April 13/14
It's Sunday evening, we are sat close to a fireplace, there is music (!!!) playing and oh...we're at 5140m and plan is to wander (more or less leisurely) into EBC tomorrow. And how was your weekend?
Yep, we got "wasted", slept in patches, probably didn't eat as healthily as we should have (Kim has eaten more potato chips these last 2 days than in her entire life before this holiday!) and drank A LOT of tea. Oh yes, and we did a spot or two of walking.
The initial plan had been to walk to Lobuche (universally known as and agreed by pretty much anybody you ask as a hole) via the stunning Cho La pass (also good for acclimatisation as would have taken us to 5500m) but alas, Kim here developed a big fat headache and a not-so-nice hollow feeling in her tummy...all classic symptoms of high altitude "issues" so it was decided to walk down (back to dengboche) and around (if Kim perks up; if not she's going home). But Kim didn't want to go home....
So i made damn sure i perked up (black tea has never been so deliscious) and we made it up again same day back to 4900m and a place called Dhogla (or something like that) with me being back on top form (shew! Who did i hear say Diomox..?)... After a relaxing afternoon in very (!) dusty Dhogla (or something like that) we focussed on a lot of up up up today. Henry went ahead yesterday afternoon already but trusty and terrific Hermanta (the guardian angel) took great care of us (and my backpack which i am embarrassed to say he carried up the first 200m straight up hill this morning).
Next stop: the hole (we mean, Lobuche) where we stopped for tea in a lovely sun room which got remarkably hot. Unfortunately our thermos tea flask fell apart when i poured the second cup (the bottom literally fell out and a bunch of glass shards into the cup... So no more lemon tea hydration for us.... And at now getting close to $7 per medium pot hot water is like gold dust (it's the heating cost that we are paying for now).
So a bit less tea than expected later we were off again to the next stop: Gorak Shep. According to the map a gentle incline for about 2 hrs. Hmmm....not quite. The map did not show the rocks, big chunky rocks and the undulating up up up and ...down...and up again...and down. Even the yaks were not happy but the scenery after one particular undulation was truly spectacular: base camp visible waaaay back there and the glacier to our right was a mixture of ice covered in dust with pools and tunnels and "sticky up bits" coming out from underneath the dust. Spectacular...in a slightly dirty dusty way...and obviously lots ofnexcitement about the base camp sighting.
Gorak Shep...when we finally reached it... Was charming (but anything would have been at this stage; though we'd "only" trekked for 4:15 hrs it was pretty tough going and nobody (not even Jan) pushed for the additional 2 1/2-3 hr jaunt to base camp. Why ruin such a good way to start the week....
Now back in our relatively luxurious room (it has a window and more or less proper ceiling) it's a whole lot colder than in the dining room (even after the fire went out) and we are likely both sleeping in our down jackets in our down sleeping bags tonight. How i love my feathers (not very responsible thing for a veggie to say) but boy oh boy, how i love them (as well as the cashmere sleeping socks that jenni gave me for my birthday back in 2011 - If i didn't say it then Jen, THANKS!!!
Tomorrow Jan will write about us meeting our first semi celebrity (Wim) from Belgium who is part of Henry's group and will, after his planned ascent of Lhotse be the most 8000m peaked summitteer hailing from Belgium (anybody remember the economist cover back in 2007 "what's the point of Belgium?".... Here we have one! Wim is larger than life fantastic but Jan will tell you all about that....tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment