A trek in the clouds...

---

It all started with our flight into Lukla. I feel I had the best group to do this trek with. We are all volunteers but from different countries. Ilsa and Kyra are from Holland, Helen is from England, Brandon is from Canada, and of course me. This was a very interesting topic when we met other groups of trekkers. They all loved our little international group and the fact that we were volunteers.

Upon arrival to the airport, we were informed our flight had been delayed for a few hours due to the overcast. I couldn't understand why the clouds would matter so much until I saw our plane. It was tiny, shaky-looking 14 passenger plane. When I saw it, and heard it, I wanted to cry. I couldn't believe I had to fly in this clunky thing. But the flight was surprisingly smooth. I actually enjoyed flying so close to the mountains. And, within 35 minutes, we were in Lukla. The first task was trying to pick porters and guides. We ended up getting two porters (Jiban and Lalit) and one porter/guide (Raj) for the 5 of us. It was a tough decision because you are basically trusting total strangers with all your belongings and to guide you safely through the mountains. They crowd around and hover over you, anxiously waiting to be chosen. Then they want to discuss their payment in private at a lodge down the road from the airport. Basically after you get there, you have to settle on their price or carry your stuff all the way back to the airport and continue the search. Needless to say, we weren't sure if we were making a good decision but decided to go with the first porters that approached us and hoped for the best.

After picking our porters and guides, we had a hardy lunch and then a nice 4 hour trek to Phakding at 2,610 m to stay at The Snow Land Reort. The next day we headed up to Namche Bazar at 3,441 m and stayed at Kala Pathar Lodge. We spent two nights here to allow ourselves to acclimatise. On our acclimatisation day, we did a nice 5 hour trek through a small town called Khum Jung and visited a monastery. Khum Jung was a very interesting town. All the houses were so organized and divded by beautiful stone walls. The whole town was surrounded by awesome views of mountains. The monastery was very interesting as well. It had the typical Buddha images and offerings. But one of the monks showed us something else that I found odd...a supposed Yeti skull. It was locked up in a special case within the offering box. You only get a peek if you give an offering, which of course I couldn't possibly resist. The skull was massive and hairy. I'm not sure if it was real, but it's definitely a cool thing to tell people I saw. After our leasurely trek, the following day it was back to our ascent. We headed up to Dole at 4,200 m and stayed at Cho-Oyu Lodge. This was a very long day spent trekking. It took us about 8 hours to get to Dole. But the weather was perfect so we didn't mind. It seems that at the start of every trek, there was not one cloud in the sky. Then in the afternoon heavy clouds start rolling in. Most days we were already safely tuked into our lodges drinking mugs of hot lemon water. But today was different. We were still trekking when the clouds creeped up on us, covering the mountains around us like a thick white blanket. It was so amazing to be totally engulfed within the clouds. And just as we got to Dole, it started to snow. Along the way there were many different smells that filled the clean mountain air. You could smell incense, curry, and buring fires. All this made our long trek very enjoyable.

The next morning we set off for our next destination, Machhermo at 4,410 m. It was Sunday morning and as we climbed the hill from Dole, I remember getting a feeling as if I were a part of a religious ceremony. All the trekkers were hiking in single file, as if going down the aisle in church. At the top of the hill was a small stupa, surrounded by prayer flags. Everyone was walking in silence as they approached the stupa...very cool feeling.

After reaching the Yeti Lodge at Machhermo, we found another trekker with a frisbee. This made us all very excited and we had a good game going on for a while. Then we attended a free lecture on altitude sickness, which was offered though one of the nearby clinics. This was a very informative lecture. I learned about the different stages of Acute Mountain Sickness and what to do in case you get it. They recommend taking Diamox (Acetazolimide), which I had already began taking, and descend right away if you get sick until you feel better. The medicine is suppose to help you kidneys pump more oxygen into your blood as you go up. So, I figured it couldn't hurt to take it.

The next day we left for Gokyo at 4,800 m. There are 5 lakes here that shouldn't be missed. The first lake is more like a puddle. But the second and third blew me away. The lakes were so clear and of a blue-green color. They looked like the Carribean Sea, only surrounded by huge, ice-capped mountains. We spent an extra night at the Gokyo Namaste Lodge, acclimatising. On our acclimitisation day, we went to the fourth lake. This was beautiful as well and behind it was a huge glacier. It wasn't the kind of glacier you would see in Alaska. It looked more like a construction site to me. But it was a glacier, none the less. That night was the first night I really noticed how beautiful the sky was. The night sky was pitch black and you can see every single star in the entire universe...amazing!! We were also lucky enough to go when there was a full moon so the light reflecting off the surrounding mountains gave us an incredible view as you walked out to use the outhouse to do your nightly buisness. This made us not mind having to go use the "toilet" in the middle of the night. Although, I did start to mind the cold. This is where it started to get really cold. The lodges don't have heat, electricity or running water were the bedrooms are. In the mornings, you could see your own breath and there was ice formed on the inside of the windows. Even the "liquid" around the squat toilets were frozen that you had to be careful as to not slide right into it...so it was pretty cold.

