Tom Grundy's Nepal 2016 Part 2 Page

This story is the continuation of the trip to Nepal. You can see the start here: Nepal 2016 part 1

11-21 In the morning I parting with Sam and Raquel in Namche Bazar (they headed to Lukla to fly out). I had enough time for another trek so I headed back up the trail towards Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar. There were less people on the trail than the first time we came this way. I could also see how our "shortcut" missed the turn to this trail. I probably was going just as fast as the first time but I felt slower. By the time I got to Tengboche Monastary I wasn't feeling so great. My digestion felt like it wasn't really digesting and I was starting to feel weak. From here I followed new (to me) trails heading through Deboche and past a monastery (nunnery?) before crossing the river and heading uphill past Pangboche. I was definitely hurting and slowing down here. When I got to Somare I sat for a while eating a bit and sipping water and then called it quits and got a room. I was exhausted and tired and crawled under my sleeping bag and some blankets to try to warm up and rest. A while later I got up, took my nightly half Diamox, and promptly threw it up. Fortunately there was a trash can in my room. After heaving out everything I had in me I was not cold any more. I sipped a bit more water and then went to empty the can. OOG. I was the only one staying here. I ordered chicken soup for dinner and proceeded to eat it very slowly. I think it might have been canned, but felt it was good to eat something. The 2 kids (teenagers) here were busy playing on their phones and doing some homework (I think). This was probably the place with the least English of any I stayed in Nepal. It looked like the father was a mountain guide based on the photos and certificates on the walls. They tried to convince me not to go up much more the next day (probably assuming all my sickness was altitudinal). My room had no electricity whatsoever (no light) and I had to walk outside to go to the outhouse.

crossing the Imja Khola River

Monument and Ama Dablam

mani stone

11-22 The next morning I wasn't feeling great, but I didn't feel all that awful either. Then while I was sitting there I had a sudden need to evacuate myself. CRAP - literally. There was no way I could have made it to the outhouse or anywhere but I was still in my room so immediately after I was able to whip off my pants and clean up somewhat. Still it was an unpleasant start to the day and I feared it would not be the last. Fortunately it was. After a small breakfast I headed on slowly up the trail through Pheriche and past an older settlement with a lunch stop at Thukla before ending the day at Lobuche. I stopped at the first river crossing and washed out my clothes. The water was cold (there were a few patches of ice on the sides in the shade) but the sun was warm. I was not hiking fast but I didn't have all that far to go. Fortunately I was somewhat pre-acclimated from Gokyo and the over 4,900 M (16,000 ft) altitude didn't seem to be bothering me much - or not compared to being sick and weak. My room was in a shady corner and was cold but the common room was relatively warm and even appeared to be somewhat insulated - a first. I talked a bunch with some people coming down from Gorakshep and picked up some good info. This evening I had 2 bowls of soup - garlic and chicken. They seemed to be made from scratch and were delicious. I still wasn't particularly hungry but I knew I needed to keep eating and drinking.

old building with stone roof

11-23 Heading up to Gorakshep was a relatively short hike first up outside of the morraine and then up onto it. Once out of the bottom of the valley the views opened up - especially of Pumori. The trail was pretty jumbled on the morraine and crossing a side glacier completely covered in debris. I made it in time for lunch and even passed a number of other trekkers.

looking back down the valley between the newer morraine and the old valley edge

The room I got had a south facing window so it was warm too. I took some photos of the surroundings and the birds and then a bit of a nap before starting up Kala Patthar around 2:30. This is a popular tourist peak that is really a high point on a ridge up to Pumori. I was going slower than I did up to Gokyo Ri, but I was also bringing more stuff - the tripod and a thermos full of hot sweet tea as well as all my insulating layers. It wasn't that cold hiking up, but as soon as I got up there I layered up. I would have happily worn more if I had it. The views were most excellent. Despite being at around 5,550 M or about 18,200 feet the surrounding peaks towered over us. They are the highest in the world though. I climbed up to the very top before returning to a flatter more sheltered spot. I sat there taking pictures, talking to others, and waiting for the sun to set. People kept standing up in front of me so I moved a bit to get a clearer view. As the sun set the colors got better and then the sky turned a nice purple color. I stayed after most left taking pictures and ended up hiking down in the dark (always take your headlamp). I also took a few star pictures on the way down.

