Trekking the Himalayas - Part 2 of 5


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March 11th 2014
Published: March 24th 2014
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8-11 March Days 4-7 Namche Bazaar(3440m) via Khumjung(3780m) to Phortse Thanga(3680m) to Dhole(4110m) to Machherma(4470m)

The weather today is pretty consistent with the trip so far, clear and sunny in the morning, but cold, it heats up at around perhaps 9am, and by about 10.30am the high peak clouds start rolling in, obscuring our view of the mountains somewhat. With the clouds comes the chilly winds. However if you can find reprieve from the wind and sit in the sun somewhere protected, it is possible to strip down to a t-shirt, well for me maybe, Suz maybe not so much. The first part of the day’s trekking involved a steep climb directly out of Namche up stone steps and through juniper bushes. It was then about an hour until we reached a magical location, my favourite of the whole trek so far. Rock and dirt steps lead us up to an isolated stupa surrounded by pine trees, juniper bushes, prayer flags, and snow. From this vantage point you get sweeping views of the glorious Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam. It was so peaceful and majestic, and it really was the whole reason we were making this 18 day trek in the Himalayas in the first place. Absolutely stunning scenery, I was blown away.

The trail then lead down into the town of Kumjung. The whole town has been clad with green roof sheets, and the buildings are all stone. That is, except for the Monastery, which exuded a rich red and terracotta. We ventured through Sir Edmund Hillary’s school, which was initially started and funded by the great man himself, along with Tenzing Norgay, his ever faithful Sherpa guide. They also have a bronze statue in memory of Edmund, he died in 2008. Throughout the years many different countries’ trekking organisations have added buildings to the school. Today it remains quite a prestigious and privileged situation to be attending the school as a student. Many of the graduates go on to move overseas to attend university and to make highly qualified professions out of themselves. While in Kumjung, we also visited the Monastery and whilst outside we got to hear some monks deep in their prayer books chanting along. When they are finished we take off our shoes and enter. In this particular Monastery they hold the scalp of a yeti behind locked doors. Suz and I jump at
our favourite spotour favourite spotour favourite spot

prayer flags foreshadowing Everest
the chance to donate some coin to their entrepreneurial venture / tourist gimmick. It sort of looked like the outside of a really hairy elongated coconut.

We take lunch at Kumjung and then press on into the hills once again. The afternoon sees us hugging the mountain side ascending yet more stone stairs as we follow the over shadowing Ama Dablam. We finally see our first big fluffy yak as we quickly abort the path, mountain side of course, to avoid being head butted off the path and down into the valley. Further on amongst the juniper forest, foraging in the snow we are also lucky enough to spot a musk deer. Sadly, they are in danger of becoming extinct due to poaching for their musk saliva which is a popular ingredient in perfumes.

We arrive at Phortse Thanga at about 3pm after a 7 hour trek (including breaks). The town is very small and sits precariously on the edge of an aqua fast flowing river. We take shelter at The River Resort. At night we hit the communal lodge and gather around a wood fire. Later in the evening and after meals we play cards with our
yak having a restyak having a restyak having a rest

Suz went right up close to this yak as it was the first we had seen and after she was over there merrily snapping away for a few minutes our guide noticed her and started frantically trying to get her away.... apparently they are quite aggressive and will charge! hahaha.. oops! This one must have been buggered after a long days walk.
guide Prakash and porter Pradip. It’s the first we have spent any length of time with Pradip. He speaks little English and is quiet and shy. He is only 18 years old after all. He too hopes to be a guide one day. We turn in at the typical time of around 7.30 to 8pm for our nightly 11 hour hibernation.

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On day 5 we really had our morning routine down pat. The night before we would stuff our clothes for the next day under our sleeping bags, or even in our sleeping bags so that they were warm to put on in the morning. Suz would also have to stuff anything with a battery in it into the end of her sleeping bag to keep them warm so they didn’t leak battery power during the freezing cold nights. The mornings are probably the worst part of the day, having to drag your body out of the oven warm full down sleeping bags, doing jumping jacks to the toilet to keep your core body temperature up, then getting your arse as quickly as possible into your grubby, sour smelling day clothes. We would have also hung our jocks and socks up on the curtain rod the night before to let the putrid smell ooze into the night, at least giving us some sort of conscious feeling that we are wearing semi clean undergarments.

Step 1 is to peel your lower bed wear off, as you do the -10 degree air temperature burns your prickly skin and your genitals wisely retreat into the depths of your body. We remove the degraded 3 day old strapping tape from our feet and toes and apply some fresh manufactured skin. Following this it is back on with yesterday's (and the day before’s, and the day before’s) underwear, applying a liberal smearing of baby powder to freshen up the moistness of the nether regions. We snap the elastic at the sides of the undies to provide a mechanical like dousing of powder to the entire area, as puffs of white smoke make a swift departure. Next we jack up our thermal leggings and then freshen up our feet with a layer of baby powder, making sure to apply a generous smattering between your little and second toes, as they very rarely see the light of day let alone having felt the moisture drawing sensation of the powder before. Then it’s on with the “fresh” socks and long pants.

Step 2 is to deal with the upper body. Off comes the long sleeve shirt and bedtime thermal to reveal rock hard nipples that could rival even the most glorified marble in a Nepalese child’s collection. We peel our arms up to provide a safe haven for the semi frozen roll on deodorant then it’s into our day time upper thermals, long sleeve shirt, and then finally our windproof fleece jacket.

