Day 4 – Let the suffering commence!

Runway on Lukla

Ian looks out the cockpit window of the twin otter plane twin propeller plane. The runway is in full view of and covers the whole window. That usually doesn’t happen when you’re about to land. A huge “thunk” and jostle and the plane lands.

The flight in, you fly through the valley of the khumbu glacier melt, which comes from Everest. On one side you can see the bottom of the valley, the other, the mountain wall of some snow capped Peak.

Lukla. The worlds most dangerous runway. The biggest planes are twin engines that can fit on the run way. The runway sits on a 11 degree incline and its very short. The way the plane takes off is pretty much dive bombing down the end of the runway. We land and use the uphill incline to slowdown and stop.

The valley heading up

We get our packs and follow Pema. This route is actually more popular than originally thought. But most people are only going as far as namche bazaar. Few make it to base camp and even less go to Lobuche.  We also meet our porters for the first time. We have two porters, one for each of our packs. They’re to carry our food, tent, kitchen and more climbing equipment later on. Our packs together already total 40 kgs. Were expecting to meet up with our climbing guide and cook later on when we get closer to lobuche. What logistics to get 2 people up a peak! We eat a simple egg breakfast and start our trek!

Half way through the hike, we realize Christa’s hiking shoes decided to die on her. The soles literally ripped apart. And then even more a little further down the road. It was fixed temporarily by tying a hair band around the shoe. We jimmied it at night so hopefully we can get to our next destination to get shoes.
Ian’s stomach bug loves his bum. He left in the morning realizing there is something still brewing inside. Time to call the insurance! Lets hope it works out.

We get into our first stop and stay in a tea house. There a so many tea houses along the way its ridiculous. We wouldn’t have to bring anything! Along this route, its so based on trekker tourism that everything is catered toward that. We have dinner at the same place. There really isn’t much option otherwise as far as food goes.

The tea house is basic, 2 beds with shared washroom. You have to pay for hot water shower and for electricity to charge your phones and what not. Luckily, we have our solar charger so we don’t need it… yet.
After dinner at 8 everything shuts down and everyone goes to bed.  Its party central here! Good first day of actual hiking.

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Day 12 – Kalla Pattar and back to Lobuche Base Camp

Up top of Kalla Pattar

We jerked awake at 5am and tried to shut the alarm off. Then Pema came knocking at our door at 5:05. It was time to get up and climb Kalla Pattar. With bloodshot red eyes, we crawled out of bed. Ian went first to meet Pema. Christa was still in no good shape to tackle the mountain. At 5:30, departure time, she worked her boots on and coat on, like a boss.

We leave the safety of the hut and into the blanket of fog. We could barely see 5 meters ahead and rain began its’ pitter patter. We needed to acclimatize, even Christa said so, especially after she had gotten sick before EBC. We meet some familiar faces along the way and decide to keep pace with them.

The mountain decided to give us some really mixed reviews of weather as the monsoon season was coming near. It rained and then became sunny and rained again all within a span of 3 hours hiking up and down.

The valley between Lobuche and Everest

We reach the top quite climatically as it was our highest point of the trek yet, 5,900 meters. The air is super thin and we are feeling the altitude big time now. We spend 20 minutes at the top breathing in whatever oxygen is available at that altitude and snapped a few pictures. We being our journey down. Not to Gorakshep, but all the way down to Lobuche Base Camp, where were were on Day 10. A full vertical kilometre away, which took 6 hours to climb.

As we approached Lobuche village, it began hailing. It was about 2pm at that stage and we were both exhausted. We hadn’t eaten anything significant as our bodies weren’t very happy with the altitude. Plus all the hiking we had gone through just earlier. We stop in a restaurant and meet our second climbing guide, Won. We were another hour or two from Lobuche Base Camp where we could actually crash and sleep.

After a gruelling longest 2 hours ever, we collapse in our tent after a small bite to eat. Pema tried to shove as much as he could down our throats. Shortly after, we were shown how to use our climbing equipment, which we are all too familiar with. Funny thing is, never showed us how to use the ice axe, which Christa could use some instructions on. In hindsight, more focus on the ice axes and less on equipment we already know how to use.

After the quick demo and orientation Pema tried to shove more food into our stomachs.

“You’re climbing at 2am!” He shouted as he left the tent.

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Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal

DAY 1

Not that we’re in love with Thamel, but that’s where everything happens in Kathmandu. And it’s a pretty cool area.

We left Hasera with bittersweet good byes. Mito’s awesome food and Govinda’s uplifting spirit will be sorely missed. We head with Sujan, our volunteer coordinator who placed us there, to the taxi waiting for us that takes us back to Thamel.

We all meet up with our guide, Pema, who we’ll see everyday for the next 19 days. We say our farewells to Sujan and a big hello to the fanciest hotel we’ve stayed in this entire trip! We have beds with clean sheets. I mean, not clean and have a few stains; these were white! Actually, white! We have a shower head! 2 weeks of pouring buckets of water over you to shower is an experience, but certain luxuries are welcoming return. Hot water! Ian finally had a clean shave. Inclusive breakfast! Pleather chairs! Relatively speaking, “western” standards we grew up with at home. But load-shedding, was still there. Pema has arranged for us Zen Holiday to stay in.

(Load shedding: When certain parts of the city shuts down electricity for a certain time for other parts of the city to have power)

This begins Day 1 of our himalayan experience. Not a bad start.

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