Nepal: So You’re Telling Me It Was Covid and Not Altitude

For April 16-21, 2022

On the morning of our last day of our trek, we were in the tea house waiting to head over to the airport to head back to Kathmandu.  When we asked what time our flight left and when we needed to head over, Anil just said we were on the second Tara flight out of the day and we’d head over when we heard the first flights coming in.  Amy and I were a bit antsy with this plan.  When we heard the first plane coming in, we grabbed our stuff and were told to wait.  But we just said we wanted to go watch the planes, so we went and sat above the runway and watched as planes came in and left.  Eventually the others joined us and we headed to the airport.  Pemba said goodbye to us at the airport and then he started his 2 day walk home. 

I could watch planes takeoff and land here all day.

Meanwhile we waited and waited and waited.  Flights were coming in and going, but not ours.  We watched as the other planes came in and dropped off bags and passengers, loaded up new ones, and headed out.  We noticed they were very quick about it and started timing them.  Three of the airlines flying into Lukla were using Twin Otters, while the other one ran on Dornier 228s.  The unloading and loading of the Otters were quick.  They could turn that plane around in less than 3 minutes.  That included getting 18 people off the plane and all their bags, plus getting as many back on…in 3 minutes!  The Dornier 228 took about twice as long.  It sat a little higher off the ground so I think that’s what slowed it down a bit.

Finally our number was called.  We were first in line which meant we got first dibs at seats on the plane, which this time we were wanting the righthand side seats.  We got our last views of Everest and Ama Dablam and the others as we flew back to Kathmandu. All of us were still wearing masks while in the airport and on the plane.

When we got back to the hotel (the same one we stayed in before our trek), we got our Covid tests done and then showered.  A nice, not rushed, full hair and body washing shower was amazing.  We met back up downstairs a bit later, and Dipak, our trip planner, was waiting down there in the hotel’s courtyard area for us.  Our covid results were back…and mine was positive.  Amy and Renee were still negative though.  That changed everything.

The first thing that happened was Amy moved in to room with Renee, instead of with me.  We secluded ourselves at a table in the far corner of the courtyard while we worked things out.  We were supposed to be heading to Doha to spend a couple of days in Qatar.  Instead, Amy and Renee changed their tickets so they could head immediately home because they didn’t want to risk getting stuck in quarantine there for 10 days (as it is a much more expensive country than Nepal, or being back home).

My space for 3 days.

Meanwhile, I started trying to figure out how and when I could head back home.  I looked back at the journal I kept and pinpointed that my symptoms had started on April 8th.  US re-entry rules post-Covid infection said you couldn’t travel until 10 days after the start of symptoms.  That meant that the earliest I could head home would be April 18.  This theoretically meant I could keep my original Doha to Dallas flight, but I had to get from Kathmandu to Dallas. Unfortunately there were no open seats on a Qatar Airways flight heading out of Kathmandu that day, though.  Instead they were able to get me on a flight the following day and they switched the rest of my flights as well.  I ended up booked on a flight leaving on April 19th, that would get me home on April 20th, just a day later than originally planned. Overall Qatar Airways was really good about the whole thing and making sure I was able to get back.

The funny thing is that upon learning I was Covid-positive, it was like all the energy I had was sucked away from me.  Suddenly everything was exhausting.  The three flights of stairs up to my room was more than I could handle, despite the fact that I had trekked up to Everest Base Camp with Covid.  Based off when symptoms started, I hiked for 8 days with Covid. We were at EBC on day 5 of Covid.  So it turns out that the diarrhea, fatigue, cough, and loss of appetite were not altitude related, though each one of those is something you could fully expect while traveling at high altitude or in a developing country.  Or maybe they were partially altitude related.  It really is hard to say.  Since I’ve gotten back people have asked me how I kept going, and I said I thought I was dealing with altitude issues, not Covid…that’s how.  I kept going because I wasn’t experiencing any of the major signs of altitude sickness.  No vomiting, no headaches, no insomnia, just loss of appetite and fatigue.  I have no clue if I ever had a fever.  I was taking ibuprofen every day because my knees get achy while hiking, but it also happens to be a fever reducer, so maybe that helped keep a fever from ever forming.  I seriously have no idea.

My dinner view for 3 nights.

After supper that night, Renee went out to get me some things to last me for the next few days.  Some juice, fruit, and pastries.  The next day, she and Amy said goodbye and they headed home.  I spent the next three days in my room at the hotel.  Dipak had worked out everything with the hotel so I didn’t have to worry.  I ordered room service every night.  My appetite was back I was ready for food, for the most part...though I was still only really eating breakfast and supper. I would just eat some fruit and juice for lunch.  They had a couple of more European/American style pastas on their menu and I ate the same Pasta Carbonara every night and I loved it!  My mind was still associating Asian cuisine with not feeling great. I would eat supper sitting out in the open balcony area across the hall.  It was the perfect place to eat.  The city was cooling down for the day, the sun was setting, and the lights were on down in the courtyard below me.

