A General Feeling of Malaise

Destination - Lukla . Namche . EBC

Day 8 (12/30/18) - Chortens of the wanderers

Another real cold start to the day, but we are in good spirits after the day spent acclimatizing in Dingboche. We were even able to wash a couple of our base layers and dry them in the little sliver of sunlight we got. From Dingboche we followed the frozen river down to the valley and therefore the initial part of the trek is really flat and quick till we reached Dughla. Since we were quite early, we took a tea break and squeezed in a Gu gel and at least I was so glad I did that. Because just after the break point there is a straight up climb to a place which everyone calls the Gateway to Everest. At points I was literally on all fours.

Gateway to Everest is a flat area at the top of the climb from Dughla, strewn with huge boulders and Chortens in memory of people who have died on the mountains. We spent a lot of time just wandering among these sentinels paying homage to adventurers, nomads and people who paid a steep price for their love of the mountains.

From the gateway it is again a flat run to Lobuche (or are we getting used to the inclines?). We reached Lobuche ahead of most other climbers. Today a big group of climbers from the US joined us in the same lodge. They were with a group and flew into Namche. We spent the evening sharing stories and trying to warm up in front the last few embers in the heater.

And while we were doing that someone called us outside as the sun was setting. And for the first time I witnessed the golden glow of the setting sun on the mountains. It literally looks like a mound of gold.

The room we are in is the possibly the best tea house room till now and we are happy about that since tomorrow is the big push towards Gorak Shep and the Base Camp.

Day 9 (12/31/18) - Reaching EBC

Last night was scary. Around 2:00 AM Shrey woke up with splitting headache and what had every indication of AMS. He was really struggling and after a little bit had to throw up in a bucket. We had never been outside of our sleeping bags in the dead of the night and doing that in Lobuche froze us to the bone. What really scared me was looking at a bottle of water which we left on the windowsill; it was completely frozen. A few pain killers and Tiger balm later he was able to crawl back into the sleeping bag. But by the time we woke up he was feeling fine and we decided to make the push to Gorak Shep hoping everything will be fine. The boy is tough as nails though and he was not going to let a headache scare him.
Tanzing gave us his daily briefing. We will trek to Gorak Shep and check into the tea house and Phurba will get our luggage there. We will have some lunch and leave for EBC immediately trying to make it there quickly and back to Gorak Shep before the sun sets and it get bitterly cold.

And the plan worked. Amongst the entire group from Lobuche, we were the first to reach Gorak Shep, which allowed us to get our dibs on the best room in the tea house, grab a quick lunch and start the final trek.
In this final stretch the landscape really changes. We were either walk on narrow trails cut on the side of mountains, hopping over large boulders or walking on moraine ground up by the mighty Khumbu glacier. This last stretch is not as well marked as the rest of the trek.

The most stunning part of EBC is the expanse of the Khumbu icefall. You are greeted by this mighty river of ice that comes down at the foot of Lhotse and Nuptse which obscure Everest in the back.

We walked around the area for some time soaking in everything we had worked so hard for. But as they say it is not really the destination that matters, it is the journey. We started to head back to Gorak Shep, with a little bit of sadness but also some relief that we were getting back to more oxygen.
Halfway back to Gorak Shep we met the team from US making their way up. I really hoped they finish the trek in time. But apparently, they got pretty late and one climber got a minor frost bite on her finger. All a reminder that while the trek is not super difficult, it is still a harsh unfamiliar environment and it always helps to be careful. A strange sense of calm descended on us as we settled down for the evening and greeted all the trekkers as they trickled back in. It was a life altering experience, one that will stay with us for a long time and define how we see other adventures in life. We said quiet happy new years to each other and drifted off to sleep.

Day 10 (01/01/19) - Starting the descent

You always think that the climb down is easier than the climb up, which is only partially true. The climb down is really hard on your knees and in an EBC type trek there are always rolling hills. But I can agree that most of the descent days are easy days! We could of course cover a lot of distance each day.

