After unloading the car, we start looking for my stuff. The kit is spread around in different rooms and everything is neatly stacked. We soon realize that my kit is not there!! I knew something was gonna go wrong! Russell think it might have got left in Samagaon as we rushed down from Manaslu, ARRRRRGH!! This was supposed to be the “easy” bit!!

Luckily, he has some spare boots about my size and a spare pair of down gloves. I’m just short of a balaclava, but I made him promised to get us a nice weather window for summit day so I won’t need one!

I never thought this would trouble me too much, but apart from the disappointment of having spend some money and time choosing the right kit and not being able to use it, I also start to think about the impact that this could have on my summit day, thinking about crampons not fitting properly and blisters in those new boots, not ideal.

We get on our way back to the hotel to get packing, and as we arrive, we bump into Henry, the mentor looking after the walking with the wounded (WWTW) soldiers. I explain the situation and he remembers packing “extra” kit in their bag yesterday and sending it back to the office.

Russ makes a quick phone call to the office and get the kit bags back to the hotel for a quick check.

They arrive 1 hour later and deep joy, all my kit is in there!!! Halleluiah!!

Now, I just need to get my kit checked by a guide, to ensure everything is there, that it fits and that it will work.

Then, it gets split in 3 bags:

-         Base Camp bag (30kg) which I won’t see for 3 weeks

-         Trekking bag (15kg) which I’ll get access to every night at the lodges

-         and a day bag (5kg) for water and day clothes

I’m also leaving my “civies” clothes here, I’m not sure a denim jacket would be very “trendy” at Base Camp nor my swimming trunks!!

Then SWIMMING POOL for the rest of the afternoon. There’s rumor that a first group might need to be off by 5am tomorrow to catch the helis ……… do I feel lucky?

We’ll find out in the debrief at 6pm.

29-03-2012 – Arriving at Kathmandu

Altitude: 1300m

Atmospheric Pressure: 890mbar

Temperature: 28DegC

If every journey could be like that!

Checked in with Jet Airways knowing that I was about 5Kg above weight limit, expecting to be charged, but nothing. Then connection flight to Kathmandu from Delhi was brought forward 30mins, so less wait.

Didn’t sleep much in the plane, preferred to watch a couple of good movies then crashed out for a couple of hours. Good food.

Something’s gonna go wrong, this is too good!

Looking forward to get to the hotel, catch up with the soldiers, Russell and the guides and the other guys from Manaslu (Sergey the crazy Russian, Valdez and Kristina), oh, and the swimming pool at the hotel J.

There’ll be also plenty of new faces, with a big group of trekkers (25 ish), we will be around 50 “clients” on the way to base camp, a huge group, but this shows how touristy the trek to base camp has become. I guess above base camp it won’t be so busy.

Not sure what kind of people to expect amongst the trekkers, but suspicion is that there might be some “I booked the trip by mistake” kind of characters, no kit, no training and no idea J, entertaining!

This time around, my driver has found a shortcut to get from the airport to the hotel therefore missing the permanent traffic jam in town. It’s a bumpy road, but it definitely shorter.

Small snag only 5minutes out of the airport though, just as I settle back into the chaos that Kathmandu is, we hear a loud bang caused by the front tyre exploding.

Luckily, we’re 5 metres away from a tyre shop. The driver take the “spare” wheel out of the boot as this is also flat, and fit a fresh wheel in less than 5 minutes, impressive!

Just got back from group meeting, followed by dinner.

Excellent to catch up with the soldiers, their training and media exposure. Sounds pretty hard core actually, I think I’m better off climbing “incognito” and skipping the interviews, launch parties, video diaries, early morning TV news, etc…

Only 6 of them are attempting the summit (Wisey, Martin, Karl, Jacko, Doc and Henry), the last 4 will be trekking in to Base Camp.

All together, we are a group of 55:

10 guides / staff (including Monica the doctor and Billi the blogger), then there are 20 trekkers up to Base Camp and Lobuche summit (some of them friends and family of climbers) and finally, 23 climbers hoping to make it to the summit. As always, lots of new names to remember, but on the plus side, we will have time…

Russ mentioned that there were some issues with the helicopter plan but this should be sorted by tomorrow.

Also, I need to go to Russell’s storage to find the kit I had left here after Manaslu. So far I have my down suit, but missing summit boots, down gloves and balaclava.

27-03-2012 - Ready?

It’s been 4 days since I finished work and said goodbye to everybody.

In this time, I’ve managed to start thinking about getting ready for the expedition.

Packing:

As I left some of my kit in Kathmandu, I’m hoping to be under the maximum weight that Jet Airways will allow me to take, I.e 32Kg.

Also, this time around, I have a much better idea on what to take.

Obviously, the usual spring to mid, warm clothes and technical kit.

I always struggle on how much clothes to take, but based on my Manaslu experience, I’m going “light”, with only 2 sets of clothes really, so that I can wear one while the other one is drying. Pants and socks are not in that category, and I’m taking more than 2 sets, as you’re asking.

Apart from those obvious, there other things that I have learnt from my time on Manaslu.

For example, I’m taking 3 Sudoku books, about 40Gb of videos and 8Gb of music (and a book). There is just so much time spent in the tent, and although I was sleeping quite a bit, time did get quite long on the rest days, or while waiting for the weather to improve. So this time, I’m ready, thanks to my sister who organised all those videos (even if she didn’t always agree with my taste).

Once you’ve got video and music, the last thing you need is food, of course. Although the food quality and diversity with Himex is excellent, I’ve found last time that I was missing salty snacks, so this time, I’ve also packed almost 500gr of peanuts. They’re full of calories too, so that’s just what I need. If I get a chance, I might even get some more from Kathmandu.

I’ve also packed my favorite soups and tea, for those cold evenings.

Training:

The weather’s bee absolutely stunning over the last 4 days, blue skies and sun shining, but not silly hot …. perfect weather for running.

With my ankle now back to almost normal, it would be a shame not to. So I’ve managed 10 miles a day for the last 4 days, which is a level of running I haven’t been up to for at least 6 months. On top of that, it also looks like the hill walking with the heavy pack has given strength to my legs as they’re not struggling as much as before.

All this is very good news, after all, maybe I’m not in too bad shape to attempt that trip.

Eating:

Finally, while saying goodbye to some of the guys at work, I remembered that coming back down from the summit of Manaslu, as I fell asleep at Base Camp, I was already drawing a long list of food I was going to go through as soon as I returned to civilization.

As I share this with other people form the group, they also admitted having similar thoughts.

So to preempt this, since Friday, I’ve been eating my most favorite food. Indian on Saturday, Chinese on Sunday, Thai with Rich and Ashley on Monday and finally tonight, Pizza!

I feel fat and stuffed, but hopefully the memories will last.

Talking about being fat, I’ve done a check on the scales: 77Kg, 15% fat and 62% water.

I hadn’t lost any weight on Manaslu, just replaced muscle with fat, lets hope it’s a similar story this time too, I’d rather keep the same weight and have some energy for the main climb rather than loosing weight, as on the mountain, this is bad news.