Author: Joel Topf

The plan was to get a slightly earlier start. Instead of rolling at 8:30 we were going to start hiking at 8:00.

This didn’t happen.

Renee had a rough night. She had a severe splitting headache. She was nauseated. She was a mess. It was an easy decision to evacuate her by helicopter. Shawn, of course, went with her. She told me that she had miscalculated her AMS score the day before and she shouldn’t have ascended yesterday. Not good. We all said good bye. It was great to hear that instead of leaving Nepal, they planned on waiting for the rest of the crew in Kathmandu. So we would see them again. We wanted to see them off, but when we were ready to go the helicopter was still refueling in Lukla. Jim called it, we couldn’t wait and we needed to start hiking.

The Lobuche Helipad

It was a cold night and lots of people had frozen water bottles and frozen Camelbacks. People showed ingenuity in working around this:

• Lots of water bottles strapped to packs that day. If you are going to use a CamelBack, always have a Nalgene or two in reserve if it springs a leak or freezes.
• Future experiment: How much vodka would you need to add to the CamelBack to lower the freezing temp to around zero?
• Good suggestion from Kelly: after taking a drink from your CamelBack, blow back into it in order to blow the water back into the reservoir and so it doesn’t remain in the tubing where it is prone to freezing.

The hike continued the climb on the lateral moraine of the Kumbu glacier. It was hard hiking the loose talus of the moraine. We had frequent climbs, some of them prolonged, and we were hiking from 15,500 to 17,000 feet so the air was pretty thin.

We had some fluffy white clouds chasing us up the mountain all day.

As we climbed higher and higher we finally saw the Kumbu glacier. It isn’t a clean glacier like you see in Alaskan glaciers. The Kumbu Glacier, at least below Gorek Shep, is covered with gravel. The glacier blends right into the surrounding terrain of loose talus and skree. However, periodically the disguise would fail and you could see the ice poke through the gravel and reveal the deception. We were hiking next to a massive slow flowing river of ice covered by a thin veneer of stone.

Besides the domesticated mammals that were common on the lower mountain we saw very little animal life in the Himalayas. Today was an exception as we ran into a family (flock) of Himalayan Snow Cocks.

We hiked a solid four hours and rolled into Gorek Shep at around 12:30. The weather started deteriorating toward the end of the hike and while we were eating lunch it started to snow. During lunch we were informed that the trip to basecamp was a six-hour round trip, and that even if the weather was good we wouldn’t be able to make the trip to EBC today. So the new plan was to wake up early and go to EBC on fresh legs tomorrow. Not doing EBC today meant that Kalapatthar was off the table. No views of Everest for us.

Gorek Shep in all of its glory (with helicopter)The hot shower? Fake news.loading the stove with dried yak dung. The tea houses would only have a stove going in the evening. Since we were going to be there during the day, we had to pay them a few hundred rupees to light the stove early.

Note that inside, around a stove everyone has their down and hats on. It was cold.

What was frustrating to me was that even if we had hit our original depart time of 8 AM we would have arrived at Gorek Shep at noon, add an hour for lunch and then 6 hours for round tripping it to basecamp and back and it becomes clear that it would not have been enough time to make it without headlamps. For this plan of Lobuche to EBC and then back to Gorek Shep for dinner and sleep to work we needed to start at dawn (6 AM). By starting at 8 AM, which got pushed to 8:30, Kalapatthar was never going to happen.

So the rest of the day was rest. Just chill in the highest teahouse in the world. And chill we did. It was really cold. Ben and I explored outside a bit as the weather improved in the afternoon. We found the famous “This way to Everest Basecamp” sign.

We came inside, had some popcorn. Then I went to our room to nap before dinner. The morning had been hard and just resting at 17,000 feet was exhausting. That’s when I found out our room was not exactly “in”the teahouse, but rather in an annex just outside the teahouse. Now I had gotten used to shared bathrooms down the hall from my room, but now using the bathroom meant going outside and walking to the main teahouse. Not cool, especially as nighttime temps were falling below zero.

