Climbing some tall pointy rocks.

After posting on a couple of trekking bulletin boards about the treks I wanted to do, I got an email from David, an Irishman who had essentially organized a trek that did all the things I wanted to do in the Everest region. It made it significantly cheaper for him to share the cost of the guide and porter with a second person. Yes, we had a porter. I had no idea what kind of shape I was in after six months of traveling, and we both liked the idea of putting some money into the local economy. When I go back to Nepal in the future, I will most likely just be hiring the same porter and not hire a guide.



Day 1: Kathmandu (1,400m) to Lukla (2860m) to Phakding (2652m)
The adventure begins with a quick flight on a 16-seater airplane from Kathmandu to Lukla. The Lukla airport is one of the most dangerous in the world (apparently). The runway is tiny, and up a hill straight into the mountain. Because of this, flights are regularly delayed because of weather/cloudcover. Pro-tip, always buy the first flight out of the day because if they let any flight go, it will be that one. That's the one we were on, and as we were flying we got an absolutely STUNNING view as we flew along parallel to the Himalayas. Just as we were about to land, they closed the Lukla airport. So we did a u-turn, and flew back by the gorgeous mountains again. Some people pay a couple hundred dollars to do a "mountain-view flight" and we got it for free. That's how I'm choosing to see our delay. A couple hours later the clouds cleared, they loaded us up and we arrived in Lukla.

Yep, thats right. I got to watch them fly the tiny plane. Security isn't quite the same.

That airport is one of the most efficient I have ever seen. They were trying to get as many planes in and back out again before the weather changed. And the airport tarmac only had room for a couple planes. I kid you not, they had the plane unloaded and reloaded and ready to go in ten minutes. Ok maybe more like fifteen,but still.

Tiny airport. Runway down a hill.

I could tell right away I was at altitude because my heart rate jumped much more quickly walking up a hill than it normally would have. The difference in the way the air smelled from Kathmandu was extraordinary and delicious.

Gorgeous foggy afternoon walking along this river.

We had an easy walk after lunch to Phakding. We actually lost elevation, but it was a nice start.

Tiny human who's mom was super friendly.

After dropping our stuff off in Phakding we walked around a little bit. The first of the suspension bridges is in the background.

Day 2: Phakding to Namche Bazaar (3443m)
I like to call this day the day of stairs. I think it took us around six and a half hours. And after lunch  we basically spent a couple of hours huffing and puffing up stairs or switchbacks. We went over the tallest suspension bridge of the trip on this day. Let me see if I can set the scene for you on these bridges. There are porters (carrying loads of up to 60kg or about 120lbs and speeding by the trekkers and all their fancy gear), trekkers, yaks, and locals all using these trails. And going both directions. So it's a bit of a squeeze when two people go by eachother. On a swinging cable suspension bridge above a river. Aka don't-look-down-don't-look-down-walk-fast-walk-fast-don't-fall.

Yakety yak don't talk back

'Scuse me plz.

Doubbbble suspension bridge.

Namche Bazaar is the 'hub' for the trekking in the region. It's definitely the last stop to get any last minute gear or cheapish food. I bought myself a bunch of Snickers after realizing how great of trail food they are. There are tons of hotels and a few bars with drinking, pool, and TV. Several of them show Everest movies in the afternoon. I got to know this little town pretty well.

Day 3: Rest day
When they say rest, they don't actually mean rest. They mean acclimatization. Climb high sleep low. So we woke up early and started climbing. We walked up over the hill that Namche Bazaar is settled on and up to an amazing Everest viewpoint. We then kept going in a loop and walked through the villages of Khunde (3870m) and Khumjung (3840m) to the Khumjung Monastery. The monasteries are usually painted red on the outside and built slightly higher than the rest of the village.

Everest!

Umesh and Indra jokin' around.

The view from the monastary.

Day 4: Namche Bazaar to Dole (4038m)
The trails between Lukla and Namche were pretty busy, with trekkers, porters and yaks going up and down frequently. As we climbed out of Namche, the trail split. Go right on the bigger trail towards Everest Base Camp (EBC). Go left up a much smaller rockier trail to Gokyo. We got to go left. David and I both remarked that this part of the trail was much more what we were expecting. It was proper hiking trails not the wide flat paths we had been on. We gained a lot of elevation and definitely climbed out of the trees and out above treeline. It was just shortly before dark when we trudged into Dole.

Well above treeline!

I found photogenic yaks, okay.