On the first day of climbing down it is a long walk to Pheriche where we had lunch. We heard stories about some of the trekkers getting sick and had to be evacuated on helicopters and thanked the mountains for keeping us safe. We reached Panboche where there was just one tea house open and as soon all the trekkers reached, the lights went out. But a group of Korean trekkers opened up their stash of glow sticks and everyone had a fantastic new year celebration.

Highlight for the day was getting photos of Ama Dablam lit up by the setting sun.

Day 11 (01/02/19) - Another long run

Another great day and we made a long run from Panboche to Monjo passing Namche Bazaar where we picked up things we had left behind including freshly washed cloths.

Now all the trails seem so familiar and we could identify the landmarks we saw going up which leaves a little heart ache as we say goodbye to them.

It was great to be back to Monjo because that meant we could make the run to Lukla tomorrow. We have gained a whole day and we are trying to figure out if we can change our return flights to Delhi.
We had a wonderful dinner experience tonight since we had the entire guest house to ourselves and the staff were super attentive and went out of their way to pamper us. Tanzing, Shrey and I just sat and talked for hours.

Day 12 (01/03/19) - Goodbye Phurba, you are a Rockstar!

Another bittersweet goodbye to YMH in Monjo. We finally had a great night sleep as we were able to turn on the heated blankets. On top of that we were able to shower this morning. Just this last day of walk and it will be over, though we wish it never would.
We blazed the trail to Lukla and reached in under 4 hours and thankfully we did because as soon as we did it started to snow. We are staying at the YMH lodge in Lukla which is again all to us since no one else is trekking in this winter. So, we get special treatment again. We said goodbye to Phurba Sherpa without whom we could not have done this. And he took off to his village in the middle of this snowstorm. He will have to trek another 12 kilometers in this blizzard. But I am glad that we were able to give him a good tip. I really hope that it helps his family and he can take a few days off. It is a hard life in the mountains and there is little that happens in the winter. But he is a Rockstar and a real unassuming one at that.

This YMH lodge is the one of the oldest and has a beautiful dining room with a ceiling painted in the Tangka style. Dinner was fancy chicken sizzler. But the snowstorm outside does not seem to abate. I hope we will be able to get out tomorrow.

Day 13 (01/04/19) - Way back home

Every trip must have that moment where you start to question why you started it in the first place. And we have not faced that on this one, yet. But it had to happen. We woke up to the beautiful snow covered Lukla with the fresh dusting from last night. Tanzing told us breakfast that flights have not started but probably they would, and we should just wait at the lodge rather than at the airport. We agreed and while we were packed, we just lounged around the dining room. A tell-tale sign would be some planes coming in which we would be able to spot given how small Lukla really is. But all we saw were helicopters.

Then just like that around noon, Tanzing said that they have opened the airport and we will be on the third flight out. We made a dash to the airport and they checked in our luggage. And then the ordeal started. We realized that everything does not really work the way it looks. Flights are scheduled and rescheduled to match what is being transported and who has what kind of say. The fact is that the planes service the trekkers, but they also carry many essential goods to other far flung places and all of the logistics is managed in real time on WhatsApp and mobile calls. Which makes the entire process seem like complete chaos. However, with a little patience it is survivable.

We got on the second last flight out of Lukla and reached Kathmandu with just about 90 mins before our flight to Delhi. And we still had to run to Yak and Yeti, repack everything into our suitcases and race back to the airport. That seemed near impossible except that our driver was a Fast and Furious level pro who weaved a medium sized bus through few of the busiest roads of Kathmandu from the airport to the hotel and back in under 30 mins and that included us repacking the luggage.
As fate would have it, the flight from Kathmandu to Delhi was delayed and we ended up having a few hours to kill at the airport. I might as well have stopped for the Gurkha beer at Chimney.
As we flew back to Delhi and started to think about our next adventure, we started to realize what an experience EBC was. For thirteen days we walked, acclimatized, shivered, soared and learned that sometimes the adventure can be just about the journey without conquering anything and sometimes you need to get lost enough to try to find your way back home.