I woke up with a headache this morning. 3800 meters up, it's time for that altitude to kick in. My spirit was further crashed by how visibly cold it was in our room. Everything was frozen solid. Without anticipating the condensation I had left things out of my pack overnight. Thankfully, most of my clothes are in waterproof plastic packing bags. The outside of the bags are now covered in a thin layer of ice. My wipes were frozen. My lotion was frozen. The thick layer of frost on the inside of the window prevented us from seeing what the weather was like outside. The thought of another colder and snowier day on the trail was debilitating. Ganga got up, jumped around and said his daily prayers. He left the room and came back to check on me. I refused to get out of bed. He threw himself on top of all the clothes I had meticulously arranged on top of my blanket the night before and said, "come on! It's time to get up!" I reluctantly poked my head out of my sleeping bag and gave him a furtive glance. "Is it nice outside today? How many more days do we have left until the base camp? 3, 4, 5?" I asked in desperation. I buried my face back into my sleeping bag before he could see the tear that just rolled down my cheek. "It's a beautiful day outside! No clouds!" he responded with a level of excitement proportional to my despair and it brought a smile to my face. "Ok, I'll get up" I said. From that moment on, I switched to mission mode. I combed my hair, put my hat back on, pealed a face wipe off the icy block, cleaned my face, lathered on a layer of sunscreen, squeezed air out each of my plastic packs as I organized them into my pack. I walked to the front door and watched a group of trekkers go by. Ganga was right, the sky was intensely blue, without a cloud. The sunlight reflecting off the adjacent mountain was almost blinding. I refused to eat breakfast because I was feeling nauseous. Ganga ordered a bowl of noodle soup anyways, informing me that the room charge would be double if we don't order breakfast. Neither of us ate anything.
When I got back to our room I promptly took two 125mg Diamox pills. Even though I had agreed with Ganga that we would have a discussion before I take them I didn't feel like discussing anything. I just felt it was the right time. Nausea is where I draw the line because after that comes vomiting and there is no turning back once I started vomiting. When Ganga came to the room I felt slightly embarrassed to tell him what I just did so I explained that I was extremely nauseous. Finally he asked, you want to take Diamox. Yes, I responded, feeling relieved at his suggestion. "Once you start you're going to have to take that everyday" he said, "and drink a lot of water." I nodded as I stuffed a coca candy in my mouth.
This is our second day with the plastic bag routine: liner socks (or toe
socks in my case), plastic bags, outer socks and then shoes. The
plastic bags are somewhat effective if they don't fall apart inside the
shoes, which turned out to be a problem for me. Another problem is that
the bags are not breathable so they create wet
feet problem from sweat accumulation. Still, this was the best we could do without waterproof boots. Ganga filled up two bottles of boiled water for me and carried the big bottle. We left my Christmas branch in the room. It's go time and carrying a branch severely violates ultralight backpacking rules.
I asked Ganga to review the itinerary with me one more time not to figure out where I was but to be reassured that this trek will end at some point. By now we were both sold on the quicker progression without the acclimatization day: Dingboche, Loboche, Gorekshep, Kala Patthar, EBC, and back. Ganga also mentioned the possibility of doing part of the Annapurna circuit afterwards for relaxation. I was intrigued but decided to parking lot the idea for a later day.
It's amazing how big of a difference a clear day makes. I couldn't get over how beautifully the blue sky contrasted with the white snow. I felt warm under the sunlight, if not literally then at least in spirit. The crystal clear air provided perfect visibility. Mountain ranges and snowy peaks appeared where clouds were the day before. We made our way out of the valley following a black dog as our guide. We crossed the Dudh Kosi river for the last time and started gaining altitude again. It didn't take long before my day turned into how many times I can pee in the snow while looking at Mt. Everest, hands down the best peeing view ever. This wasn't much of a problem since we ran into very few trekkers along the way. Now I'm starting to understand why they call this the off season.
We stopped at Panboche for lunch. The midday sun was very strong by this point. I had vegetarian dal bhat outside with Ganga and took the opportunity to take out all the damp stuff out from my pack to air dry. I also dried off my shoes and socks. It was a very productive lunch stop. Afterwards I posed for a couple of pictures with the most adorable little girl, one of three kids belonging to the restaurant owner. She was very shy at first but later she held my hand and showed me where the bathroom was when I asked.
A small group of Japanese tourists stopped by the same restaurant as we did and sat inside. Their guide ran after us just as we were about to leave
and asked if I had any extra Diamox. I knew I had enough considering I
had just started taking them so I gave him six pills and instructed him
to give to his clients two at a time with plenty of water. I hope
they're doing ok since 4,000m is still a long ways from our destination.