I heard from Amy and Renee as they made their way home.  By the time Amy got home, she was sick too.  Renee never got Covid.  All three of us were fully vaccinated and boosted.  I guess for Amy and I, it had just been long enough since we had gotten our boosters.  Or maybe it was the fact we shared a room more often than I share with Renee.  Who knows.  Louie never got sick either.

Kathmandu from atop the Moonlight Hotel.

Finally the day I could leave arrived!  I arrived at the airport and stood in line for over an hour to get checked in and check my bag.  It was hot and steamy and my recovering self really just wanted to sit down.  After I got checked in, it was onto Border Control and then security and then the gate.  While I was in line for Border Control, I turned and happened to see that Ian from the trail and UNO nights was just a few people behind me.  He had left his friend Kai, who was spending an extra few weeks traveling, and was heading back home to Germany.

The flights home were long.  I did not really sleep much at all so by the time I was back in Wichita, I was exhausted. I was about to fall over.  And there it is…my adventure to Nepal.

Nepal: Celebration Ice Creams All Around!

For April 15

And finally we made it to our last day on the trail.  We had a lot of miles before us…again.  11.5 miles would get us back to Lukla.  The first nearly 7 miles were mostly down, but then we’d spend the last 4.5 going back up.  Why couldn’t they make this easy?

As we left Namche Bazaar, we headed down through the village since we were staying at the top of the town in the same tea house we had stayed in on the way up.  On our way out of town, Anil wanted to take us to the local market to see it.  When we were in Namche before, Renee, Amy, and I had wandered through the area on our journey looking for apples, though at that time there were really only the folks who had shops left in that area.  Instead, this morning there were goods on the many layers of stone terraces.  And up at the top was a meat market.  Amy and I were not going to spend any of our little energy we had going up to the top where the meat market was, but Renee went up.

Market in Namche Bazaar

After we left town, Anil took us on a path that was not frequented by the hoards of travelers so we didn’t have to worry about people or animals in our way for a while.  Instead we could just focus on heading down through the forest.  Eventually we reached a rest area where we could catch our last view of Everest before it was gone.  We headed down and crossed the double decker suspension bridge again.  The funny thing was on the way up, that part seemed intense, but on the way down I kept waiting for the worse part to hit, but it never did.

The last view of Mount Everest

We continued down, passing through Monjo where we had lunch on our way up.  The plan was to eat in Phakding at the place where we stayed on our way up.  That last mile or two before lunch seemed so long.  We were starving again just wishing we could stop for food, but no…we had to keep going down.  It was around 1:30 pm by the time we stopped for lunch, which ended up being a long affair for some unknown reason.  I had a delicious grilled yak cheese sandwich (hahaha yak cheese!  That is a bit of a joke because they call the males yak, so it would be like saying bull cheese).  I had found these grilled cheese sandwiches to not only be delicious, but something I could eat, so I had a few of them the last few days.

Locals working on a new home or tea house.

After lunch we traversed some small ups and downs, before starting the last long uphill portion to Lukla.  That uphill part would end up taking us around an hour and a half.  And the last part was especially painful because you could see how close you were, but it didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

Three adorable boys heading home from school.

At one point I found myself desperately needing a bathroom.  We passed a house that seemed to be vacant.  It had an outhouse out back which made me a bit glad that I was up-to-date on my tetanus shots.  It was really just some old boards with a hole and a shed to hide you.  I had to hold the door closed while going and cleaning up so I didn’t show myself off to those on the trail.

When we were on our first day of hiking, someone passing us said “Oh look!  Fresh faces.”  It made us laugh at the time.  I think by now, day 11 on the trail, we totally understood them.  For the past week and a half we had seen the same people over and over.  The Costa Ricans, Kai and Ian, the Indian doctors, and others.  And by now we looked very worn out and those passing us were bright-eyed and excited.

The Pasang Lhamu Gate at Lukla

Finally we passed through the Pasang Lhamu Gate at the edge of Lukla.  We were so excited to be back in Lukla that we forgot to take an end of journey photo there.  As we walked through town on our way to our tea house we passed an ice cream shop.  Amy and I looked at it and said we need ice cream.  After cleaning up a bit, all of us, Renee, Amy, Louie, Anil, Pemba, our two porters, and I headed over for a scoop of ice cream.  Celebration complete!  And it was delicious and what we needed!  And journey complete…almost.  All we had left was to get back to Kathmandu the next day.  And then we had to get Covid tests before we could head off to spend a few days in Doha…dun dun duuuuuunnnnnn.

Nepal: The Revolt!

For April 14

Our second to last day on the trail would have us returning to Namche Bazaar.  We started our day at 12,800 ft before going down to 10,800 ft, and then going back up to 11,900 ft before finishing our day at 11,350 ft.  So needless to say, this was not an easy day.  We did a total of 8.3 miles today bringing us up to just short of 20 miles over two days.  And this is also the point where my memories get a little foggy because I’m writing this 2 ½ month after it happened, and I didn’t write anything in my journal the last 2 days of the trek down.

