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Published: April 27th 2007
Hopefully you all read days 1-6 on the trek to Everest...if not, go back and do it...NOW!! dont worry, I'll wait for you.
You cant see the whole world from the top of Everest....The view from there only reminds you how big the world is & how much more there is to see & learn". Tenzing Norgay, spoken to his son, who has now also summited Everest
Day 7- Today was another long yet rewarding walk. The mountains and views become more and more spectacular the higher you are. My blisters are not improving at all. After several hours I start feeling sorry for myself, that is until I see a porter with about 300 lbs of plywood on his back as he climbs a 60 degree slippery incline in rubber sandals....these guys are as sure footed as mountain goats! When I am alone and walking, in order to not feel sorry for myself I think only of several incredible survival stories. The one that comes to mind is about the one guy who fell into a crevase and was stuck under a boulder. He knew that nobody would come find him for a rescue and that
Everest Beer
cheers to the old man's bday.he had to make moves on his own. He took his dull swiss army knife and spent hours cutting off his own hand (like trying to cut thru a steak with a plastic butter knife) and THEN managed to scale a wall and climb a few km's to be rescued. So this helps me suck it up. Another great survival story is from the book "Touching the Void"....if you don't want to read it, I also highly recommend the movie!
I also thought about my grandma today on the walk. She is the most incredible person I know. She's 81, recently broke her hip and arm and then more recently I found out that she JUUUST climbed Peru's Machu Picchu, I swear, I think that her and my grandfather are both 25 year olds stuck in 81 year old bodies. They've been to visit more countries than I can name and take off without me ever even knowing. I'll be like, "mom, what did gram & gramps say when they called on Sunday?"...my mom says "Oh, they didnt call. They're in Africa for a few weeks." Riiiiight. Six months later, I'll be checking the delivered mail, and there's a postcard
Helicopter Down
Italian helicopter crashed here many a year ago @ Base Camp. from South America...why not? I think that health is the heart for happiness and that our family is lucky that they are so happy.
Day 8- Today we made it to Lobuche. During the walk I was quite exhausted, yet my biggest problem returns to my genetic flaw of not having any hips. I bought a nice pair of Columbia pants back in Toronto, which, at the time fit like a glove. However, now on the 8th day, I feel like I just spent a couple weeks at Jenny Craig. The pants are now way too big for me and are falling off with each step. I dont have a belt either and I've tried JimmyRigging up a few things, but resources up here are quite scarce....I mean, instead of firewood, here they use dried Yak dung....which CANT be good for the environment. So, during the trek, anybody that is behind me, has a nice view of whatever boxers I'm wearing. I also wonder why I voluntarily opted to wear my pants at this same level throughout most of high school career...did I really think I was cool? In hindsight, its a large improvement on my sense of style
(or lack thereof) in grade 5 when I constantly wanted to wear my clothes BACKWARDS to be like Kris Kross.
I spent most of the day just singing songs in my head (sans Ipod), ofcourse I forget most of the lyrics, so I just have to ad-lib them. Primarily Pink Floyd & Lupe Fiasco for whatever reasons.....okay, and maybe a little bit of Shakira's "hips dont lie".
At the end of todays walk I went outside and washed up my blisters. I came back into our foul smelling room and Oto says "Jer, whats that smell?"...Thinking for a split second, I say "ahhh, you mean soap?"...we both started howling as we smelt sooo badly and had gone so long without a shower that he had actually forgotten what soap or cleanliness smells like.
The evenings are spent chilling in little cabins, where it costs about $2/night to sleep, however the food is far more expensive. While there are many options on the menus, pancakes, chapatis and pizzas all seem to be virtually identical and sans-taste.
We've met many other people along the way and have spent many a night playing the international favorite card game "Asshole" and even
some poker. Tomorrow we leave for Everest Base Camp...so pumped!
Day 9-Base Camp Day...it was a 6 hour trek just to get to base camp. When we arrived my Aussie friends' personal guide said, "congradulations, you are now at the bottom of the top of the world"....I thought that was cool.
My friends Justin and Tim had both been to base camp and said they ran around the camp naked. Well, I thought it would be jokes to do it in boxers and have a beer as well. By the time we had made it to base camp, we had climbed up about 600 m, which is almost double the recommended increase of altitude for one day. I started feeling the effects pretty badly and was even a little wobbly on my walking, but nothing could stop me at this point. At base camp our guide Dharma told us we could pose in our boxers with beer in hand where there were all sorts of prayer flags and the Khumbu Ice fall in the background. I couldnt really think at all at this point, so I quickly agreed. Well, I stripped down into my boxers, posed for a "class"
picture and then started to take off my shirt. This is when all the commotion broke out. A few of the sherpas (who had been drinking) started yelling at all of us and telling us to put our clothes back on. They told us that it was a holy site and is one of the spots where they worshipped Miyolangsangma (godess of Everest). I normally would have known this, but blame the altitude sickness for my ignorance. The sherpas weren't too upset with me, but were livid with our guide Dharma, seeing that he should have known better. Oto in the meantime had somehow gotten into an argument about Yugoslavia with one of the sherpas and when I looked over, the Sherpa had a rock and was prepared to throw it at him. The Canadian in me broke out and I became a peacekeeper and also apologetic. I know that Sherpas present candies and chocolate to their gods as presents and I had a snickers bar in my pocket that I had been saving (there's nowhere to get food up there for a few hours walk). Now, by no means did I want to part with that snickers bar as
I was starving and desperately needed some energy to safely get me back down the mountain later that day , however, seeing the offence that we just committed I offered my snickers bar to one of the sherpas as an apology. He said "I dont want your snickers, I want the 3 of you out of here in 5 minutes"....Umm, alrighty then. So, we finished putting our clothes back on and just went somewhere else on base camp to finish our beers. It was like we were the teenage boys getting caught with our pants down at a girlfriends place on their parents bed, when the father walks in.