Gorek Shep feels like it is on the edge of the world. No WiFi. No cell service. Even our GPS stopped broadcasting. They did not offer any electricity for charging phones. Gorek Shep is the world’s highest teahouse and felt like the end of civilization.

Tomorrow we have a hike, from Gorek Shep up to EBC and then down to Pheriche, a distance we spent two days hiking up. Push day.

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.

We started the morning in Tengboche. I slept through the night for the first time since coming to this side of the globe. Only took me a week to flip my biologic clock. We were sleeping at 12,000 feet, the altitude at the top of Breckinridge. Anytime I have been at the peak of Breck, all I want to do is get off the top because it was too cold, too windy, and a distinct lack of O’s.

We packed our stuff then went to the Tengboche temple to see a Buddhist service. The temple was amazing. It was phenomenally detailed and intricately decorated. It was full of symbols, all too inscrutable for me to understand. The service began with one monk chanting and then another one joined in and then finally a third monk joined in. There was a forth monk, that I think was an intern because all he did we dutifully refill the tea cups of the three tenors. After watching them chant for close to an hour we stood up and funneled through a line where a monk offered a short prayer for each of us and presented us with a ritual scarf, Katas. One of our photographers, John, was granted permission to film the service. They told him that no one had filmed it for 10 years. Not sure about that because there is a scene in both Into Thin Air and Everest that looked like they were filmed in that room. My final take on the experience, “cold but peaceful.”

After the service we had breakfast and then packed up and set out. I continued to be frustrated by the small size of the day pack. It is only 26 liters and it was nearly impossible to pack my down, rain gear, first aid kit, sun hat and warm, and gloves, snacks, water, sun screen. This was made worse by the fact that our duffles were loaded on the yaks early so by the time we were done with breakfast the gear was packed tight so anything you needed for the morning you needed to carry. This has been killing me especially because I need the iPad and scale to record morning weights.

The hike started down through a beautiful and fragrant rhododendron Forrest. We were following a guy carrying corrugated steel on his back. That looked pretty heavy. Stay in college kids or you may find yourself carrying corrugated steel up the Himalayas. We passed Rivendell and gave our regards to Elrond and the elves.

Rhodedendron Forrest. Just like the Smokeys.We cruised down from Tengboche until we hooked up with the Dudh Cosi, the river which drains the Kumbu Ice Fall (The Ice Fall is the first obstacle after leaving Basecamp when climbing Mount Everest). It was a cool hike and for a long time that morning we were able to look over our shoulder and see Tengboche. We passed a collapsed bridge from the 2015 earthquake. In fact people were always pointing out earthquake damage all along the trip. It was a defining moment for the entire region, both in the mlountains and in Kathmandu. The ridge was a pile of twisted steel still connected to one side of the ravine.

We crossed on a higher bridge. It was an exciting bridge crossing. I have enjoyed all of them except for that famous double bridge. That one was just too high for me. This one was fine. As the group started crossing the bridge some yaks started crossing from the other side so some of us turned around (hence the people facing both ways on the bridge picture above). We cruised until about 1:00 and came in for a well deserved lunch. It was a vegetable soup called Sherpa’s Stew. We ate it in a cool tea houses. All of the tea houses have a eating area that has windows on three sides with great views.

After lunch we cruised into Dengboche. We had magnificent views of Ama Dablan, Everest and Lohtse. But mostly Ama Dablan. Dengboche is a small village. We stayed at the Everest Resort. The resort name is quite a stretch. We are starting to see mountain inflation. Lower on the mountain water was 100 rupees for a liter. At Dengboche it was 250 rupees. In Tangboche they charged your phone for 300 rupees. In Dengboche they charged 300 rupees for an hour of charge.

At 14,000 feet when the wind begins to blow its gets cold fast. Note: Corrugated Steele Guy in the background.

