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Published: March 14th 2008
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Day 1 - Day 2
After a tearful goodbye with Sheena at Heathrow and loaded with the bags of creme eggs I was given just prior to going through the gate (I am discovering that true love comes in the shape of little eggs!), my himilayan adventure was about to start. I bought everything I had realised I had forgotten to pack on the security side of the airport (except all the trip details including the meeting point in Kathmandu with the tour company) and boarded the plane. After an 8hr layover sleeping across seats in Delhi international, being accosted by Iraqis now living/working in Nepal (very friendly people but I found it hard to be chatty at 4am!), I finally touched down in Kathmandu. Lakhpa, our tour leader, soon spotted me amongst 10s of Nepalese faces which in hindsight doesn't seem the achievement I thought it was at the time! We waited for the balance of the group who had just landed and chatted about the Nepalese/Tibetan/Chinese political situation and how it affected the region. I felt as if I should have known alot more about the unrest that still exists particularly on the Tibetan side where tours are not
The start of a new career
Riding a rickshaw through the streets of Kathmandu! currently possible. That night we all went to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner and were treated to a show of some traditional dancing and Nepalese wine (much like vodka).
Day 3
At 9am we made our way to the restaurant for our trip briefing. Lakhpa covered everything from PAC bags (coffin shaped pressurised bags that you would be put into if suffering badly from altitude sickness), to the puffy face effects of Altitude sickness pills as well as the need for us to drink a minimum of 5L of water a day and he showed us the route we would be taking to base camp. Once the briefing was over we started a toured guide of Kathmandu to Durbar Sq where we saw the living goddess, various temples, prayer wheels and monkeys eating fruit the locals were feeding to them. The living goddess is selected (with much prestige to the family) first by proving she has no marks on her body. Then the whittled down list of contestants are led into a room with cut of Yaks heads and the floor covered inb blood. The one that shows the most bravery is then selected. They remain in a small
Lukla Airport
200 yards of sheer adenaline rush! temple until menstruation where they are taught and brought up. After they leave the temple they then become normal girls again. Unfortunately it was not possible to take pictures as she appeared from the balcony but she said nothing, looked like a petulant grumpy little girl and then disappeared back into the darkness of the room - very bizarre. The afternoon we made our way to Bodnath temple to see the prayer flags flying in the wind and see what is one of the classic postcard pictures of Nepal. That night the group went for dinner at ther famous Rum Doodles where many summit expedition teams frequent. After a few beers after dinner we made our way back to the hotel in a rickshaw. The driver insisted he could ride with 3 of us on the back so we gave in and jumped on the seat. Riding through Kathmandu in pitch black due to one of many power cuts, we decided we would like a go of taking the handle bars and pedals! Arriving later than all the other groups because we had been messing around for so long I then went to pack my bag before the 5am wake
up call!
Day 4
There was a buzz in the hotel reception despite the hour. After several discussions on the lines of "how many spare pairs of pants are you taking?" or "do you think "8 memory cards will be enough?!" we piled into the back of the minibus to the airport passing the open air crematorium where the locals are taken. The cloud cover caused a minor delay to the flight (which no one complained about given the 6000m obstacles between Kathmandu and Lukla, our destination. Bagging the front seat on the left hand side of our twin otter plane where I could see both the pilots performing there pre-flight checks and also would be in prime place as we approached the mountain range. The landing didn't disappoint - the plane is put into reverse throttle in mid air to start braking before we even descend and we go from cruising altitude to touching down on the 200yrd airstrip in literally seconds!
The Yaks were loaded with our kit (we just carried trekking poles, down jackets and waterproofs as well as chocolate and cameras) and we set off on an easy winding trail to our first stop
Mountain Goat
This goat was either a victim of a fall or a mountain leopard. I like to think the latter! of Phakding where we would spend our first night. We passed Khumbi Yul Lha (considered to be a Holy Mountain by the locals) and had glimpses of other peaks which at 6000m+ started to raise the excitement amongst the team. We had arrived quite early in Phakding, a small hamlet just above Lukla, so we took advantage and walked up to a budddhist monastery to stretch our legs and accelerate our acclimitisation process. Shattered from the early start I was in tucked up in my sleeping bag by 8:30pm wearing thermals and a woolly hat as had been instructed and slept like a baby.
Day 5
We were woken at 7am with a cup of black tea and a little bowl of water for washing. Consoling myself to the fact that I wouldn't have a shower for another 11 days I got ready and dug into the steaming bowl of porridge in the main mess. We started walking at 8am towards Monjo where we would lunch, a mere 20mins from the Sagarmatha National Park entrance. Sagarmatha is the local name for Everest. We passed Rhododendrons, magnolia and fir trees and saw our first mountain goat. After lunch we proceeded
into the National park and began our crossings of 5 high bridges across the milky river. Having passed safely, we started the steep climb up to Namche Bazar (3440m), our stop for the night. The trekking path was dusty so we donned breathing masks to avoid breathing in the dust and getting an infection - it looked like the mafia's busmans holiday with everyone wearing masks, sunglasses and hats!
Day 6
Today is an acclimitisation day and the last access to the internet (hence a quick blog). We got up at 6am to make our way up the hill behind Namche Bazar to witness the early morning sun rising on some of the most breathtaking and reknowned mountains of the himilayas - Lhotse, Nutpse, Ama Dablam - and the all important unmistakable black pyramid of Everest. We were lucky with the weather so we could see the Nuptse ridge, the Hillary step (one of the trickiest parts of a Southern face attempt) and the south summit. The height of the mountains is astounding and left me feeling like we were in the presence of something really quite magical, almost spiritual. Struggling to peel the dumbstruck group away, our guide
Wetting our appetite
The peak in the rear on the far right is about the same altitude as the one we are attempting (Who has been to Camp IV on the South Col of Everest - the last camp before the summit) led us to the Sherpa Culture museum where we could read and see pictures of previous Everest attempts and the faces of many whose lives the mountain has claimed.
The afternoon has been spent doing kit checks to ensure everyone is prepared for tomorrow where we continue our ascent. I am reading a book called "Into Thin Air" about a doomed expedition in 1996 that claimed the lives of many in what would be the deadliest Everest season in history. Happy thoughts for the way up!
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