A General Feeling of Malaise

Destination - Lukla . Namche . EBC

Day 4 (12/26/18) - First acclimatization climb and gorgeous views

When acclimatizing at high altitudes the key is to climb high and sleep low. What that essentially means is that you get to a higher altitude during the day than where you will spend the night. This allows the body to experience the thinner air and rest it out at a lower altitude. And it really works. We saw many climbers get altitude sickness because they skipped the acclimatization climbs. Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) or its end state extreme form High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) are a real danger and the only way to avoid them is by acclimatizing properly. By now we were feeling the effects just a tiny bit with general drowsiness and what we later termed "a general feeling of malice" which would hang above our heads ever so often. For now, gallons of boiled water and ginger tea are serving as effective avoidance measures.

The first acclimatizing day is at Namche and that means just climbing a big hill up to the Everest View Hotel and down. We started the day with a breakfast of porridge, egg omelet and bread with its now familiar taste. The climb starts right at the beginning of the day getting out of Namche. As soon as we got on the trail, we had the first views of Ama Dablam (tallest peak on the right in the picture above). I had heard a lot about this mountain that stays with you on the right throughout the EBC trek like a beacon urging you on with its beauty. While it not very high compared to the others in the range, at 6,856 mts it still stands tall. Its peak has a unique stocky shape which also makes it really different from the other peaks and instantly recognizable.

Tanzing has these amazing Sherpa stories and traditions that he shares some days. Today it was about not climbing the mountain called Khumbi Yul Lha (5,761 mts). It a short but very scraggly mountain that is visible on the trek to Everest View Hotel. Sherpas don't climb it because it is sacred mountain and it is worshipped. Apparently Edmund Hillary tried to climb it but broke his leg trying to do so and never summited. Probably it is a cautionary tale not to take any of the climbs less than seriously and more importantly respect local traditions. Because at the end of the day all climbers are visitors to valley. He has all these stories of disrespect foreign climbers bring like swearing in the high altitudes, trying to fix rope and dropping ice on Sherpas below. Of course, there is a lot to unpack in these stories and if you follow climbing Ueli Steck's story it epitomizes this tension. Tanzing professed, Sherpas don't really like to trample the mountains and that is why they pray before every climb.

An interesting fact about the Everest View hotel - it has one of the last oxygen chamber en-route to the Everest. The 420 mts climb was in a very short distance but we kept at it at a very quick pace. I was sweating so hard going up that by the time we reached the hotel I was down to my Capilene base layer which was steaming. We spent a lot of time at the hotel munching on peanuts and sipping some great tea while watching the majestic views of the mountains.
On our way back we went to the Sherpa Museum in Namche which has some artifacts of the Sherpa culture and early settlers in the valley and many pictures of the climbers. If you have the time, it is a great place to go to.

Later in the day we went down to the Namche town which is a collection of gear shops, shop selling touristy things and pubs. Probably Namche is the last place you should be drinking if you are going up. We bought Everest Link WiFi card for NPR 2,000 for 10GB, data Wi-Fi only plan. It is the only way to stay connected beyond Namche because there is no Cell phone towers after here. Tea houses after Namche have an Everest Link router which they turn on in the afternoon for customer to link into and use Wi-Fi. Dinner was a grand Tibetan spread with a center piece of a boiled hot pot of meats and vegetables along with momos of all kinds and noodles.

Day 5 (12/27/18) - In the grip of bitter cold

Today would turn out to be the dreariest day on the trek, a day that will define and etch the phrase "general feeling of malice" in our heads, forever. Starting from Namche, the trail takes you to the Doodh Kosi river and is mostly and downhill and we breezed through it quickly. After a quick snack break near the riverbank, we started the 600 meters climb to Tengboche which seemed to go on forever. And even though we were on many switchbacks it just seemed like a relentless series of stairs. To top that the weather started to turn for the worse and there was a buzz that we might be hit by some snow.

We entered Tengboche after a particularly steep climb through a series of monastery door and the flat village was such an amazing site. The Tengboche monastery is beautiful but we had to move on to get to Deboche as we were already seeing some flurries.

By the time we reached Deboche it was freezing and there were just a couple more climbers who had ventured out with us. The only bright spot was meeting the many yaks and their melodious bells.
Today was the first day we had to use our North Face Summit Series Inferno sleeping bags. If at all you plan to get on this adventure in the winter months, a sleeping bag that is rated for at least -20F is a must. Most tour operators offer to rent out sleeping bags but having your own has its advantages. One it takes care of the yuck factor and second it is a lifelong investment. My Garmin was showing around -29F inside the tea house but it probably took 10 minutes to get warm in our sleeping bags. Also the accommodation in Deboche was worst, I mean most of the tea houses are basic accommodation with a plywood room, tin roof, a box for bed, hard mattresses, communal squatting toilet, solar power lights that go out once the charge is over and no heating of any sort other than the fireplace that the tea house keeps lit till around 8 PM. It was also the first non YMH place we stayed in which contributed a little more to the malice.