The graffitti you see in the Himalayas is…different.Plastic cups are light and don’t break. Perfect for Himalayan Tea Houses, but Peter Rabbit?Crossing the Dudh Cosi (again)The kids on the trail were cute.Ama DablamSolar powered tea kettle warmer could boil water, possibly helped by the high altitude. We saw these reflectors everywhere.

The hike into DengbocheClouds over Dengboche. Almost every afternoon we had clouds roll in, at higher altitudes this usually meant hiking in the mist.Popcorn a staple snack in the tea houses. Who knew?Checking vital signs in Dengboche.

That night Jim and English Paul talk about altitude sickness. We were now at over 14,000 feet, about as high as any place in the continental US. They said this was the place where we might see people start to get sick. They went over the Lake Louise Acute Mountain Sickness Score and asked us to assess ourselves every morning and every night.

Later that night Mark and I did a duet of The Cremation of Sam McGee.

After a rest day in Namche it is back to the dusty trail as we hike from Namche Bazar to Tengboche.

Up to now our rooms on the trek have had amenities like electric outlets and in-room bathrooms, well we made it to Tengboche and the teahouse had neither of these. There are two wash closets down the hall but even these have their idiosyncrasies like padlocks on them until 5:30 PM. Why? No one knows. It is the way of Tengboche.

The other cute feature of the bathroom is that the toilets don’t flush. There is an 80 gallon drum of water and a coffee can floating in the water. After you do your business, you simply flush the toilet by pouring water into the toilet. This took me more than a few moments to figure out.

The electricity is no longer included in your rent for the night, but they will be happy charge your device for 300 rupees, about $3.

But let’s start at the beginning.

We woke at 6:00 and had porridge and eggs with naan bread for breakfast. Eating porridge made me want to complain that this bowl was too hot and that bowl was too cold, until I finally found one that was just right.

Then our packs were loaded on yaks and away we went. The hike was up out of town as we went over the ridge the city is built on.

We hiked along the the ridge with a great view of Ama Dablam. Ama Dablam means Mother’s Treasure Box. The mountain has a central peak with a subsidiary peak on either side (you can only see the one on the left in the picture below.) The image is supposed to look like a woman’s head and two arms. In the middle of the central peak is large hanging glacier that is supposed to represent a broach or “treasure box.”

The weather was perfect. Cloudless blue sky. Visibility for miles. Stopped for some pics.

After a few hours we stopped for a tea break. Zonder broke out the chili spiced dehydrated mango. This is an amazing hiking food.

Then we continued onward and downward as we left the ridge and headed for river level.

We crossed the river on another epic bridge, this time over rapids.

Then we had lunch. The place teased us by advertising donuts, but it was too early in the season for the bakery to be open. They promised us that they would have donuts on our return trip later in the week. (We’ll see.)

Then after lunch an ascent, a big ascent. Just like the hike into Namche Bazar the hike to Tengboche had a 2,500 foot vertical climb packed into the after lunch hike. This is a Mount Democrat climb packed into the second half of a day. This part of the climb was particularly busy with lots of Yaks. There is a biological heir by to the animals in the Himalayas. Tengboche was about as high as you would see donkeys, and in the climb to Tengboche we saw our first long-haired yaks. Below this point we had seen yak-horse (or maybe donkey?) hybrids. But up high it was the real yak.

During the climb the clouds began rolling in. Then we were in the clouds. We hiked in the clouds all the way to Tengboche.

After this epic climb with endless switchbacks, rolling into Tengboche was a magical moment.

We had dinner, played around with the pulse oximeter (strangely the Sherpa’s had lower oxygen saturation than the trekkers) met some college students going on the same hike we were. Ben, the photographer, played Spoons with them and relieved them of some of their excess rupees.

