Port of departure... New Delhi... Port of arrival.. Kathamndu... Purpose of visit... trekking. The visa registration form said it all, we were in Nepal for one reason.. to get into the mountains and see Mt Everest in all its glory. At that stage we had no idea of the friends we would meet and the challenge that lay ahead.
Waiting in the lobby of the hotel at 5:30 am on the 27th of December we were met by our guide and directed into the back of a minivan to begin our journey into the highest mountain range on earth, the himalayas. Bim.. or Mr Bimbastic as he was later named seemed shy, reserved and conservative at first, moving us to board with great urgency when our flight to Lukla (three hours delayed) finally arrived and not showing much involvement in the banter of the first days trek from Lukla to Phakding. But looking back now I realise that even in those early days... Mr Bimbastic was itching for the spotlight under the facade of Mr Bim.
The hike to Phakding was a very kind intro to the trek, taking us no longer than 2 hours we reached the sleepy little riverside village before lunch where we enjoyed our first dahlbhat... rice, lentil soup and vege curry. We all enjoyed the seemingly limitless supply of vege, soup and rice and settled into an afternoon nap after our early start. At dinner we were told afternoon naps were against the rules as we wouldnt be able to sleep at night... Mr Bim was laying down the law and all three of us were finding it much easier to get along with the two cheerful porters than our guide. The next day was a little different... a couple of hours of similar up and down stuff before a long stretch of fairly steep walking before we arrived at Namche Bazaar at around 1:20pm... The first little challenge of the trek but we took it nice and slow and it was pretty relaxing strolling through the pine trees and over the bridges of the sub alpine Himalaya. The hotel in Namche was one at which we were allowed to eat meat and being slightly traumatized by the incredibly salty and slightly kerosene flavoured dahlbhat at lunch I was already off the traditional mountain dish and into a nice hot sizzling piece of chicken.
The following day was an acclimitization day where we went up a few hundred metres of altitude to a hotel which provided our first clear view of Everest. The amply named Everest View Hotel was charging 5 times the amount of the hotel in Namche for a cup of tea so we saved our lunchtime brew for our return. At 11:30 the day was young and we being in a village at 3500m above sea level with little to do provides itself with a different, less physical challenge... how to pass the time. With an afternoon nap taboo, playing cards, reading or just sitting there pronouncing how many hours and minutes there were until dinner filled that afternoon and the next 10 or so to come.
Now, acclimatized to 3500m we were to climb to the next point of rest.. Phortse. About 1-2 hours into the journey we were a (wo)man down.. Kris had succombe to a chest infection and was unable to continue... A small discussion took place as to whether or not Adam would stay behind to look after her but with her blessing and allegedly a little bit of moisture forming in the corners of the eyelids a three man party consisting of Mr Bim, Mr Money, Adam and myself continued on whilst Mr Harry and Kris went back to the nearest hotel to rest. After 5 or so minutes the big fella was back in a right state of mind, the pace had heated up and the three of us were now an extremely efficient trekking unit with a clear mission at hand.. get to basecamp, kalarpatar and then get back down to Kris ASAP. The hotel in Phortse was brilliantly clean and warm. The owner obviously took pride in the way he went about things as he had been to the top of everest and placed 2nd in the gruelling 42k everest marathon where they travel the distance from Basecamp to a valley near Namche Bazaar (which would later take us two days) in 4 hrs. I was impressed to say the least. That night we heard tales of breathlessness even when drinking tea at over 5000m and a for a moment or two the trek became serious. This mood only lasted until the next passing of wind and ridiculously concise announcement of minutes remaining until dinner when further uproarious laughter would turn the mood around and even Mr Bim was starting to show signs of loosening up.
The following day was a fairly easy but a little bland and we were definitely happy to arrive in Dingboche for our two nights of acclimatization at 4400m. I was 300m higher than when I summited Mt Toubkal, the highest mountain of North Africa and we were in a valley! It was through this thought that I realised what a seriously remarkable place I was in and what seemed like a movie set surrounding us suddenly became real.