tibetan snowcock

selfie on Kala Patthar

360 degree panorama from Kala Patthar

high peaks with evening light

Ama Dablam from Kala Patthar

partially de-fished night view of the high peaks. I caught a number of pics of meteors

It wasn't that surprising that the food here was more expensive than anywhere else. I guess it was fortunate I didn't have my full appetite back yet. I got another bowl of soup and put my ramen noodles into it. After dinner I bundled myself up and went to sleep. This is about where I started to experience the "Khumbu cough". Lots of the people heading down had it - a dry hacking unproductive cough. Probably from the dry air, high altitude, and smoke and dust.

11-24 I cleared out my room and put a bunch of my stuff into the duffel bag to pick up later. For breakfast I had a pancake plastered with as much peanut butter as I could to boost the calories. I might have put a bit much on for my sensitive stomach but I held it down. Then I hiked up to the "Everest Base Camp" - EBC. I put this in quotes because I don't think it was the actual base camp location. The trail followed the old morraine for a while and then cut down onto a looser more recent morraine before dropping onto the glacier and out to a spot in the middle. There were lots of prayer flags here and little memorials and so on. I would have liked to have gotten farther up the glacier so I could get a better view of the icefall. I talked with some people here for a while and took some pics and then headed back. I repacked my stuff and then meandered back to Lobuche. On the way there I hatched the plan to head over Kongma La on the way back. I scouted out where the glacier crossing was from Lobuche before it got dark. I was reminded it is Thanksgiving today - surprise - and definitely the least I have eaten on Thanksgiving in ages - maybe since wrestling season or even longer. I went out to take some night pics which had me walking a bit away from the lights of Lobuche and onto a small ridge. It was cold but worth it.

at Everest "base camp" - you can see the bottom of the Khumbu ice fall

looking across and up the Khumbu Glacier

17 minute or so exposure the peaks are Pumori, Lingtren, Khumbutse, and Nuptse

EBC Lodge common room

11-25 I planned to get up a little earlier than 6:30 but I didn't and it might not have helped anyway. Events conspired to keep me from an early start. There was nobody to order breakfast from for a bit and then nobody to pay at the end. Thus I didn't get as early a start as I would have liked for what I assumed would be a big day. It was nice that the sun had cleared the ridge by the time I started though. I headed out across the Khumbu glacier which was mostly covered in rocks of various sizes down to silt. There were a few exposed ice walls and frozen lakes though. Then I dropped down off the massive morraine on the far side. Then up. Lots of up. At first it was a decent trail on firm soil past a few grazing yaks. There was a guy ahead of me who went up a slope that had ice on top of it and then wasn't very happy coming down. There was a lot of cursing in German. It didn't look too bad to me, but I had trekking poles and am perhaps a bit more used to that kind of nonsense. I went up the drainage with a little bit of ice and then followed a trail up from there. When the going got steep there was a bit of treadmill scree but mostly I was able to keep to larger and more stable rocks. Did I mention lots of up? Finally I made it to the pass Kongma La at 5535 M. I took a heap of pics and walked up one side a bit for some more pics. If I had more energy and crampons and an ice axe I'd have probably kept going up Pokalde Peak covered with hard snow (evidently that is illegal too).

a yak and Pumori on the hike up the pass

view from Kongma La down over the lakes - Makalu is in the middle left

prayer flags at the pass

360 degree panorama from above the pass (middle right)
from the left, Ama Dablam, Pokalde, Arakam Tse?, Pumori just behind the rocks of Kongma Tse, Nuptse, Lhotse, Makalu, Island Peak?