Lowest pulse ox of the group 83 from one of our Sherpas. This surprised me. We are at 12,660 feet. #MM4MM pic.twitter.com/gfY2AD9MDh

— Joel M. Topf, MD FACP (@kidney_boy) March 8, 2018

Their curve RBCs oxygen pressure to saturation curve has shifted. They don’t saturate because of lower affinity, and hence are much better in releasing it to the cells

— Poyan Mehr (@poyanmehr) March 9, 2018

To paraphrase one of my fawm mentors. Above 14,000ft a pulse ox is about as useful as a neurosurgeon. Should I bring one if I can? Sure. Is it going to give me a lot helpful information? Probably not.

— Expedition Journal (@expedjournal) March 9, 2018

Namche Bazar for a day with no hiking. We were spending a rest day before going any higher to help with acclimatization. This is the only non-hiking day we have on the trek. This meant a luxurious 9:00 Am breakfast time. After breakfast Silva, Jeff, John, Paul, and Jim walked about 20 minutes to the Tenzing Norgay memorial at a park on the top of the city. The memorial is a statue of Tenzing posing with his ice ax. It is a sculptural representation of the picture you have seen a thousand times of him summiting Everest.

My favorite part of the statue was the “No climbing” sign place un-ironically on its base.

The park is at the high point of the city and gives a great view of the high peaks of the Himalayas. This is where I saw Everest for the first time, right along side the statue of the first man to ascend the mountain. It was a moving experience to finally see it after planning and preparing for this trip for the last 14 months.

After the memorial we went down into the shops of Namche Bazar. All of us were pretty concerned by how cold it was the night before and wanted to buy additional clothes. I bought some warm socks for the tea house ($3.50), a warmer hat ($3.50), and some down gloves ($9). Then we went for Pizza at the Namche Bazar Bakery and Pizza (number 1 bakery on TripAdvisor). After lunch we went to a North Face store and were shocked by the North Face prices. It’s amazing how fast you get used to counterfeit prices.

Then I went to the Liquid Bar to see the movie Everest. A few of the bars in town show free movies at 3:00. All the movies are climbing movies. They know their audience. It was about the 1996 Everest disaster that Krakauer wrote about in Into Thin Air. The movie had some great shots of the climbers going to basecamp including Kathmandu International Airport, the double bridge, and the entrance to Namche Bazar. It was wild seeing the places I just visited in the last few days on film.

After the movie we had dinner and a pep talk. Then off to bed by 9 PM.

It was a nice rest day.

It was a day that felt like a real vacation: see a cultural high point, do some shopping, grab some pizza, and see a movie. Very ordinary.

So the plan for the day was to wake up early and hike 3 hours to Phakding, meet the rest of the group, the 6 who slept there and the 7 who will be flying in by helicopter. Then hike 7 hours to Namche Bazar. A long day but one that puts us back on our schedule and erases all of the chaos of the previous day.

That was the plan and it worked.

Our crew woke at 5:30 for a breakfast of eggs and Nepali bread. Yum. We threw down a couple of cups of coffee and we were hiking by 6:15 AM.

The hike was great. It was on a busy road with constant yak and donkey traffic.

There were a bunch of cute dogs and an equal number of seriously mangey dogs (not photographed) on the trail.

Our crew hiked fast and made quick work of the 3 hour hike to Phakding. At one point I got quite a bit ahead of the group. I thought I was in second position but it turned out I was in front, way out in front. I came to a school with the name Phakding on it. So I figured I better stop. Saw a cool wild strawberry.

We passed some neat Mani stones, prayer wheels, earthquake damage, and a hydroelectric project.

The thin line in the background is a pipeline and you can trace it to the hydroelectric station at the bottom right.

water powered flour mill. earthquake damage

We crossed some cool bridges over some tall ravines and rivers.

We hooked up with the group at their hotel. Everyone was there. We had a second breakfast, like hobbits, and then started hiking. The hiking was along the Kumbu river. This is the glacier run off from the famous Kumbu ice falls that are just above Everest Basecamp. The traffic on the trail was intense, we were being passed in both directions by teams of mules and yaks. We stopped for lunch and had Dahl Bhat. What else?