After leaving Pangboche we headed down before we got to climb back up to Tengboche, where we stayed on our way up.  The down part to start was pretty easy…this is where I’m pretty sure we passed Nims Purja’s expedition team on their way up, after comparing where we were on that day to pictures they posted on Instagram on that same day.  Anyways, we had a group go past us with a boombox playing that had waaaaaaay more energy than I had.  After crossing over a suspension bridge and a short flat area, we started that uphill section to Tengboche.  It was just as bad as I imagined it would be when we were going down it a week or so earlier.  We made it up to the monastery at Tengoboche and took a short break.  Then it was back down and down and more down.  

Over the next hour and 15 mins we descended about 1800 feet.  We were getting hungrier and Anil said we’d get lunch a bit later.  When we got down to our low point, where we crossed a major river and there were a few places to get food we asked again where we were getting food.  Anil said he wanted us to go further.  We said no.  Absolutely not.  We needed food, now.  We had been hiking for 3 ½ hours through tough terrain.  What we could remember of what came after Namche, was a lot of ups and downs.  We needed food.  And we won out in the end.  Thank goodness too, because there is no way I would have had the energy to continue through for the next few hours to Namche otherwise.

A porter taking a small refrigerator to a village.

After lunch for the next 1 ½ hours, we continued up before a series of shorter ups and downs for the last hour.  We were not the most happy of people by the time we reached Namche Bazaar.  Amy was a bit cranky because she wasn’t feeling well.  I was exhausted because it had been a long, rough day, and I was still having some issues eating as much as I needed, though I was eating a bit more now.  Renee seemed to be holding her own, though she was definitely all in for the lunchtime revolt.  I really don’t remember much about how Louie was, other than his plans were to hit the Irish bar in Namche in the evening, so he was probably fine.  We all took showers when we got to Namche in the evening and it felt so good.  We also picked up some clothes we had left behind to get laundered while we were hiking so we had clean clothes to put on, which felt nice!

We spent a while that evening eating and talking with others who were on the trail.  The group in our corner, I believe, covered like 4 or 5 different countries.  Eventually I headed off to bed.  The nice thing was our room was on the same floor as the common space so I didn’t even have to climb stairs or anything.  Another good thing was the diarrhea that had been plaguing me since our last night in Namche was starting to get better.  So after a week or so of diarrhea and having not a ton of food, both things were starting to improve.  I was eating a bit more and I wasn’t having so many bathroom troubles. Yay!

Nepal: Heading Back Down (Sort Of)

For April 13

Sunrise from Kala Pattar.  The summit of Nuptse is just getting it's first light.  Everest is the darker mountain slightly to the left.

While Renee, Louie, Anil, and Pemba trekked up to Kala Pattar in the early hours of the morning, Amy and I slept.  After breakfast in Gorak Shep, we started the trip back down to Lukla.  After we summited Kilimanjaro, the way back down was, well, down.  But our way down this time was filled with ups and downs over and over again.  With my trusty knee brace on just as a precaution, I slowly made my way back down.  

We had roughly 30 miles to trek to get back to Lukla.  Because we were heading back down, instead of up, there was no worries about going slow for acclimation reasons.  You wanted to go as fast as you could, but also not too fast because it was going to be a long day, or really a long couple of days.  Our original plan called for us to trek down to Pheriche, but Anil wanted for us to push to Pangboche instead because it would mean a shorter day the following day.  In all, on day 9 of trekking we walked just over 11.3 miles.  Our day started at 17,000 feet and ended at 12,800 feet, so we dropped a total of 4,200 vertical feet in our day’s hike…but it wasn’t all downhill…of course!

Our last moments hiking view a view like this before we dropped down to lower elevations.

The first hour or so of our hike was fairly flat, with small ups and downs through the ankle-twisting rocks.  The same ones we had hiked through just the morning before.  I was certainly glad for my knee brace and hiking poles.  Typically I’m not a fan of downhill because it’s harder on the knees, but the good news was our downhill to start wasn’t super steep, just a gentle slope.  And then we hit that steep section (up to Thukla Pass, but now we were going down) that two days earlier had been our steep uphill.  Here, to our surprise, we ran across Valentin, the guy who we met the first day on the trail in Phakding, who was sick.  He said he had rested for a few days before slowly making his way up.  He definitely looked like he was still struggling.  We later heard that he was flown out the following day from Lobuche because his body had decided it was done.

What a place for a nap!  Our porters stopped for a nap until they knew whether we were going to be spending the night in Pheriche or Pangboche.

