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Terrain
Snow still covered the trail this morning. At least the terrain wasn't that bad.Gorak Shep, Nepal
Altitude at start of day: 4,900 meters / 16,072 feet To continue my diatribe from yesterday on my displeasure with the state of our Lobuche accommodations, our room is smaller than the others so far. Above us is an attempt at a skylight which, by daybreak, had pooled some just melted water above that began to drip down onto Dave's bed. Upon seeing this, Dave said, “We better hurry up. This room is about to flood.” To make things worse, above my bed is a hole about eight inches in diameter, plenty of room for a rat to crawl through and land on my bed.
Even the door is a mess. It was broken at some point in the past and rather than getting a new one the owners patched what was the top and flipped it over. With the poor mounting and expansion of the wood, we have to shove it violently to get it open and hopefully not break it while doing so.
We both were up during the night to use the bathroom. The tremendous violence of Dave prying open the dilapidated door wakened me from my semi-concious state, so I
Trail
The trail leading up to Gorak Shep was narrow but not too difficult. decided it would be in both our interests to follow suit rather than have to go through the same process later on. I also wondered why every night I have to go so much. It's tough to just hold it in with the cold and, even after the middle of the night run, the urge hit me again just before it was time to get up. At least I know I'm hydrated.
It was an extremely frigid night. I use no exaggeration in saying that as, when we awoke, Dave showed me his blanket. The moisture in his breath, which hit his blanket, froze to form a thin layer of ice on it. I went to brush my teeth and my toothpaste and toothbrush bristles were frozen. Try brushing your teeth with ice - not fun. It brings new meaning to the term 'icy fresh breath.' At breakfast, the honey which I used in my porridge was near frozen and was about as thick as setting concrete. I pulled a big scoop out and let the porridge thaw it out. At least my laptop stayed warm, as I slept with it again to keep it from succombing to the
Gorak Shep
Arriving at the very small village. low temps.
With the conditions up here as they are, and both of us not being as tough as we thought we were, we can't wait to see and experience Everest Base Camp and Kalapattar and get back down to a
slightly warmer climate
quickly. Because of the extreme cold, I modified my outfit a bit. I'm dressed today in two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two short sleeve shirts, a long sleeve shirt, a heavy fleece jacket, a rain jacket, a Sherpa hat and gloves. Hi. I'm Ryan. Could I be wearing any more clothes?
The morning trek to Gorak Shep started early. It consisted of a number of big hills, on which we saw many more trekkers than we had over the past few days, when we hardly saw any. Along the way a dog followed us. Dave named him Sir Edmund and I gave him aliases of Rex and Tenjay Norgay. He followed along for almost an hour, grew tired of us and moved on to another party. It reminded me of some of the merchants in southeast Asia. Without Sir Edmund, we reached Gorak Shep at 10:10 am. We felt pretty good
Yaks
They're everywhere. as it wasn't an overly difficult part of the trek
After getting the keys to our room, having lunch and situating ourselves, we left for a two hour walk over very hilly and rocky terrain to Everest Base Camp (5,357 meters / 17,571 feet). Overall we only ascended about 150 meters from Gorak Shep (net) but it was difficult with many ups and downs. The weather remained cloudy and cool, with snow flurries appearing later in the afternoon.
After passing some hefty blocks of ice, we hit our first stop, a sign denoting our arrival at Everest Base Camp. There we took some photos and looked at the main camp, which appeared to be very far away. Most people seemed to come here, snap photos and leave. That seemed like a waste. We talked to Ram and he took us down to the real camp where he could hopefully find a few friends.
We walked around the area, which we had heard had more than 1,000 people a few days ago. Today, with the cold and windy weather, it was empty. I imagine many residents were in their tents and numerous climbers were somewhere on the mountain.
Ice fall and Camp 1
Climbers ascend from base camp (left side) up the ice fall on the right to Camp 1, which is on top of the flat snow surface just above the center of this picture. Ram did manage to find an old friend, a cook for the Peak Freaks expedition. He invited us inside the large kitchen and dining tent where we were treated to coffee, tea, cookies and some climbing stories. This is what we had really hoped to find at base camp.
We walked around a bit more and encountered a man who is planning to summit Everest. This particular fellow has a unique gimmick - a bike which he has rode in 150 countries. His bike, mounted at the top of a large pile of rock and ice, served as a unique attraction during our visit. I thought he intended to climb Everest with the bike. Dave told me he just has the bike on hand and will climb without it. I think it would be a lot more interesting (and difficult) if he did his summit with the bike.
On our way out, I stopped to pee on a makeshift toilet - a hill of rock and ice. It is tremendously difficult to go with this many layers of clothes on, a stiff breeze, snow falling and a severe case of
shrinkage.
While I went, Dave, Ram
Dave
Posing with some ice. and Hari came upon some Finnish climbers. They had been to Camp 3 already and are back at base camp for a couple weeks before doing their full summit. Apparently they must be doing fine as one man, who looks more like he belongs in
The World's Strongest Man competition than climbing a mountain - slugged vodka from a bottle and smoked a cigarette. He added that Dave looked great; much better than most trekkers that come through here. I got no comment. He must dislike my Sherpa hat.
The views of Everest from here are much better than I expected. I heard that nearby Kalapattar provides much better scenery than base camp. If that's true, then we should be very impressed tomorrow. The ice fall is amazingly massive and our view of the peak is likely as close as we will ever get. While it seems so close we are still so far below - about 3,500 meters (11,500 feet or more than two miles) below.
Once we got back to Gorak Shep after a six hour round trip, we were pleased to see the fire was lit and it actually threw off some heat. This teahouse
Made it
Me, Ram, Hari and Dave having just reached base camp. actually has doors that stay closed, utilizing a string lever or pulley system weighted by bottled water in lieu of a door spring. It works.
We had dinner and warmed up. I was still a little cool and sat by the fire. I got to talking to a girl (very much the stereotypical Jewish princess) who lived in New York City about my travels and learned she is doing something similar, having quit her job last summer. She was there with her guide and she was trying to convince him that reaching Namche tomorrow would be a good idea (we'll be doing that over two days; and even that time frame is only so we can make up the time we lost while Dave was ill). He disagreed. Ram joined us and started story telling. “In 1984, I go from Everest Base Camp to Lukla - 11 hours.” Dave and Hari joked behind us as we have each heard that story countless times.
We headed off to bed after struggling to make it to 8:00. Hopefully this will be my last night in the cold. It's not my body being cold - the layers of clothes have helped
Wasteland
Most of the area belongs on another planet. and we have blankets - it's the constant breathing of cold air on my sinuses and the inability to ever fall asleep. I hope the Claritin I took will help because tomorrow we're up very early to summit Kalapattar.
Altitude at end of day: 5,200 meters / 17,056 feet
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Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 18; dbt: 0.0239s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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Paul
non-member comment
Are you serious?
Complaining that the lodge owners didn't get a new door but rather patched it up? You're in the Himalayas for christ's sake!