Everyone was in high spirits. Our group had hiked three hours before meeting the other group and clicked off two and a half hours before lunch. Then Jim broke down the rest of the day. He informed us that the hiking we had done (which represented an ascent of 600 feet) was Nepalese flat, and that the afternoon was going to Nepalese steep. We had started the day in Lukla at 9,353 feet. Then we hiked down to Phakding at 8,689. Lunch was at 9,280, still below where we woke up that morning. After lunch we were going to climb from 9,280 to 11,320. The afternoon was going to hurt. This deflated the mood.

The afternoon delivered the pain. We did get to see a yak going in one direction on a bridge and run into a team of mules going the other direction. Very exciting. We saw another mule kick a boulder on a steep down hill that then started rolling down. The down hill mules moved fast to avoid getting hurt by the falling rocks.

We saw the famous double bridge that is seen in the movie Everest. But mostly we got to go up hill, lots of uphill.

Ellen, a former marine colonel and current triathlete, is the fastest hiker of the group. Right there with her is Ryan, also a triathlete. The group spreads out pretty far on the trail.

I re-memorized The Cremation of Sam McGee during the hike. I think I want to find another poem to memorize for the next hiking day.

We formally entered the Sagarmatha National Park during this climbing afternoon. This immediately and dramatically changed the character of the hike. Prior to this we had been hiking through a linear village arraigned along the trail. This is not only to drain the wallets of the trekkers hiking the trail, but also because the trail is the only source of outside goods to these people. So here we are in this remote place on earth, inaccessible to cars and trucks and yet we are passing a guy hocking Coca-Cola and Mars Bars every 60 feet. But after passing the gate it all faded away and we were really on a much more isolated road. It is hard to call it wilderness, since this was still a road representing the economic umbilical cord for all the villages that lie above us.

before you think bad of me for all of my spelling mistakes understand that I am hiking in a part of the world where welcome is two words.

I may have more to write about this day later but I need to finish this up. We hiked until 5:30 and entered Namche Bazar. The place has built its entrance like Disney does an entrance. It is spectacular with a beautiful gate followed by fountains and a series of large prayer wheels going up the hill. It is striking.

garlic soup is a thing, and it is good.

Today was the day we were going to the mountain.

The itinerary was clear: fly from Kathmandu to Lukla and then hike 3 miles downhill to Phakding.

It didn’t work out quite that way.

We woke up at 4:45 for a 5:00 AM breakfast followed by a group picture and a bus ride to the airport.

The Kathmandu International Airport is chaos personified. Noise. Cars. Monkeys.

We got in something that resembled a line and then we went through something that resembled security while people were pushing from all sides. Security was a decidedly informal affair. You did not need to take your shoes off. Liquids were fine. My metal detector flashed red from my phone in the pocket, I was waved though. After we got through security we moved to another room where we checked the luggage.

It was here that we saw that the flights to Lukla were delayed due to wind. We waited in that room for about 2 hours before the sign gets taken down and Lukla is open for business. We then go through another round of security. This one is much more fastidious with a few of our team having pocket knives confiscated and all of us getting an uncomfortably personal pat down. This put us in the gate area. More waiting.

While waiting, the first flight to Lukla, the one that had already taken off, returned with all of its passengers. The plane flew the 40 minutes to Lukla and couldn’t land. Lukla has one of the world’s shortest runways. It is so short that it pitches up 20 degrees to assist in slowing airplanes down for landing, and accelerating them for take off. To make things even more treacherous the end of the landing strip is a cliff so airplanes can’t easily abort a landing and try again. A landing a Lukla requires total commitment. So the plane made it to Lukla circled around a bit and didn’t attempt a landing due to visibility, or wind, or something, so they returned to Kathmandu.

https://youtu.be/jhvpwDuh3C4

Seeing those people return to the gate took the energy out of the team. We sat around the gate until noon. And they called our number, actually they called half of our numbers, our group is too big to fit on one airplane. Our group left the gate, boarded the bus and drove to the airplane, drunk with excitement.