After lunching at the same place we had eaten lunch a few days earlier, we continued down to Pheriche.  We were back in that really windy section of the trail, but this time instead of heading to Dingboche, we headed down to Pheriche.  It was a steep downhill, but we were able to keep a real good pace as we went.  Going down was something my body was definitely able to handle much more easily and I was feeling much better the further down we went.

We passed a pasture shortly before Pheriche where there was a yak and a baby yak!  So cute.  This one was on the early end of birthing season.  If we were there a few weeks to a month or two later, we would likely have seen a lot more baby yaks.  In Pheriche we took a brief break while debating whether to spend the night in Pheriche or keep going.  Renee and Louie were definitely starting to feel the effects of their early morning trip up to Kala Pattar.  Amy and I were doing alright since we had slept and didn’t do that hiking.  We eventually decided on continuing…which might have not been the best idea. 

Baby Yak!

Shortly after passing through Pheriche we crossed a river and started going up over a hill.  As we neared the top, it started to sprinkle.  Then we started hearing rumbles of thunder, which is rather frightening when you’re up on the side of a mountain that is still high enough that you’re in scrub brush land.  The rain continued for about an hour of our last hour and a half of hiking.  It was never really hard, but enough that my pants were wet (because of course this was the one day that I packed my rain pants in my duffel!).  

It did stop raining before we reached Pangboche, which did mean that my pants and rain coat had started to dry, though they certainly weren’t totally dry.  The tea house we were staying in was low on electricity that night because of the storm.  They relied on solar power to provide electricity, and with all the clouds, the battery wasn’t fully able to charge up.  The common space had only one light lit, and the hallways upstairs were dark, but thankfully there was light in the rooms.  The darkness meant no UNO.

Nepal: Everest Day!!

For April 12

A quick peak ahead...here it is in all its glory.  Everest Base Camp, the Khumbu Glacier, and Everest (barely visible).

This was it!  The day we traveled halfway around the world and hiked nearly 40 miles for.  It was finally Everest Base Camp day!  But before we headed off to EBC, we would hike to Gorak Shep (16,995).  Gorak Shep is where we would spend the night.  The plan was to hike to Gorak Shep, stop for a brief break, and then hike up to EBC, before returning to Gorak Shep.  You are not allowed to actually stay at Everest Base Camp unless you are part of an expedition from there, so everyone traveling to see EBC stays at either Gorak Shep, or if all the rooms are full, back down at Lobuche.

At the beginning things were pretty easy; a gentle slope uphill.  Then we hit a steep set of rocks.  I was bound and determined to keep a steady pace up those rocks, and the ever loyal Pemba stayed with me the whole time.  When we got to the top of those rocks, I looked back at where we had come from and then forward to where we were going.  We were surrounded by the most beautiful mountains.  By this point in time we were in the 16,500 to 16,700 ft range so things were pretty intense.  And this was one day where it was pretty much all up, up, up…at least until we hit Base Camp.

Looking back on the way we came from.  You can see the little people who haven't yet reached the steep incline to reach us up at the top.

Where we were hiking for most of the day was in the rockfall of the Khumbu Glacier.  We were going up and over and around big and small, ankle twisting rocks.  I was going slow because my knees and ankles are already a mess and I really didn’t want to get hurt that close to the final destination (ignoring the fact we had to get back down) point, and of course the altitude and me not feeling well also tied into all of it.  

There were so many yaks making their way to and from EBC.  I can only assume they were carrying supplies and gear up to expedition teams up there.  At this point in time, there were still some teams working on setting up camp at EBC so this stuff was going to that.  One of the yak trains we saw had a young yak trailing along at the end.  He was too young to carry anything, but was old enough to tag along and start learning what to do.

Somewhere between Lobuche and Gorak Shep, we got our first view of Everest Base Camp in the distance.  You could see the brightly colored tents set up on the Khumbu Glacier.  It all seemed so close, but so far at the same time.  By this time we also had an amazing view of Nuptse, Lho La, and Khumbutse.  And we could see the summit of Everest, but not much more.  The crazy thing was Nuptse looked taller than Everest, just because it was closer, but in reality, Nuptse is half a mile shorter than Everest.

Our first view of Everest Base Camp...do you see it?

Finally we made it to Gorak Shep.  We stopped for a brief break at the tea house we’d be staying at that evening, then we set out for EBC.  My energy level was practically zero by this time, but I kept pushing.  “Almost there!  You’re almost there!”  The good news was that in the whole scheme of things, this was a relatively flat hike; only 400 feet of ascent from Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp.  We were almost to EBC when I needed a break, and Amy and Renee told me to take the lead so we would all get to EBC together, which was nice.  After climbing over a few more rocks we made it!  It took 2 hours for us to get from Gorak Shep to EBC.  

Standing on top of the world!  Okay, not quite.  More like the base of the top of the world.