*I feel like I should be more specific when I say "we trudged." David and I trudged. Umesh, our porter did not trudge. Neither did our guide Indra.*

Day 5: Dole to Machermo (4470m)
Now that we were well above treeline, the landscape and the trails changed significantly. Instead of walking constantly up or down through smaller valleys or alongside a river, we were slowly gaining altitude walking along the side of a much larger valley. After a quick morning, we reached Machermo for lunch. David wanted to push on to Gokyo, but I was feeling a lot less energetic than him so we ended up deciding to stay the night in Machermo. Dole to Gokyo would have meant gaining about 700m in one day, which is a lot of elevation change. Our guide had also slowed down and was hiking slower than us. There's a medical outpost in Machermo that did a talk on Acute Mountain Sickness. The medical outpost exists to treat trekkers, but its primary focus is to provide medical care for any porters or guides that are in need. They provide things like antibiotics or a discussion with a doctor for an affordable price by Nepali standards. Our guide (who was from Kathmandu) was given antibiotics because he had been drinking the water from the streams in the mountains without purifying it in any way. He didn't realize that the water could still be dirty outside of the city, and was having a lot of issues because of this. Getting him some antibiotics and explaining he should only drink boiled water fixed him up pretty quickly.

Nom plz.

Snickers snack break!

The view of the valley looking back towards Namche Bazaar. The valley you hike up for EBC is to the left.

The AMS talk was super interesting. We found out that the valley we were hiking in was referred to sometimes as the valley of death because it gives so many people altidude sickness problems. The elevation change is so gradual, that if a person starts to have serious altitude sickness, it can take several hours to descend to a low enough elevation to feel better. If they are sick enough, it can make this walk very difficult or not possible.

Day 6: Machermo to Gokyo (4790m)
The next morning we got a bit of a late start because we knew we had a short day, and we wanted to sleep in a little bit. It was another day of walking along the side of the valley in the wind. David said the landscape with the brush and lichen covered rocks actually reminded him of bits of Ireland. We finally got up to where we were hiking on snow and ice. Snow and ice that melted in to sun so during the day it became mud and snow and water. Yum yum.

SNOW!

She wouldn't let me take any photos of her or her yaks from any closer without money. I just really liked the contrast of the red with the snow.

We got to Gokyo with plenty of daylight left. I spent a little bit of time walking around the town. David wandered up and took a peek at the glacier right behind Gokyo. I had never heard ice that was so active before. I knew frozen lakes popped and cracked, but this was something else entirely.

I headed to bed early because we had to be up super early the next day for our "rest day."

I can't explain how cold it was to wake up in the middle of the night to climb out of all your layers, blankets, and down sleeping bag to to pee. Just not ideal.

Day 7: Gokyo Ri (5380m)
Gokyo Ri is a peak just outside Gokyo that gives an amazing view of the some of the highest peaks. On a clear day it afford one of the best views of Everest from the base to the peak (you can't see this as you get closer to EBC).  We had heard that the few days before had been cloudy, or the clouds had rolled in really early in the morning, so we were on our way by 630am. Holy balls that's way earlier than my muscles are used to being used.

Glacier behind the village, lake in front.

As we climbed the trail changed from walking on dirt to walking entirely on snow. Hiking steep hills at such a high altitude is a weird experience. It definitely felt like my brain was a bit confused by the lack of oxygen. Like it knew that normally breathing that hard would get way more oxygen in my blood. We definitely all only had one speed. Trudge trudge trudge, breath. Repeat. Except Umesh and some of the other Nepalis. He had no problem running up the switchbacks in his beat up tennis shoes.

Umesh, with Everest in the background as clouds rolled in.

About halfway up, we noticed clouds rolling in so I managed to snag a couple photos with my phone. By the time we got up to the top, some of the big-name mountains had been covered by clouds, but the view was still breathtaking. We were so far above Gokyo, and we could see mountains in all directions, a glacier, and even the part of the Himalayas in Tibet. Best Snickers snack spot ever.

I made Chinese friends at the top!

Glacier, mountains.

One of my favorite photos of my trip. This is totally unedited.

As the clouds rolled in faster we headed back down to the guesthouse. As a celebration of the amazing view I spoiled myself and bought a bucket of water. For $6. At all of the guesthouses, it was pretty expensive to do laundry, take a shower, charge a battery, or connect to wifi. But I got to have clean hair. And laundry. And we went to a bakery and treated ourselves to sweets at a little bakery. I was pretty much the happiest of campers. As the afternoon progressed, the clouds that rolled in brought with them wind and snow. It became clear that we were not going to be able to cross the pass over to get to EBC like we had planned. Instead we would walk back down the other side of the valley, and up the valley EBC's in.

The happiest of Rawrs.