That night at Dingboche would be birthing ground for Mr Bimbastic who when one of the other guides around the pot belly asked if Adam and I were a gay couple nearly wet himself, coming close to falling off his chair and onto the pot belly's stove! We would later catch him falling asleep by the fire which all the other guides thought was hilarious and the whole place had turned from near silence when everyone was refueling their exhausted bodies to a plethora of laughs.
... The following day we had to option to rest or to use our acclimatization to to a"climb"atize up a "hill" that provided a further 300/600m of elevation and therefore a decent enough change in air-oxygen concentration to be beneficial to the rest of our trek.
The morning started nice and late as we could see (what we thought was) the top of the "hill" from our lodge and were in no rush. Bim, Mr Money, Adam and I started off nice and slow up what was fairly step terrain. We had earlier elected to go straight up the face of the mountain and therefore there was no track so we were following the lead of Mr Bim. Once we got to the first tibetan flag covered post (about 300m above the lodge) we decided to press on to the top. What looked like a 30 minute maximum add on would prove to be an extra hour++ and the incline would become steadily steeper. But after a little bit of hard stuff we were perched pretty on the top of this "hill" and had fantastic views of surrounding mountains and frozen lakes. Adam was then informed by a man we named "Captain America" that he had burnt around 2000 calories on the climb and I could see he was itching to get down and stuck into a big plate of cheesy macaroni. We had also made it for the first time to just over 5000m which was a great feeling. Having said that, the common preoccupation with altitude and how high you have climbed to the meter etc was at this point in the trek starting to get on my nerves. At the end of the day it is just a number and I have much more respect for those who just get the job done, enjoy the scenary and have a laugh rather than being a massive tool over the fact you climbed to 5382.754m and love the way you look in your bright coloured skin tight trekking pants with black patches on the knees. Anyway... it was a bit of fun on the way down with Adam slipping all over the joint and Money running down with us chasing him. Having never had a little brother I felt a weird natural urge to chase him down and belt him up a little and I now completely understand why older brothers do this... When we reached the lodge it was time for two big bowls of macaroni with tomato and cheese (our staple) and two extra plates of rice with tomato sauce. Brilliant. We slept well that night in relatively warm temperatures compared to what was to come.
The following day was an easy 3.5 hour walk along fairly flat, arid, almost moonlight terrain to the camp of Lobuche. That night at dinner we were confronted with a group of 20 odd possibly intrepid, diamox popping lemmings all wearing the exact same down jackets and beanies. We did have to feel for the poor bastards though as we looked out the window to see their accomodation... I row of yellow tents with two purple tents for toilets. Good luck we thought as we engulfed our egg fried rice and settled in by the fire for another night of laughs, this time peaking when Mr Money taught us some apparently hilarious swear words in Nepali. The events of that night post bedtime were strange and unexplained. Both of us reported very strange, scary dreams that resulted in one of the worst sleeps of our lives. Adam had people standing at the foot of his bed telling him how to sleep..."right hand up there".... "roll over!".... "knees up!"... I on the other hand felt trapped in my sleeping bag and had amounts of rupees in my head that I had to pay for things to eventually get better... "its alright max, hang in there... just another 500 rupees my head would tell me." You could lose yourself up there in the night. No laughing matter.
The next day was planned to be a big one. I fairly easy 3ish hour walk through more moonlike flat stuff to Gorak Shep before lunch and an accent through more of the same to Base Camp which was estimated at 5 hours round trip from GS. To be honest Base camp was not much to look at but we both agreed that you need to get there to complete the trek. Because of this slightly anticlimatic trek up we didnt stay long and hit the track hard on the way back down to be back at GS in a total time of 3 hours. Needless to say we were both absolutely wrecked and had to lie there in the resaturant and sip on milk tea for a good 30minutes before conjuring the strength to get changed. Picture of devastation post basecamp round trip above..
Now, with only one more thing to do before it was "all down him from here" was to get to the top of Mt Kalapatar... The following morning we opted out of the common approach which is to hit the mountain before sunrise and watch the sun rise over everest