We arrived at the airplane and the mood deflated. There was a crew of ten maintenance men & women wandering around the plane with the cowling off the left engine. We waited on the bus for about 15 minutes and then turned around and headed back to the terminal. Despite the maintenance crew it was a weather problem. The looks on the team that was waiting for the second airplane when we strolled back in was utter disappointment. It was mirror of our own emotions. The word was they would try to fly again at 2 PM. This was for a 9:00 AM flight.

2 PM approached it became clear that no one was flying to Lukla. But while we were eating moo moos and chow mein, Jim and Bishnu were burning the phones working alternatives. They gathered everybody and told us to leave the gate because we were going by helicopter!

Ooooh Exciting! The helicopter offered the opportunity of skipping past Lukla and landing in the lower, and hence less windy, Phakding. We divided into groups of 6 that weighed less than 540 kg. Nope change that to 520 kg because they wanted a full load of fuel. I tried not to be concerned that the helicopter company was called Fishtail Airlines.

Our group was Ellen, Anne Marie, JP, Stan, Ryan, and myself. We went back through security, including the overly handsy pat down, loaded into a van, and drove out to another part of the airport and…waited. But this time outside. Our helicopter landed, and was refueled. By gravity.

Then we were told it was too windy and if we couldn’t leave by three, we would be grounded until four because the whole airspace was being shut down so the prime minister of Pakistan could land (He coming for a two-day state visit). Right before the airspace shut down one helicopter with 6 of our group took off. We, on the other hand remained at our pleasant picnic table eating crackers. We could see another 6 of our group across the runway hanging by their equally grounded helicopter. Then we piled into the van and headed back to the terminal.

There, we figured we would head back to the hotel and take another run at this tomorrow, sans wind and Pakistani prime ministers. But no, Bishnu was not defeated yet. He bullied and cajoled another helicopter crew to take us. These guys were either less safety conscious or more desperate for the dough, but they agreed to take us. We weighed in, this time we were going with 5 people. Ryan was out. Then back through security. Back past the gentle molestation with a smile and out into, not a bus, not a van, but a luggage vehicle. Women in the cab, men with the cargo.

This time was different because we actually got into the aircraft! We took off and flew to Phakding. Except the helicopter wasn’t going to Phakding, it was going to Lukla, something we didn’t realize until we were on the ground bewildered that we were in the wrong place. The helicopter ride was pretty bumpy, pretty scary. We went through clouds with zero visibility. It was a white knuckler to the wrong place.

We texted upon landing we texted our leaders (thank god I bought that local SIM card, because I didn’t have the leaders numbers but Stan did, so he logged onto my hotspot and was able to establish communication) and it turns out another helicopter that landed a few moments ahead of us, also went to Lukla. They had secured rooms at a local tea house, the Namaste Inn. We humped it to the tea house had some masala tea and dinner (fried rice, chips, and vegetarian spring roll). There we learned the what had become of our group. The first helicopter group that left before three, indeed made it to Lukla and did the hike to Phakding. They had to use headlamps to make the final kilometer, as they were hiking in the dark. Two helicopters full of people were in Lukla for the night and would hike to Phakding at first light. Six people didn’t get out of Kathmandu and were back at our previous hotel. They were going to fly to Phakding at 7 and land by 8 the next day. Fingers crossed.

Travel in the Himalayas is not routine and does not follow your itinerary. To think you can schedule when and where you fly is just hubris.

Today was the last day before we begin trekking. As usual I woke up early, though it is getting later and later as my biological time zone catches up to my geographic time zone. I had a decent breakfast with most of the team. After breakfast I needed to replace the toiletries that I left on the bed in Huntington Woods on Thursday.