Up at EBC, there was a giant rock that said Everest Base Camp that everyone was taking turns on to take pictures.  From EBC, you can’t really see much of Everest, just the very top of the mountain.  And we couldn’t actually walk through Base Camp. I’m not sure if that’s a normal thing or a Covid precaution, though I don't think I would have had the energy anyways.  We took some pictures, and I pulled out some snacks (hello Oreos that I had been carrying with me since Namche Bazaar for celebration!) to give me a bit of energy for the way back.  Then while the others were taking pictures, I sat down on a rock and just looked up at Everest and the other mountains around me.  I figured I could take 100 pictures and they’d all look similar, or I could take the time to just take it all in and think, “I made it.  I’m staring at the tallest mountain in the world.  I’m sitting up here at 17,312 feet right now.  I’ve only ever been higher once in my life.  How cool is this!?”  

The whole group!

Speaking of cool, it really wasn’t that cold up there.  I was in layers, yes, but I never pulled out my warmest layer, and even at EBC I wasn’t wearing my puffy jacket, just two long sleeve layers and my raincoat/windbreaker.  I was prepared for all this cold weather because it was cold on Kilimanjaro, but I never really felt that on the trail to EBC.  But this was also probably because instead of spending evenings in a mess tent only heated by a small lamp, we were spending evenings in a stove heated common area.

We made our way back to Gorak Shep after spending nearly an hour at Base Camp.  The trip back took about 30 minutes less than the way there.  Must have been the Oreos. 😉  Or maybe going downhill, even if it was only 400 feet.  

I really don’t remember the rest of that evening.  We ate.  Took oxygen levels…mine were horrendously low.  And then I went back to my room to sleep.  The official plan was to wake up at 3:00 am hike up to Kala Pattar to watch the sunrise over Everest, but I had already told Anil that I most definitely did not have the energy for that. I figure if I wanted to be able to hike the 40 miles back to Lukla over the next 3 days, I would need to sleep.  Amy was also starting to not feel great so the two of us stayed behind, while Renee, Louie, Anil, and Pemba made their way up to Kala Pattar in the dark and got some amazing photos.  I wish I could have made it, but it would have been the wrong choice.

Lho La, Everest, Nuptse (center)

Nepal: Windswept Ridges and Helicopters

For April 11

After staying in Dingboche for 2 days it was time to be on the move again.  It was day 7 on the trail and we were heading to Lobuche (16,109 ft).  When we reached Lobuche for the night, it would be the highest I had ever spent the night.  Our highest sleeping camp on Kilimanjaro was the Barafu camp at 15,330 ft, and let's be honest, I didn’t really sleep there; I laid down in my sleeping bag, but barely slept.  I’ll give you a brief preview about how I slept in Lobuche…except for getting up to go to the bathroom a few times, I slept like a log, like I did on pretty much every night of the trip.

Clear view of the mountains up valley from Dingboche, with a porter carrying 7 planks of wood...yes, there is someone under there carrying these up the mountain.

I managed to get some food down for breakfast.  A weird mix of raisins, peanut butter, and porridge (not all together).  Basically my goal was to get whatever I could in me, and the raisins and peanut butter were two of those things that I could manage to eat. And really overall, I felt in a better mood on the hike, so maybe the two nights in Dingboche helped.

We started our hike up and over the ridge that we had climbed the day before.  We took a different route to get up there than the day before, but we ended up in the same spot.  It was windy on the ridge and the wind pretty much never let up.  I had a thin gaiter up over my nose and mouth to keep the dirt from blowing in. Between my clothes, hat, gaiter, and sunglasses, there wasn’t much skin left uncovered, which was probably a good thing because the sun was bright and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  I had developed the allergic reaction I sometimes get to the sun on my hands so I was also trying to protect them with gloves.

We had reached the Khumbu Valley which mainly meant we saw a lot of helicopters.  The Khumbu Valley is the valley leading to Mount Everest. It seemed like there was always one flying past.  They were probably a combination of tourists who would rather see Everest in a day instead of hiking for 12 days, or supply missions up to Gorak Shep or EBC.  

I'm channeling my brother in this picture.  The double thumbs up is totally his thing. 
That's Tobuche and Cholatse in the background.

After hiking for a bit we stopped to take in the amazing view before us.  Ama Dablam was out in all her glory.  Tobuche and Cholatse too.  We couldn’t see Everest or any of its surrounding mountains because of our location on the trail.  The morning part of the trail was actually fairly easy once we got past the first ridge.  We were on a slow, steady ascent which was perfect for taking in our surroundings.  There are just so many mountains with snow capping them.  It was all so pretty and totally worth the trip to see them all.  

At one point we stopped for a snack break which was good, because I had a knot in my back.  I managed to find the perfect dirt clod to use to massage out that spot.  I’m sure I looked ridiculous laying down, moving back and forth to work out that knot…but it worked.  I offered the dirt clod up to others, but I guess I was the only one who needed it.  

Just me and my dirt clod, massaging out that knot.

