Dingboche

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Quite an easy 3 hour walk to Dingboche and an OK lodge. It's a bit Butlins - 2 cabins with a Western (joy!) loo in between. In the afternoon we walked over to Pheriche (with one of the 20 Minuters) to hear the daily talk by the Himalayan doctor team on Altititude Sickness. It was pretty interesting. The onset of Mountain sickness is pretty gradual and you should be able to detect it in time to descend to a lower altitude UNLESS it's HAPE. (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema). This can creep up on you 2 to 3 days after being at an altitude you think you're OK at. Suddenly you're coughing up pink sputum and you need to descend but you have to be carried. Scary stuff. We've all got pretty terrible coughs and colds. I have a particuarly unamusing 'Khumbu cough'. The cold dry air and the dust from the trail contributes to this and it's pretty debilitating at times. You get these terrific coughing fits that leave you speechless for quite a while. It's a common thing though and as long as there's no frothy pink sputum.....

It's pretty cold up here and I think from leaving here life is going to get quite grim and hard for a while. If I'm honest, I'm a bit scared. Just hope I'm up to it. Home comforts have started to loom high in my mind and I'm fixed upon just doing this, surviving it and getting back again. I'm still enjoying it but there's a certain edge now. A definite stress to things as we are faced with the unknown - you don't know where you will be sleeping, it's cold, you're dirty and tired. Just got to take each day as it comes I suppose. 12 more days of this too. Hmm.

By the way, a more amusing effect of altitude is wind. We're all affected. Ever seen that scene in Blazing Saddles when theyre eating baked beans? You get the picture.....

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Photos

The Monument to Climbers Killed on Everest
What's scary about this is how much room is left for names. It's a strange thing - it makes you connect with it by cimbing inside to read the names......