Step 3 is to deal with the neck, head, and hands. On goes the polyester buff around the neck, followed by a quick change from the night time beanie to the day time beanie. Suz attempts to draw some life back into her windswept hair by spraying it with an aerosol “sham”poo. Our naked fingers are like stalactites hanging from a branch of a tree. We reveal them briefly, but only in order to provide as much dexterity as necessary to strap on our bulky trekking boots. They are on the verge of cracking and bleeding as we grip our laces to provide the support required for the day’s trek. Then it’s on with the gloves, as your fingers tingle from the salvation of warmth due to the recirculation of high altitude blood. And then after all of this we are ready to commence packing the bags!

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On this particular morning we trekked from Phortse Thanga up to Dhole. The trek was only around 2.5 hours, but with an elevation gain of 430m it was quite steep. There were a lot of rock stairs to conquer and plenty of rest stops for water and to catch our breath in between. It was a pretty walk nonetheless, with a mixture of pines and juniper bushes hugging the mountain sides. It was quite strange as one minute the path was rock and dust, and the next you would turn a corner to get the complete opposite of snow, ice and muddy slush. There were also quite a few stunning frozen water falls along the way. Dohle is quite a small town of perhaps only a dozen buildings at most. We are staying at the Alpine Cottage Lodge in a twin room for 200NPR per night, yep about $2.40AUD. However they get their money back in spades with the meals, as you are required to eat at their lodge also. Prices for meals are starting to get more expensive as we ascend, understandably, as some poor bugger has to carry the majority of it up here on his head. The prices for say a main meal of fried rice with egg and vegetable down in Pakding was around 250NPR, in Dohle the same dish is around 400NPR.

After lunch, we have chicken noodle soup, veggie fried rice, and prawn crackers, we don our down jackets for the first time and head off up a hill for our afternoon acclimatisation trek. We trek up to around 4300m, which will help us sleep at night at this high altitude. The down jackets are extremely warm, and a bit like being wrapped up in a sleeping bag from head to butt. When we return we start the cringing ritual of getting out our day time wear and into a night time wear. A lot like the above mentioned process but in reverse. The night is much like the night before with a fire, although fuelled by yak dung this time (no where near as warm as a wood
Sir Edmund Hillary SchoolSir Edmund Hillary SchoolSir Edmund Hillary School

the first to conquer Everest Summit
fire!), a meal (dal bhat), and chatting to a nice Swiss guy, George, who is trekking by himself, before an early night.

On day 6 we awake a little late, and take breakfast at 8.30am. We head out for Machhermo at around 9.15am. By this time the sun is high in the sky and temperature feels quite warm with a lack of wind. It is all up hill directly out of Dhole for about an hour and then thankfully the next 2 hours are spent on relatively flat ground, before a final short uphill ascent and then down into a valley where Machhermo rests. Walking along the flats it was really interesting to observe that when looking North along the path it was devoid of snow and looked like summer, but when you turned around and looked South, the snow that was yet to be hit by the previous days sunshine was still evident, making it look like a winter path. The weather was just like the past few days. At this point, above around 4100m, we also noticed that there were no more trees - and that means, no where to hide when doing a wee, would Suz now need her much talked about "she-wee"?.

About 45 minutes out of Machhermo we witnessed a couple of yaks facing off and head butting each other. This went on for a few minutes until the smaller one finally backed down. The most spectacular views from the last 2 days were presented to us upon reaching the summit of the final hill of the day before dipping down into the valley. Literally 360 degree Himalayan mountain vistas. It was absolutely breathtaking. We could see many mountains over 6000m above sea level including thamserku(6608m), kangtega(6685m), cho oyu (8201m), cholotse(6335m), arakam tse(6423m) and tabuche(6367m). We took in the panorama views for as long as the biting cold would allow us. Then we high tailed it down into the valley and into our lodge for a warm lunch. We arrived at around 1pm, so only about a 4 hour trek today including a tea break. We are staying at the yeti lodge, again very basic rooms. The afternoon and evening were spent in the communal dining area eating, playing cards, reading etc. I’ve learnt that if I eat at the same time and the same meal as my guide and porter that I will be topped up for seconds from the kitchen, which is a real bonus. The snow started dumping down at about 4pm and hadn't stopped when we retired at 8pm.

The next day was a scheduled rest day in Machhermo. We awoke to about a 2 inch cover of snow everywhere, however the weather was absolutely cracking! The sun was so nice and warm and the sky so clear blue. The clouds didn’t roll in until about midday. We slept in until 7.30am and didn’t leave for our acclimatisation trek until around 9am. It was a 3 hour return trek to an elevation of around 4700m up a nearby "hill". The path was a direct steep incline followed by a reasonably flat long trek along the top of a ridge. The path was mainly snow and was a little slippery. The views from the top were again amazing and provided similar but higher 360 degree panoramas as the previous day coming into Machhermo. We found a really nice spot at the top crouched behind a rock out of the wind with the sun warming our bones. Then it was back down to the Yeti Lodge for lunch and some
rare glimpses inside a Buddhist Monasteryrare glimpses inside a Buddhist Monasteryrare glimpses inside a Buddhist Monastery

inside the boxes are all of their prayer books
more basking in the glorious sunshine. The afternoon and night were spent reading, eating and generally resting up before our assault the following day on Gokyo and Gokyo Ri, where the view of Everest and surrounding peaks are supposed to be out of this world. From there we will cross our fingers that the Cho La Pass is not closed due to too much snow so we can make it directly over to EBC. Otherwise we will be taking about a 2-3 day detour back down the way we have just come, and then right back up to EBC, a detour we really want to avoid, but won’t be able to avoid if our guide has any safety concerns!


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typical communal restaurant lodge scenetypical communal restaurant lodge scene
typical communal restaurant lodge scene

this one is Phortse Thanga with a wood fire in the middle


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