Ben used the wonders of google maps to find a drug store that turned out to be more of grocery store. I was able to get my deodorant and tooth brush (I had already replace the toothpaste), but Ellen needed a pharmacy so off we went. First north, then south. Past the crazy wedding car. Past the French embassy. And finally, after getting no closer to our goal, and realizing the futility of Google Maps in the twisted streets and back alleys of Kathmandu, we encountered a friendly Sherpa who guided us to a pharmacy. On the way back I bought a local SIM card with 10 gb of data for $22.

In Kathmandu with #MM4MM

Cipro eye drops: $0.25 for a bottle. No Rx needed.

SIM Card: $22.50 for 10 gb of data. Need passport, photo, page long application. pic.twitter.com/HvcPj17acs

— Joel M. Topf, MD FACP (@kidney_boy) March 4, 2018

Then we had a morning meeting where we went over our equipment and weight limits. The guides and sherpas on our trip are surprisingly hostile to prophylactic acetazolamide while simultaneously extolling the ability of a positive attitude, a swallow of water, and mushroom soup to stave off altitude illness. A number of them support the use of symptomatic acetazolamide. At one point, one of the guides said acetazolamide only treats altitude illness and does not prevent it. I could hold my tongue no longer and blurted out the reference I covered on PBFluids months ago. In this study a randomized, blinded trial was done on the very route we were hiking. It showed that acetazolamide (Diamox) prevented the development of acute mountain sickness, both mild and severe.

The discussion on acetazolamide continued. The discussion on equipment continued. And then we broke up and did final packing. We had lunch and I had my first course of dahl bat. This delicacy of rice and lentils is a mountain staple and will be what fuels the team up to Everest Basecamp.

I loved it. I’m going to be just fine with Nepalese mountain food.

After lunch we gathered to board a bus to go visit the Monkey Temple and Boudhanath Stupa. We were all waiting in the lobby when I realized I had forgotten my sunglasses so I ran up to the room, borrowed the key from the cleaning staff, grabbed my sunglasses, ran back down to the lobby. Empty. Everyone was gone. I figured they must have just left so I walked out of the hotel grounds. Still no peeps. So Plan B: get a passport picture (I needed one for entry to the park and had used my last one getting the SIM card). I figured I’d get the picture then hail a cab and hook up with the group at the Monkey Temple. So I walked to the main drag (I had seen a photo place on our wanderings, looking for a pharmacy that morning) where I bumped into English Paul. Paul had to run out to do some last minute errands but he told me where to catch the crew. So I hustled back to the Radisson parking lot and hopped the bus.

Big mistake. I was at the back of the bus, on a bumpy road, with a belly full of dahl bat. It was hot stuffy and I could barely understand the tour guide. Traffic was terrible and it took an hour to reach Boudhanath Stupa.

The Boudhanath Stupa is a Buddhist religious site. It is a world heritage site. Surrounding the base are prayer wheels. You are supposed to circle the building clockwise and need to circle it only clockwise and an odd number of times. Thankfully 1 is an odd number. We then checked out a Thangka art school. A super knowledgeable proprietor gave an amazing lecture on symbology in the art and the various techniques that the artists use. He showed us how to differentiate a master from a novice. I was able to escape without buying one. (You’re welcome Cathy).

When we got back to the hotel I went for the passport photo. After that I went to the porch where a number of trekkers were hanging out. I brought out my scale, pulse oximeter, and blood pressure cuff and started gathering baseline data on almost everyone in the group for my science experiment. I’m totally going to win the science fair this year. People were really supportive and I got 15 out of 18 of our group to go through baseline data. Really excited for this.

Then we had dinner. And we were all given personalized headbands. I am Detroit Runner.

After dinner I went back to Bablo’s T-shirt emporium and bought a hat.

(That’s not the hat, this is)

I capped off the night by having a drink with an exiled Indian national that now makes his living as an arms dealer, though he preferred the title “defense contractor.” (My favorite part of the encounter was when he answered his phone “Yes General, thanks for calling me back”).