There were a number of people coming up from the other side hiking past the frozen lakes below. The views down to the lakes and off towards Makalu were pretty excellent too as well as the monstrous face of Nuptse and Lhotse. The trail down to the lakes was a lot shorter than the trail up the other side was, but there was plenty more down to be had after that. At some point the trail deviated from where it was on my map. I continued to follow the trail though looking for the turnoff to go to Dingboche rather than continue on the main trail to Chhukhung (despite its excellent name). I never did see the turnoff so I went cross country down to the trail between the two at some point. The wind was getting very gusty and as I went down I was heading into it. This was especially annoying when it lifted clouds of dust and since I missed the turnoff I added a few miles of hiking into the wind to my day.

I got a room in the Holiday Inn (no known affiliation to any Holiday Inn in the US) there and washed my feet and socks in a little stream before the sun set and things got really cold. They were getting pretty nasty although not nearly as nasty as they would have been without the "scent-lock" socks.

11-26 I slept in a bit since breakfast wasn't until 8. I had a pancake for breakfast and absolutely smothered it in peanut butter and marmalade to up the calories. As I left town I saw someone that looked familiar - she recognized me too - the girl who lived in the guest house in Somare. There was a pretty massive old landslide on the other side of the river and then I crossed at the fork and made my way up to the trail I hiked in on. From there I was retracing my steps, but because I was hiking in the other direction at different times of day the views were still pretty different. I saw another musk deer on the edge of a cliff where there was a downed bridge but by the time I got the 100mm lens on he was hiding in the bushes. He sauntered by right after I took the lens back off. I followed a string of very dusty yaks up to Tengboche. There I got a wonderfully sunny corner room and then after a late lunch hiked up the ridge to the east. Had I more time and energy I could have gone quite a ways up this but I just went up to the second set of monuments and prayer flags. I took a lot of pictures from there including a time lapse series of the clouds blowing off of Everest and Lhotse. I also helped one of the guides re-string some prayer flags that were down on the ground. By the time I got back the last of the light was on the highest peaks. I took a lot more pics with the help of the tripod to steady things in the waning light. Probably 4/5 of the people in the dining room that night were part of organized groups. I was getting my appetite back and gorged on delicious dal bhat while talking to a mother and daughter from Australia. They were heading up and wanted to know what all they had to look forward to.

a stupa

Nuptse, Everest, and Lhotse with evening light from Tengboche

Ama Dablam from Tengboche just after sunset

detail of the entrance arch to Tengboche Monastery

11-27 I got up too early and took some sunrise pics. The big mountains here were better oriented for sunset pics though. I had hash browns and egg for breakfast and sadly it was much smaller than someone else's the night before. I took some more pics and then headed down and back up and traversed to Namche. There I got a postcard and then hunted down the post office (a box and a guy that could sell me a stamp) and mailed off a postcard. I was hoping it would travel via yak. The hike down the big hill was made more annoying by lots of mule trains and the associated dust. It felt a bit like the Sierra at times. I was often able to avoid the trains because there were lots of sub trails cutting off switchbacks. It went from sunny and warm at the top to cloudy and cold at the bottom. I continued down passing more mule trains heading up and signed out of the National Park. There were some people painting the rock carvings here - they had ropes and ascenders set up but weren't using them at the time. The background was black and the letters got painted white. I got a room in Monjo at a place that was overlooking the valley. The entrance was on the ground floor but my window on the other side was 3 or 4 floors up. This room had an outlet (my first in a long time) so I recharged all the stuff I could (kindle, phone, external battery pack, and camera batteries). It started raining that night.