We had to take Cepacol throat lozenges before sleeping tonight. The cold and the dust on the trail are making our throats sore and it really helps keep it numb. The mild AMS makes it a mental challenge to keep going. But we are moving faster than the others.

Day 6 (12/28/18) - And we hallucinate

It was a miserable night, but we want to brush it off and start a new day. It was very cold start and it was snowing when we started, and we again came across the majestic herd of yaks in the morning. This particular section of the trail is abounding of Rhododendrons and pines. I remember my grandfather talking about Rhododendrons in almost mythical terms and I realized that many of my memories of flowers come from me talking to him about them. Such a strange thought. Sadly, all the Rhododendron trees were dried out by the frost. I can only imagine their beauty during springtime.
We took our time having breakfast and left the hotel 30 mins after everyone and Tanzing let us be today. But we caught up with everyone in the first kilometer. Today is going to be a long day but that is what EBC is all about. There is not one up or down but a series of them and you keep at it and enjoy it while it lasts.

I really cool thing happened today. As soon as we got into the first village after Deboche, a dog started to follow us and literally walked with us halfway to Panboche which was our lunch stop. We thought it was following us in expectation of food but Tanzing of course had his Sherpa wisdom on this. These mountain dogs hike from village to village with other trekkers and expect nothing other than companionship from the humans. Obviously, I wanted to test that and offered a bar to our dog at the lunch stop which is did not even try to smell. Just looked us in the eyes, probably said goodbye and disappeared in the village. This dog and the fact that we were now leading the pack of trekkers to Dingboche where we would get another acclimatization day lifted some of the general sense of malice and we were charged to finish the day.
Today was a long but gradual hike. And this is the day you also cross above the tree line and get into the rock covered but yet amazingly beautiful landscape. For the same reason the trek got windy after Panboche and that brings me to the next must have gear - the down jacket. This is another piece that you can rent in Kathmandu but for the same reasons as the down sleeping bag, I would suggest you invest in a good one. We have the Cotopaxi Fuego hooded ones and we love them.
The trek from Deboche to Dingboche is really long and our early excitement we did not wait to eat lunch which started to take its toll. Shrey was really tired today and had a real scary but funny reaction to it. So, we are a few miles from reaching Dingboche and he starts talking about food and how he wants to eat all sorts of delicacies when we get back to Delhi. And he just gets stuck in this looping conversation and would just keep coming back to the same dishes and restaurants he wants to visit. Very soon I realized he was really hallucinating. Thankfully we had a whole stash of Gu Gels which a very thoughtful friend who has climbed Kilimanjaro had sent before the trek. Those few packs helped us make the last push and we were finally in Dingboche.

The tea house today was a big upgrade from last night and it was really needed since we are staying in Dingboche for a couple of days. Shrey has settled down in the dinner room with his Fountainhead and we order some more ginger tea. Slowly as the sun starts to go down, the other trekkers start to trickle in. We are learning to the take one day at a time, periods of doing nothing, waiting for the next day to begin, taking time off our screens and understanding the rhythm of the days. Everything to so removed from how we know life. Joys are little, like the sight of mountain puppies or baby yaks, we appreciate every strand of sunlight and we cling to it as long as we can.

Today the food was great again. It was the standard dal, rice but added potato fries and fried momos which Shrey loves.

Day 7 (12/29/18) - Easy day!

"Easy day" is Tanzing's usual refrain when we are panting but trying to look normal after a tough climb and today seems to be one of them. We are so into the rhythm of packing and unpacking everyday that one day when we could leave our sleeping bags out and not pack seems like such a relief.

It was super cold early in the morning, so we started late at 9:30 after the usual breakfast of porridge and bread. The acclimatizing climb is a short one to a mountain right behind the tea house where we were staying. But it is a steep climb of 540 meters to be covered in mere two kilometers. And it was so cold, my fingers and toes stayed frozen for the first 30 minutes. At the end of the climb Tanzing gave us some mini Snicker bars on getting to 4,900 meters and we got our first selfie together. I wish I had the Snickers yesterday when Shrey was hallucinating. But we were done by noon and we spent the afternoon spending some time on our screens since the tea house had good Wi-Fi.
Shrey got a bout of headache today during the afternoon, water and ginger tea seem to help a little. We have started to finally realize how hard this trek really is. It is tough climbing, cold, bare facilities, no connections to the normal world. But I want to get back to this every few years to get a reset in life, to do something completely out of the ordinary so that standards for everything else is reset.

This evening we were wondering why people talk about conquering a mountain. It is the last thing we can do; because even when you reach the top you are gasping for breath whereas the mountain is just there, as it has always been and always will be. We are mere visitors burning through massive amount of resources to be at the top for a few moments and feel proud. Climbing is humbling, and it is unlike any other sport. It is raw, tough, unforgiving and at the same time, amazingly beautiful. Watching the sun set with our favorite views of Ama Dablam only makes me wonder, when will I come back next. We are nearly done with two thirds of the trek and I am getting the barn syndrome, the finish line is so close, I want to run and reach there sooner than later.