You meet all types at the hotel bar in Kathmandu.

Tomorrow Lukla!

All day I have been trying to think of a funny joke among the line of “What’s an interventional cardiologist’s favorite city? Kathmandu.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Keep the day job.

I woke up at 1:00 AM

Went back to bed until 3:00 AM

Got up and started my day.

Figured out to use the origami coffee bags. Very cool.

Went down for breakfast. What a feast. The Korean breakfast at Paradise City was awesome. They had this noodle bar. I filled my cup with some noodles, lettuce, chicken meatballs, and some mushrooms. I took the bowl back toward my table when I was intercepted by the noodle chef who ran that station. Turned out it was a soup bar. Make you own soup. Once you have all the ingredients the chef boils it to cook the veggies and noodles. Total tourist move.

During breakfast we all agree that we have successfully made the leap to local Korean Time and congratulate ourselves on strategic withholding of sleep. (Important post script for this conversation: later That day, at around 2 PM, we all fell dead asleep on the plane. Total time zone hubris)

The Korean dad at the table next to us was wearing a Detroit Tigers hat. I asked him if he was a Tiger fan. Nope never heard of them. In fact there were lots of American sports logos everywhere you looked:  Tiger Woods, New York Yankees, Michael Jordan.

I started my acetazolamide.

We took the bus to the airport and it was amazing that nothing in Inchion looked older than a year. The airport was filled with American and Luxury brands. The Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme and Jamba Juice surprised me.

We flew out on Korean Air Boing 777. John and I were in the middle section, each of us on the aisle without a middle passenger. Score! We flew all the way across China, seven-hours to Kathmandu. Seems like Jets are not allowed to fly over the Himalayas so you need to take a southern approach.

We landed. Snapped some photos. Bought a visa. Collected our luggage. Met Jim from Embark Tours. Took a 15 minute bus ride to the hotel. Met with a lot of the group. I am rooming with Stan. I had sesame chicken and some dumplings. Really good.

After dinner, Stan John and I walked into town and I got a t-shirt and some post cards.

Pretty tame day. Tomorrow we get to really see the city.

So the trip to Everest Basecamp began yesterday. Cathy took Jeff, Silva and I to the airport Thursday morning.

I dropped my altimeter (gift from Rose and John) going through security. 😢 First casualty of the trip.

We then met John Raithel at the gate and boarded our A350. About this time it started snowing.

Turns out Jeff, Silva, and I were all assigned to row 32.

The the plane went to the pad for de-icing and then got in the cue to take off. We were the next one to depart when the captain decided we needed another round of de-icing and we would need to refuel since we were burning so much on the ground. The captain we needed to add 2 additional tons of jet fuel, which he then explained was not that much😳.

Current status: de-icing. For the second time. #MM4MM pic.twitter.com/R6wscivMxF

— Joel M. Topf, MD FACP (@kidney_boy) March 1, 2018

So the whole back to the gate to re-fuel, back to the pad to de-ice and get back in the cue to take off put us 3 hours behind schedule.

Jeff found it odd that we would need to refuel before taking off, but it turns out that Detroit to Seoul (DTW-ICN) is one of the longest non-stops that Delta flies.

Note the route we are taking because this the source of the post’s title. A few hours into the flight, I looked outside of the window and caught the last glimpse of the sun setting.

Then a few hours later I opened up the shade expecting to see darkness, but I got…

We had gone far enough north that we were able to keep up with the rotation of the earth so we were trapped in a perpetual moment after sunset. Eventually the sun must have set and night passed but I never saw it. A few hours later I looked out and it was getting lighter with Friday’s dawn.

We landed at 7 PM at Inchion International Airtport. We went through a shockingly relaxed customs and immigration and took a bus to Paradise City, a new, and very nice hotel.

Today’s adventure: Kathmandu!