Just before lunch we had to drop down and cross the rocky mess that is brought down the valley during the rainy season, as well as the river formed by the melt-off of the Khumbu Glacier.  From up high the rocks didn’t seem that big, but once you got down among them, you could see how big some of them really were.  On the other side was Thukla, basically the one place to grab food between Dingboche and Lobuche, so everyone stopped there.  It was busy as people were coming and going.  It was a good lunch day.  I was able to eat almost the entirety of my garlic soup, which was good because we had a massive uphill coming.

Amy pointing out the way we're going.  We followed the path down, then across that whitish rock.  And then up that lighter path on the other side.

In the matter of about ¾ mile, we ascended approximately 650 feet.  I slowly, but steadily made the climb.  I think I only had to stop maybe 3 times for a break.  This is what being able to eat does to you!  It gives you energy!  Up at the top was Thukla Pass and the view from up there is amazing.

At the top of Thukla Pass, looking towards Ama Dablam.

But if you turn around from the viewpoint, there is a solemn reminder of the risks people take to climb Everest and the other mountains of the Himalayas.  There is an area full of memorials to those who have died climbing.  Some memorials are for a single person with a plaque noting who they were and their accomplishments.  Others are memorials for climbers from a single country, such as Russia or China (these were two of the country ones that I remember, though I know there were others).  Probably one of the best known names that I came across was a memorial to Scott Fischer.  If you’ve read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, or are familiar with the 1996 Everest Climbing Disaster, his name is one you will recognize.  Refresher – 12 people died on Everest on that day in 1996 after getting caught in a blizzard during their summit push.  Fischer was a lead guide for one of the expedition companies that day, and died on the mountain. Many mistakes were made that day.  

The memorial to Scott Fischer at Chukpi Lhara at the top of Thulka Pass.

After taking some time to walk through the memorials at Chukpi Lhara on top of Thukla Pass, we continued on with a steady uphill hike that seemed almost easy.  We passed by the base camp for Lobuche (the mountain, not the town), which had about 25 tents set up in it.

Lobuche Base Camp

When we got to our tea house in Lobuche, we found a spot at a large corner table and played UNO with the guides and Ian.  I was feeling quite tired, probably due to low oxygen levels, which isn’t all too surprising due to the altitude being almost 2,000 feet higher than the day before.  And of course there was the whole Covid thing too, which might have also affected oxygen levels.

Nepal: Snowy Himalayas!

For April 9 & 10

Tengboche was up at the top of a hill, which meant the first thing we did in the morning was head downhill.  But we didn’t stay down for long because after crossing a bridge it was time to head back up.  At the time I couldn’t help but think, “there are so many ups and downs on this trail, that the way back home could end up being almost as hard.”  

This was the day that we watched a nak herder trying to train some young nak.  There was one nak that was either too young to understand what was going on, or was just the problem child.  Instead of following the trail when it turned, the young nak just kept going straight up some rocks.  The herder kept trying to call it down, but it wouldn’t come.  I wonder how long it took for the nak to come back down, or if the man eventually had to go up and get him.

Some yaks passing us on the trail.  You can tell these are yaks because of how much hair they have.  Naks are less hairy.

My legs were definitely still weak which didn’t make the day any easier than the one before.  I did at least get some more garlic soup in me, which helped boost my energy after lunch.  I was still dealing with diarrhea, which was no fun.  Thankfully, while I was up and moving, for the most part it was fine.  It was when I settled down that my bowels felt it was time to be frequently evacuated.  

Partway to Dingboche (14,272) we crossed a confluence of two rivers.  If we had kept going straight, we’d head to Pheriche, which was how we were going to come back down.  Instead we headed to the right towards Dingboche.  It was a cloudy day so we couldn’t see really how high the mountains reached above us.  We knew that the mountain Ama Dablam was near, but couldn’t see it.  We also crossed the treeline and went from the forests that we had been in, to just small brush.  The lack of trees certainly made the wind increase, as well as the steepening valleys.  

Almost to Dingboche!

We finally made it into Dingboche, our resting place for the next 2 days, as the following day was another acclimation day.  The tea house we were in wasn’t nearly as nice as the others, but I got lucky with a room that actually had its own toilet.  This was important because there was a lot of time spent on the toilet (or actually squatting above the squatty potty) during the night.

It was that first evening in Dingboche that we met Kai and Ian, two guys from Germany.  Kai was planning to spend a while traveling in Nepal and Asia, while Ian was only staying to hike up to EBC and back.  This was also the first night we pulled out the UNO cards that Amy brought with her.  We taught Anil, Pemba, and Kai and Ian’s guide Kami how to play.  They got so into it.  We miraculously stayed at the same places as Kai and Ian for nearly the remainder of the trip, and I’m pretty sure this had something to do with UNO, so Kami could keep playing with us. We played UNO nearly every evening after for an hour at least, if not more. Usually Pemba or Kami would come in, smile, and say "UNO?"

