This post is published 2 weeks late due to technical issues. Facebook readers: full story/pics @ Blog
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Day 4: ‘Dying’ on the mountain… Part 1
Today, we hiked to the village Portse, at 3800m. It started with an amazing, flat-ish hike with truly unbelievable views, which one actually can enjoy because one doe not need to plough up the mountain or carefully jump from rock to rock down.
Then we started to climb. Up, up and up. And up! 500m without one single stretch of flat or down. My legs got so heavy that I could barely lift them up to step up to the next stair/rock. My breathing technique failed once or twice which made me run out of breath. Not good fun! I got a little worried because we were ‘only’ at 4000m, far from 6200m.
Then I noticed a trail lower on our mountain and when I asked Prem, our guide, why we hadn’t taken that one, he simply replied that this was a technical training day for us, Loboche summiters, and he promised to take the easier way on our way back. I could have hugged him 🙂
Spot the yak below 🙂
I added the picture below to show the characteristics of the Himalaya. The plateau in the far is Portse, our next accomodation. Unfortunately, most villages are situated halfway up the mountains with many valleys to cross (and suspension bridges are luxous…) so it is going down-down-down and then up-up-up… And again… Well, let’s just say it is all for the greater purpose, pffff.
We haven’t seen much wild life. The below mountain goats were a nice distraction. Ps. Define wild life; we saw hundreds of yaks, of course. Moreover, we concluded that Prem, our guide, is a Yeti…
We reached our next lodge around 2 PM, just before the clouds came in and it started to snow. The temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees in a few minutes. We were inside but because the people have only limited energy supplies they only lit up the heater at 5.30 PM. So we sat again with our coats and gloves. This is becoming a normal procedure ?
Our accomodation with… and without clouds. 15 degrees difference!
Day 5: Hot showers in freezing conditions
Today, we hiked to Dingboche village, at 4,350m. The path was simply amazing. Basically, out of this world, one could see miles and miles up, down, left, right, and mountains everywhere, rivers and of course yak trains.
Our group appreciated that we arrived in the pre season. We barely had other hikers, so you could say we had the place to ourselves.
This came however at a price. As I already said, it is cold here, VERY cold. Without sun shine, life is really tough. We sat every evening waiting eagerly for the heater to be fired up, and stepping away more rhen two steps from the heater meant: down jacket on, beany on and gloves on.
At higher altitude, where there areno more trees, villagers burn yak poo (faeces, yes) in absence of any other flammable materials. Imagine all hikers sitting around a heater inhaling yak poo fumes. How funny!
What is also difficult in the cold, is taking showers. I already blogged about the ‘cold water hair wash’ but the next story is even better. After 6 days of no-shower/baby-wipe-wash-only, you would be quite desperate for a shower too right? Right! So, you pay 5 usd for 2 (?) buckets of hot water and then you need to find a way to not freeze in the process… My tactics were: 0) pray for sufficient water (to be repeated in each of the below steps). 1) undress upper body. 2) wash hair and tie it up to prevent dripping. 3) stipp off completely. 4) wash upper body and try to keep legs somewhat warm. 5) quickly dry upper body and put on thermal top whilst holding the shower head between your knees to keep legs warm. 6) wash lower body. 7) dry body, starting with toes asap. 8) dress dress dress. Quickly.
Hehehe, the shower was a funny experience. Should have taken a pic of the shower booth but I forgot. However funny, I promised myself not to shower again until back in Lukla…
Day Day 6: second ‘rest day’… aaahhrrgg
I don’t think I like rest days, honestly! Our drill instructor, aka guide, aka Prem wanted us to climb Chukkung at 5000m… That was a hefty 700m quite vertically up. In one go. We climbed and descended in snow and experienced how slippery this could be, especially on the way down. Wow. This climb took heaps of energy (chucking in some Aussie words for my hiking mates).
Our expedition team… happy to have reached the summit. It is interesting to experience that everyone has their Ups and downs on a multiday event. I struggled on day 2, whereas Ian suffered from blisters at the start, Jody caught a bug the night before basecamp day, and Ashley was undercooled on summit day. I guess Adrian is our ‘die hard’.
What I like about hiking that it is as much a team sport as an individual effort. You, and only you, can pace yourself so that you can keep going for hours and hours. Go a tat too fast and you wear out. The team can motivate, distract and hence relief your personal battle. To non-hiking readers, try it once or twice… is a brilliant way to create some headroom to think and make decisions ☺️
Prem – the Yeti. Our guide and saviour
Ian – the diesel. No stopping when he started. Half ironman veteran. Wow!
Ashley – the turtle. Not because she is slow but because of the beany. Super globetrotterr, just got back from South America. Beany of course from Galapagos!
Jody. Super hiker and a heart of gold. Xxx
Adrian – the hero. Summitted Loboche and wants to do Everest summit at 8,848. Chappeau!