The sky was covered with helicopters today I felt like I was in a Bond movie every time one zooms by. Ganga informed me that some of the helicopters are for sightseeing and some rescue missions. Most of them are operated by Germans and other Europeans. Out of the rescues, a good portion of them are for trekkers who simply have given up on the trek after reaching EBC or some other final destination. Since they have travel insurance, the cost of the ride is drastically reduced. I didn't understand that at first but now as each step gets more difficult with the increase in altitude I'm starting to feel more sympathetic. This is an out-and-back trek so with each step forward, I'll have to take the same step back. The thought was dreadful. Ganga repeatedly reassured me that it will be so much easier going back. I don't know if I trust his judgment on these kinds of things anymore after noticing sometimes when he estimate a hike to be 30 minutes and it turns out to be more like 40. Still, I don't have travel insurance and even if I did I think I would resort to crawling out of the Himalayas before flagging down a helicopter.
The day went on and so did our trek. Our evening respite was nowhere to be found. Finally I asked Ganga, where the heck is Dingboche? It's coming. We just can't see it from here. Well, not seeing the damn thing just wasn't all that encouraging. I was, however, very relieved when a small cluster of guesthouses came into my field of view. It was still sunny when we checked in so Ganga took our shoes outside to dry. You can still tell the place was freezing because the toilet was frozen. The bucket of water next to the toilet was also frozen but not completely. I scoped out some ice water with chunks of ice floating and washed a pair of socks. I couldn't feel my fingers for ten minutes afterwards. I brought five pairs of socks for this trek. I alternated between two sets of two starting at Namche and used a pair of wool socks for at night or inside of the guesthouses. The system works except for when things don't completely dry overnight and the fact they are starting to smell.
Next I found my spot in the dinning hall and ordered a cup of tea. I think they're about a dollar a cup here. Definitely more expensive than at lower altitude but still affordable in dollar term. Ganga continued to get free water for me and now also filling a hot bottle for me to warm up my sleeping bag at night. I chimed in on a conversation between two guys happening next to me. Turned out they've been drinking water straight out of the rivers and not getting sick. Honestly, the water doesn't seem objectionable except for the fact that it's icy cold.
I spent the rest of the evening chatting with one of the guys and found out that he's from Australia and is doing the trek with his two teenage sons, one of which just graduated from high school. What an awesome idea, I thought, much better than going to Florida or the Caribbeans, like some Americans do. I briefed him on my gear/shoe/clothing situation, or lack thereof and my plan to move forward the next day without acclimatization. He just shook his head, probably feeling ridiculous and sympathetic at the same time. He turned to the people at the next table and said, she's hiking to EBC in seven days. They looked over in my direction and asked, why? Before I could respond, the guy said, "because she wants to get there and back with all her fingers and toes still intact." See, that's exactly my logic too.
I also explained to him that I packed light because I'm committed on carrying my own pack the whole way. Again, he looked at me in disbelief.
"Why would you do that? That's what you pay guides and porters for!"
"In my mind I'm not sure if it counts as trekking if you're not carrying your own gear."
The three guys are traveling with a guide and two porters, possibly averaging over 15kgs each, at minimum. I'm carrying half of that, including water supply for the day. But to be fair, I'm also half of their size so all my stuff is also much lighter. It also helps that I'm under-dressed and under-packed...but that's a different problem.
I looked over to the solar charging station he's got set up on the window and said, "I'm too cheap to pay for charging so I've been taking very few photos." Immediately he asked, you want to charge your stuff? Really? Sure! I could use a charge for my GoPro. The offer was a very generous one, so generous that when the sons came down for dinner one of them exclaimed, "you're charging other people's electronic?!" I'm not sure what their charging status was but I sensed the Australian guy felt bad for me and wanted to do something to help.
I ordered vegetarian momos for dinner and offered half of the plate to Ganga. Again, I was hungry and had no appetite. I watched the table of three big guys devour their dinner, dessert and cups of hot chocolate. Hmm, hot chocolate, why haven't I thought of that? I wondered. The stove is now burning in the middle of the room. A group of guides and porters gathered around it and carried on a lively conversation. For once on the trip I was not cold.
When I was on the Salkantay trek in Peru, the best moment was stargazing in Llactapata. I haven't even seen the nighttime sky since I came to Nepal either due to the weather or getting into my sleeping bag early. Tonight I made a point to step outside and look up. I was hoping to see stars and the milky way lighting up the sky but the moon was way too bright on this day. It was almost blinding. I took a couple of deep breathe and quickly returned inside.