Our first day in Dingboche was also the first day we heard rumors that there was Covid on the mountain.  We started being a little more cautious.  Little did we know that we were bringing Covid up the mountain.  I obviously wasn’t feeling well, and Louie looked at me and asked if there was any chance that I had Covid.  I said “no, my body just decided it wasn’t a fan of the altitude.  This happened to some of the guys on Kili.”  I shut down the idea of Covid quickly and I really truly did believe it was altitude and not Covid.  Just because you hike up a mountain without issues one time, doesn’t mean your body will readily accept it the next time.  Anyone who has hiked up to high elevations has read that and knows it is a risk.

One of our stops on our acclimation hike.

On Day 2 in Dingboche, we had an acclimation hike to do.  There was a ridge on one side of Dingboche with 3 flags on it at varying elevations.  Our goal was to make it as far as we could, though I was told I could take it somewhat easy and to just push as far as I felt I could. 

We hiked down to the lower end of town and made our way up to the stupa overlooking the village.  Even that was a bit exhausting.  From there we moved up higher to the crest of the ridge.  As we were doing this we had trekkers passing us on their way over the ridge and up to Lobuche, the next stop on the trail.  These were people who had already had their acclimation day and were moving on, just as we would the following day.

Our sort of clear day very quickly became an extremely unclear day.  I hadn’t really noticed the weather changing because I had been watching in front of me as we hiked up.  But what made me notice was the sound of a helicopter fly right over us from one side of the ridge to the other.  Fog/clouds were chasing it down the valley it had been traveling.  We then watched as it dropped down low over the river near Dingboche and continued down the valley as a quickly moving dense fog rolled up the valley.  Then the helicopter reappeared and settled down on a helipad in Dingboche, obviously deciding the fog was too thick for it to safely traverse through.  I bet in the matter of maybe 10 minutes we went from being mostly clear to mostly fogged/clouded over with short visibility.  It was amazing how fast the weather changed.

The yellow helicopter being chased down by the fast moving clouds.

We continued hiking up and eventually my legs said stop, so Anil and I sat down and waited while Pemba continued up the ridge with Amy, Renee, and Louie.  I figured I would sit up there and wait for the others to come back down.  I mean, hanging out 600 feet above where we were sleeping was better than nothing right?  So we stayed up there for an hour or so chatting.  It was interesting.  Anil was asking questions about living in the US.  Some of the questions were a bit difficult to answer because I know the answers vary so much depending on where you live and what you do.  He was asking about how much people make and what it costs to live there.  And we talked a bit about our families.  Eventually we decided we should head back down because it was windy up there, even out of the way where we were, and a bit chilly.  The others would meet us back down in Dingboche.  When I got back to the tea house, I snacked on raisins and crackers which I was doing alright with eating.  

A little while later the others got back and we set out to explore the village.  There wasn't nearly as much to explore as Namche Bazaar, but we found two different bakeries to stop in and relax for a bit.  As we walked through the village we also stopped to look at some of the shops.  I needed more toilet paper because my continuing diarrhea had me going through a lot more tp than I had expected to use on the entire trip.  I don’t remember what I paid for a single roll of toilet paper, but it was probably something like $5.  Oh well, I needed it.  I was also looking for more crackers since that was something I was doing alright with eating.

In the afternoon I was able to grab a shower, which felt nice.  This was something that was different from Kilimanjaro.  On Kili there were no showers.  While on the trail we even sang about how nice a shower would feel when we got back.  But on the EBC trail you could find showers in most villages, so I took advantage of that on 3 occasions.  

In the afternoon things finally started to clear out and we got an amazing view of the mountains that surrounded us.  Out one direction you could see Ama Dablam towering high above some of the other mountains in the area.  Looking in another direction you could see the top part of Tobuche sticking out over the ridge we were set to hike.  For the first time we were really surrounded by a number of true (by Nepali standards) mountains.  They were amazing.  I took so many photos!

Ama Dablam showing itself over out tea house.

In the evening before supper we did yoga out back of the tea house.  In one corner of the yard there were two small horses hanging out, tied up to a post.  One of them was a naughty little horse.  It pulled its post out of the ground, then walked around the yard, before eventually ending up at the corner where there were bags of hay.  He then decided he needed a bit of extra snackage and started eating it.  Renee went over and led the horse back to where he was supposed to be, but that didn’t last long.  She hadn't gotten the post put back deep enough into the ground so he quickly pulled it loose again and returned to the bags of hay.  Eventually a porter walking through the yard to his lodgings noticed the naughty horse and took him back to where he was supposed to be, before pounding the post back into the group with a mallet.  And that was the funny end to our day.

Nepal: Moon Cycles or Not?

