I woke up at the usual6 AM, but this time to bad news. Kirk had a rough night. Splitting headache, nausea, fatigue, and no sleep from 12:30 to 6 AM. He had acute mountain sickness (AMS). He scored 5 on the Lake Louise AMS scoring system, not including the headache. The move here is immediate descent. Kirk wasn’t interested in hiking lower so we hailed him a chopper and he flew to Lukla and then to Kathmandu. Paul, one of our leaders also developed AMS, but his score, not including headache was 3, so he couldn’t go higher, but didn’t need to be evacuated. So instead of joining us to Lobuche, he is going to meet us in Pheriche in 3 nights. Pheriche is essentially the same altitude as Dengboche.
I had a headache all night but was feeling much better after 800 mg of kidney punishing of ibuprofen.
Kirk’s helicopter came in and whisked him away so fast we didn’t really get to say goodbye. Technology can make these transitions happen so fast. H/T Mark.
The hike out of town was up out of the valley and crowded with a long train of people all going to EBC. We were on a hikers highway. When we climbed out of the valley on to the plain we emerged into a stunning alpine meadow spotted with half-abandoned yak-herder shelters and yak pens. The meadow reminded Jeff and I of the alpine meadow on the way to Snowbird Pass in Mount Robson Provincial Park. We hiked this meadow for hours. It was a gentle uphill. After about an hour we got a glimpse of Pheriche below us.
Note the lateral moraine to the right of me.
As we hiked along we encountered and named a couple of dogs, Eddie and Scooter. Eddie followed us all the way to lunch and was rewarded with a warm chapati. Lucky dog. As we were hiking we could see a lateral moraine for an unnamed glacier on the left. We could see a growing lateral moraine on our right too. As we approached lunch we started to climb the lateral moraine on the right, which functionally meant traversing a precarious boulder field to cross the rattiest bridge yet.
The town of Dhugla is like two buildings and one of them is an outhouse. This is where we were headed for lunch. It looks close but we had to navigate quite a boulder field, cross a river and renegotiate another boulder field to actually get there.
Why would you be nervous about that bridge?
Jen with Eddie in the background.
Both the stream and the boulder field were glacial detritus and were a good hint of the afternoon to come. For lunch we had noodle soup in at auxiliary room and then we moved into the main dining room for warm chapati, and peanut butter and honey. More than a few cans of Pringles were purchased.
Noodle soup.
Still life with lemon tea and OMD-EM10
When everything needs to be carried up by a person or a yak, you come up with creative solutions for mundane things like “door handles.”
After lunch we lost Eddie the dog and headed up a tough incline. We were climbing from the valley floor on to the lateral moraine we would be on for the remainder of the climb. It was a long tough climb on scree and talus. At the top of the first pitch we came to Memorials for Fallen Climbers. This collection of memorials, much like gravestones, is dedicated to to climbers who have died on the mountains around us. We saw Scott Fisher’s memorial there. Fisher was the leader of Mountain Madness, that was made famous in Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. Rob Hall supposedly has a memorial up at basecamp. Hoping to see that in a few days (I looked around when we made it a few days later and didn’t see it). The clouds were rolling in and the wind was blowing making for an eerie setting.
How eggs get up the mountain: On the back of a porter. After seeing this I stopped complaining about the price of breakfast.
After the memorials we had a long steady hike up punctuated by a series of more serious climbs for the remainder of the afternoon. With the loose rock, you had to think about where you were going to place every step. I rolled into Lobuche at 3:50. Good time. Renee and Shawn came in last. Renee didn’t look good and a porter was carrying her pack.
Renee went right to bed when she arrived. We had popcorn as a snack in the teahouse, a common teahouse snack. Weird right?
Dinner was Dahl bat. After dinner we discussed the next few days. The plan for tomorrow was to leave at 8 AM to hike to Gorek Shep. Have lunch and then hike on to EBC. That part seemed straight forward. Then they brought up the following day. The next day according to the itinerary was to hike up to Kalapatthar, the high point of the trip and a genuine peak (we haven’t hiked to a peak on this trip up to this point). Kalapatthar is supposed to have a great view of Everest. You can’t see the mountain from EBC. The itinerary then says we would hike down to Pheriche, a distance that we needed more than 2 days to cover going up. The leaders, Jim, Paul, Bishnu all said this was too much and strenuously recommended against doing this. Then Alicia and Kelley said they would not be going to Kalapatthar. So all of the people who organized and designed the trip that was described as something that would be “difficult but doable by someone of average fitness” were now telling us that the itinerary was too difficult and they recommended against doing this portion of the trip. They did say that if some people wanted to do the trip they would send a Sherpa to assist but would guide the remainder of the group down.
Reading the room it seemed that almost everyone was okay with missing Kalapatthar except for Mark, Ellen, Ryan and me. I kept wrestling with this over the night and gradually shifted my feeling. I promised my family I would not do anything stupid and going on a spur trip against the advice of all the leaders started to feel like something stupid. Events that would unfold the following day that would eliminate any chance of climbing Kalapatthar so this mental debate was all for naught.
I was cashed after the group meeting and went to my room and was asleep by 7:45.
They told us to drink lots of water.
Lobuche was one of the trashiest Tea Houses we stayed at.
Only Sherpas smoke at altitude.