After Gokyo,we headed off to cross the Cho La Pass. This pass is not extremely difficult but is very steep and involves crossing a glacier. I don't know exactly how steep it is but at some point you are pulling yourself up the rocks with your hands. This normally shouldn't have been too hard for me, but I started to get Acute Mountain Sickness on this day...yes the one I just attended the free lecture on. I started off in the morning feeling really weak and finding it difficult to breathe as I trekked. Then I started to get a bad headache and feel nauseous. At this point I was half way across the pass so there was no turning back...which is a terrible feeling when you are getting sick. The rest of the way I felt very dizzy and started walking like a drunk person. Finally, after 8 hours of staggering, we reached the Chola Pass Resort in Tangnag at 4,700 m. Here is when the sickness really hit me. I couldn't drink or eat anything. All I could do was sit, moan and wish for my mom. I started getting nervous, wondering how much worse I would get. After a sleepless night of vomitting and fever, I awoke feeling well enough to head down a bit. As I learned from the lecture, if sick...descend, descend, descend!! Helen, Ilsa and Kyra were sweet enough to accompany me down the hill. They said they wouldn't leave me alone feeling sick and they just wanted to make sure I was okay. (This really was a wonderful group of girls to trek with.) So, we headed to Dhukla at 4,620 m. At this point, Ilsa got a stomach virus so we decided to descend again to Pheriche at 4,240 m, where there was a hospital she could get some medicine from. This turned out to be a good idea for both of us, as I needed another day to stay lower. It was also where we found our favorite lodge of all, the Panaorama Lodge. Apparently, President Jimmy Carter stayed here in 1985. And, there is a picture of the owner's dad and Carter on the wall to prove it. I thought this was very exciting...plus the food was really good too! So, after spending a night here, we were all feeling better and ready to get back on schedule with our trek.

The next day we headed to Lobuche at 4,930 m. We were warned not to trust the food and water in this town, as it tends to be a bit shabby. The town was very runned down and dirty. Plus, there weren't any rooms available for us to stay. We ended up sleeping in a dormitory at the Above The Cloud Lodge, which is where this lodge should remain. There was an overwhelming odor of karosene throughout the place, it was really noisey, and we literally had to sleep on top of eachother on nothing but a hard wood bunk. We couldn't be happier to leave the next day for Gorak Shep. Here we stayed at the Himalayan Lodge. This is the highest lodge in the world, at 5,160 m. The day we arrived, we stopped for a quick lunch and headed straight up Kala Patthar, a very steep lookout point. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach the top, at 5,550 m. Here you can see the best views of Mt. Everest from the entire trek. However, it is so windy at the top that you can only stay to take a few photos or you will literally be blown right off. We decided to move down ~100 m to watched the sunset over Everest. This was amazing. The top of the mountain looked like a piece of 24K gold as the sun went down.

The next day we started off for Base Camp. It was again, a very clear and beautiful morning. But this morning seemed to be exceptionally beautiful, for it was the morning of Base Camp! As we headed our for the 3 hour hike, I remember getting goose bumps in anticipation of reaching my goal. Along the way, you pass another glacier and the Everest Ice Fall. Then...there it was, Base Camp! It was so quiet there. All you could hear were the sounds of the prayer flags flapping in the wind and an occasional nearby avalanche. Me and the other girls had a nice ceremony of exchanging Yak bone braceletes we bought to put on at Base Camp. We also shared a Toblerone that we were saving for the moment. It was just so unbelievable to be standing where so many explorers have been just before they head off in an attempt to reach the summit.

The next day we started our decent. We made it to Pheriche in one day. The day after that we trekked to Namche. Our final day was a trek straight down to Lukla. It's amazing how it took us 13 to get up and only 3 days to get down. Things weren't all rosey in Lukla, however. After getting sick with AMS and having to decend, Brandon decided to continue up on his own. Given this, we realized we didn't need three porters so we had to cut one. We weren't too happy with Raj and wanted to keep Jiban and Lalit, since they were the hardest working and the nicest. Raj didn't like this decision too much. He had already been paid daily for 9 days, which was the deal. It wasn't the nicest thing for us to cut him along the way but this was an unexpected situation and the four of us couldn't afford to keep him on if we didn't need him. He decided to be very un-Nepali like and demand 18 days, full pay. He told us we were all rich tourists (which none of us are) and wanted the pay or he would sell our return flight tickets, which were back at the lodge in Lukla. Even though we did not like his blackmailing tactics, we felt bad for him and offered him 2 days pay to get himself back to Lukla and find more business. We told him we held up our end of the bargain and were sorry it turned out this way. He took the money but still threatend to sell our tickets. We went on our way, hoping for the best. Along the way, we were happy with our decision. Jiban and Lalit had such lighter spirts without Raj's presence. They would joke around more and even play card games with us in the evenings. They also started giving us some free Nepali lessons. Everything seemed fine until we returned to Lukla to find our tickets missing. Raj was waiting outside the lodge for us. He was holding the tickets and demanding 18 days of pay. After a while, we found ourselves surrounded by, what seemd to be, every Nepali in town. After an hour of discussion, the owner of our lodge straightened out the matter for us and finally got our tickets back. It was really sad because everyone else we met along the way were so kind and honest with us. It's a shame when you have to deal with a few bad seeds...but that's life.

Besides the whole Raj incident, the trek was an amazing experience. It's funny how in the beginning you don't know if you will be able to complete the experience. There are no western toilets and hardly any electricity. The nights get so cold that it hurts. The thought of not showering for 17 days seems unthinkable. But something happens along the way. The lack of familar comforts don't really matter after awhile. In fact, you begin to enjoy the simplicity of it all and realize how the people can be so happy up there. There is nothing to do all day but trek and take in the amazing views. At night, you hang out with good friends and enjoy delicious food prepared by a family who make you feel like you are a guest in their home. Throughout this trip, I've gained a lot of self confidence and a real sense of inner peace. I learned how wonderful Nepali life can be above the chaos of Kathmandu valley. But most of all, I learned the most important law of the land...Yaks ALWAYS have the right of way!!!

---