a big (although perhaps light) load coming up from Namche

ceiling panel - perhaps Buddha was the inspiration for Capt. Kirk

11-28 I was woken up in the dark by a jolt. It kept jolting - in fact it was an earthquake. As it continued I scooted into the corner of my bed in the corner of the room on the uphill side of the house and wondered how big of a quake this would be and how strong the building was. I had visions of the whole thing dropping down the slope. I am guessing it only lasted about 15 seconds, but it seemed long. Definitely the strongest earthquake shaking I have ever felt. This was around 5:15 am. I wondered if it was a fore-shock of something bigger, but laziness got me to go back to sleep for another hour or so. I later heard it was a 5.8 magnitude quake with the epicenter not too far away. Evidently that was wrong, it was a 5.4 about 10 KM under Namche. I had a relatively leisurely breakfast and took a look at the building structure (it looked pretty bomber) before heading on down the trail towards Lukla. It was gray and dreary but at least no longer raining as I hiked out. I stopped in Phakding and was able to use a bit of wifi from the place we stayed on the way in. Nothing too pressing had happened in my absence from the internet. I felt reasonably strong hiking up the hill to Lukla. There I went to the airport to check on flight stuff - nothing, but I was able to weigh my pack. I got a rather musty room and then went to the Tara Air offices to get my reservation confirmed. Then 2 dinners before bed.

11-29 My flight was pretty early so I just got up and headed out without breakfast. I should have slept in a bit more since there was nobody to check us in when I got there. The lines slowly got longer but when they finally started it was pretty chaotic. I think the guides/porters pretty much obnoxiously jumped the queue to be first. The airline people seemed to sort of randomly pick people from near the front of the line to get checked next. In any case they didn't complain about my pack weight and I moved on through security to the departure "lounge". I think I might have gone into the VIP room - there didn't seem to be much differentiation.

There wasn't much delay before the first flight arrived and from that point they were just landing, turning around, and launching airplanes quite rapidly. The turn around time here was pretty amazing. Eventually they called my flight and I jostled my way into line and onto the plane. I really wanted a window seat but as I got on I saw they were all window seats - and the windows were filthy. Oh well. The takeoff was a bit exciting as we revved the props to full before releasing the brakes and then dropping onto the slope to accelerate down the runway - and I do mean down. As I mentioned the windows were filthy and it was pretty cloudy so I didn't get any great photos. Still it was nice to see all the terraced fields and some glimpses of big mountains along the way. Back in Kathmandu we took the bus to the airport and got our luggage. Then I took a taxi to Thamel and got a room in a hotel. I could have gotten a cheaper room, but I wanted my own bathroom since I had some serious scrubbing to do and wanted to wash my clothes too. Sadly the place only had hot water at limited times. I wish I had known that earlier. They also told me at the front desk there would be hot water when there wasn't. On the plus side food was a lot cheaper and better in Kathmandu and I had a calorie deficit to make up. The rest of the day was fairly frustrating as I waited a while to get my bag back from storage, then I wanted to backup my photos but the computer was being slow so I rebooted it which took over an hour (stupid windows doesn't tell you how long it is going to take or how much progress it has made when updating). Then shaving a few weeks worth of scruff off was a pain and the water never really got hot although I washed anyway.

there was too much to shave it all off in one go

11-30 I had a few missions for today, and I even completed some of them. After a while I got so thoroughly annoyed at the touts and bargaining shopkeepers that I pretty much gave up on buying anything else. I really much prefer the system where prices are listed and people can choose to buy or not. If I ask you how much something is and you say "how much do you want to pay?" then don't be offended when I list some ridiculously low price. I didn't really have any extra luggage allowance anyway, although there were a few things I probably would have purchased had those not been the case. I did enjoy more chili momos though. Some guy even followed me 7 or 8 blocks all the way back to my lodging trying to sell me drugs as best I could tell. I wasn't in the least receptive and yet he persisted.

12-1 I got up very early and finished packing. Sadly not everything was completely dry. Then I went down to the street where the taxi driver I had talked to the night before was waiting. Off we went to the airport where I began waiting in lines. Eventually I got through security only to find that there was now nowhere else to change the last of my Nepal currency. oops. This flight was the one with the least luggage allowance (20 KG) so I was a little nervous about that. They didn't weigh the carry on, so it worked out ok. Eventually we loaded up and I was off. First to New Dehli for a few hours layover and then on the Bangkok in the "Land of Smiles". That is a story for more trip reports

crop from the panorama from Kala Patthar

crop from the panorama above Kongma La

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