In retrospect, Dharma, definetly should have known better, but once we were off the mountain he later admitted to having altitude sickness as well. It was primarily one sherpa (who had summited Everest 2X before) who was upset, the others were laughing at us (not with us), so it wasnt that big a deal. However, I understand how important the mountain gods all are and for that reason I am not going to post the pictures of me in my boxers out of respect to them (inquire within for photo).
Tengboche Monastery
Dharma doing his best buddhist impression. I'm not the first Canadian to ever summit Everest or anything, but I am probably the first one to ever get kicked out of base camp...crrripes.
It was starting to get dark, windy and very cold when we started making our way back down to Gorak Shep, which is where were to spend the night. I was having a tough time keeping up to Dharma and Oto and a couple of times almost fell off the mountain. I felt drunk (that beer probably didnt help either) and walking straight was a task in itself, let alone you had to watch out for rock slides that would decapitate you out before you knew it.
I finally stumbled into the guesthouse and couldnt eat anything. I had some garlic soup and shut her down for the night, assuming that the next morning I would be unable to go up to Kalapatthar (5550M) for the best views of Everest.....what a day.
Day 10- Woke up this morning feeling quite good and ready to go. I had been kept up a little the night before due to the crazy loud winds. It gets so windy up here that it literally sounds like
a 747 is CONSTANTLY trying to take off outside my room. It was a 1.5 hour hike up to the top of Kalapatthar and once we reached the top a sense of awe, followed by serenity took over. The views were all spectacular and fortunately not a cloud in the sky. We took lots of amazing pictures and enjoyed the moment for as long as possible. We then began our descent all the way back down. It took 9.5 days to get here and now we plan on going back down in 2.5. Most do it in 4 or even 5.
Day 11- Pheriche-Namche- I had just read Time and Newsweeks specials on Global Warming. I think everyone should go read the Time issue, as it not only acknowledges the immenent presence of global warming and what needs to be done, but also gives 51 realistic changes that people can make in their daily lives to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases. Newsweeks, on the other hand is an absolute joke. It may as well have been written by Bush's press secretary, as it barely acknowledges that global warming is taking place and says that it will actually
Celebrating back in Kathmandu
those are Tibetan beers. They have "millet" grains inside and boiling water is added....quite good make the world a better place as fewer people will die from extreme heat than from extreme cold. I'll never buy another Newsweek. I read that 80% of the worlds drinking water comes from these beautiful Himalayas that I was walking in and that as the glaciers continue to melt this will flood out countries like Bangladesh (hopefully just the airport) and displace millions. I spent most of the day thinking about whether or not to taking another step to becoming a vegetarian and giving up beef (I figure nobody really makes fun of me anymore for not eating Pork, so they need some new material) and wheighed the pros and cons of getting a tattoo when I'm back in Thailand....and also who shot JFK. I think I've got answers for 2 of the 3 now.
Day 12- More walking. A poker player usually cant remember the big pots that he/she has won, but can always remember with incredible accuracy the big pots they've lost. The same is true with trekking. On the way up the mountain, I never remembered any steep downhill terrain, but could always remember the steep uphill portions. Now on the way back down, there
Sir Edmund Hillary
New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary & Nepal's Tenzing Norway were the first too summit Everest in 1953. is a 3.5 hour hike where we are walking straight up, it just doesnt make sense....and it sucks.
Day 13- Today is the final day. In total, we walked for 68 hours, 27 minutes and 54 seconds (yes, I'm a big nerd who broke out the stopwatch)....thats alot of walking and even more thinking. Perhaps too much, but it was all worth it. We reached Lukla airport and the first thing I did was order a nice big cold Everest beer. Today is also my dads b-day. Its always been a dream of his to go to Everest and he would have joined me, unfortunately due to health reasons this year that was impossible. But he is with me in spirit and so I cheers with him and put my feet up and throw my boots in the fire. I'm tired, sore, aching yet somehow utterly happy....mission accomplished.
-checked email..thnx to all those who sent emails, left comments/messages on blogs....many of whom seem to have fallen for the april fools joke......I'm not that crazy....did you hear that they also removed the word "gullable" from the English dicitionary?
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James
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Bonker, What an amazing adventure...every blog I read I get more and more jealous!! We'll have to sit down one day when you get back to go over some details so I can head over there one day too!! Look forward to your next blog....not sure where you're going next....maybe china, mongolia, or india??? Enjoy every moment of your trip!! James