For April 8

The last night in Namche Bazaar was not a great one.  I didn’t sleep well, my period started, and I started having diarrhea.  I knew I would likely have to deal with my period on the trip so I was prepared for that, but not happy about its appearance.  The cramps were horrible.  But then I got to couple that with diarrhea, which made it even worse.  I figured my stomach was upset with the food or something so I just worked under the assumption that it was travel related.  I also started having trouble eating food.  I would eat a few bites and then couldn’t do anymore.  I’m sure the food was good, but to me it made me feel like I wanted to throw up.  It was after I started having trouble eating that I finally understood the guys on my Kilimanjaro trip who couldn’t eat.  I just couldn’t understand at the time how they just couldn't eat anything, but now 2 years later, I understood.  What we found out in hindsight, after a positive Covid test on returning to Kathmandu 8 days later, was this was the start of me being sick with Covid.  To this day, our best guess is that I caught it from Valentin, who we met that first day.  We can’t know for sure, but based on the symptoms we knew he was dealing with, and the fact that I started to not feel great 2 days later, it makes sense.  

But throughout the trip I was able to brush off everything I dealt with as altitude and travel.  

• Diarrhea: Stomach not agreeing with an abnormal diet and just traveling and drinking water in a 3rd world country.  

• Issues Eating: Altitude.  

• Fatigue:  Hiking miles uphill a day at high altitudes.  

• Cough: Dry air caused by altitude.  

I don’t know if I ever had a fever or body aches because I was taking ibuprofen twice a day to deal with achy muscles and joints from hiking.

Enough of that though…onto the trail.  On Day 4 we were heading for Tengboche (12,632 ft); the monastery on top of a steep, steep hill.  Throughout the day, due to not feeling well and not eating much, I dealt with shaky legs that forced me to stop frequently.  At one point Anil asked me what I was experiencing that was making me not feel great, and I said that my period had started and that the first day is always a little tiring and crampy.  And he goes, “ah, I wondered if maybe it had something to do with your moon cycle.”  Amy gave me an iron supplement to see if that might help, but otherwise I just pushed through.

Even if I wasn’t feeling great though, the views certainly were.  Just as we set out from Namche we came across an old man sitting by the side of the road taking donations to fix the path.  Anil told us that the story is that when the man was younger, his wife fell to her death down the side of the mountain because of the poor path.  So he made it his life’s mission to fix the path so no one else would experience that.  And the part of the path that had been fixed up was certainly much better that the other areas.  It had a defined edge with stone to help it from washing out and was more even.  There was work being done on the path by a young man.

The old man collecting donations.

Day 4 was a day of animals.  We saw a bunch of mountain goats, as well as the national bird of Nepal (twice!).  The Himalayan Monal is a beautiful bird that looks a bit like a peacock, minus the large colorful tail.  The Monal has feathers of blue, with an orange tail and both green and red-orange along its neck.  And the head is blue-green and has a nice plume on it.  Very colorful!

Himalayan Monal

Our hike stayed fairly flat (by Himalayan standards anyways) with some ups and downs, but not really steep ones to start out.  But then, about an hour before we stopped for lunch, we started to descend.  We started our day out at 11,400 ft and by lunch were back down to 10,800, where we crossed a river.  We ate lunch…or more, I ate some peanut butter and cheese crackers after eating 3 bites of my fried rice, and then worrying that the woman who cooked our food would think I didn’t like it or something.

Does that look steep to you?  Heck yes!  My legs could tell you it was.

After lunch it was all uphill.  Two hours and 2,000 feet of up.  Anil took us on a path that was less busy and less intense, for which I was certainly grateful!  It was really nice not dealing with all the other people playing leapfrog. For most of the trail, but especially during the steep spots, there would be spots to stop with a place to sit down, but other times if you needed a break, you just found a rock. The others jokingly called me "Princess" because they would be on the lookout for rocks that were a good place to sit and say, "I've got the perfect rock for you, Princess, nice and flat." And it would make me laugh.

Pemba, taking a break in a beautiful location.

Eventually we crested the hill and directly to our left was our tea house.  Hallelujah!  While Renee, Amy, Louie, Anil, and Pemba went over to the monastery, I took a nap.  After the others arrived back, we headed down to a room where they were playing a documentary called 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible.  It was about a Nepali guy named Nims Purja whose goal was to climb all 14 8,000 meter peaks in 7 months with an all Nepali team.  The man and his team were crazy! They managed to do Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu in 48 hours; that would be the 1st, 4th, and 5th tallest mountains in the world…in 48 hours.  He is also the person who took the crazy picture of the traffic jam of people trying to summit Everest; a picture that was plastered all over news websites back in May 2019.  Anil told us that Nims and his expedition crew would be making their way up the mountain in like a week and I’m almost 100% sure they were the group we saw that seemed like they were on their way to a party between Tengboche and Dingboche as we were on our way down.

I did manage to very slowly eat some garlic soup and crackers at supper.  Garlic soup is their cure for altitude sickness.  And I did discover that it was something I could usually manage to get down, very slowly.  And the crackers were amazing after a day of not having much to eat.  After supper it was time for bed, where I managed to get like, 10 hours of sleep, which left me feeling much better the next morning.