Nepal: All About the Ups

For April 6 and 7

On day 2 we set out for Namche Bazaar (11,287 ft).  To start the day off, it was a fairly slow and stead climb; nothing too crazy.  But by the time we reached the end of the day, we had dealt with a lot of up.  The skies were much clearer on day 2, which meant lots of gorgeous views of the hills of the Himalayas, and eventually some of the mountains.  Anil had told us that they consider anything that doesn’t have at least some snow on it year-round a hill.  Only mountains have snow on them all year…which basically means they would consider much of the American Rockies just hills.  But I suppose when your local mountain range is made up of loads of mountains over 20,000 feet, you probably have to differentiate somehow.

Just after leaving Phakding.

While on the trail between Phakding and Monjo, we saw a bunch of kids heading to school in their school uniforms.  What we were doing with packs full of water and snacks, they did every day to go to school.  I’m sure they were in much better shape than any of us.  

We crossed over a river (or maybe multiple rivers) throughout the course of the day.  The river had what I’d consider that glacial river color.  It looked like the rivers I saw in Iceland. It is a sort of milky blue-green color.  It looked so beautiful next to the green of the trees, and grey of the rocks.

The gate to Sagarmatha National Park

We lunched in Monjo before having a nice flatish path to follow before arriving at the double suspension bridge.  The double suspension bridge was a place where there was an old bridge, with a new bridge probably 50-75 feet higher above it.  In order to get to the bridge, we had to climb a load of stairs.  After we crossed there was a ton more up.  We had a fairly steady steep climb up for an hour and a half.  We went from roughly 10,250 feet to 11,400 feet.  If the skies had been clear in the right direction, we would have been able to catch our first view of Everest between Monjo and Namche Bazaar, but unfortunately we would have to wait until the next morning.

The double decker suspension bridge with all the stairs to reach it.  We crossed the bridge on top.  The old one is no longer used.

We reached Namche Bazaar, but the thing is, once you reach the city, you still have to go up.  Namche Bazaar sits in layers, and our tea house was at the very top.  This meant that even though we had made it to Namche, we still had to hike up even further to get to our tea house.  And then the tea house had steep steps too!  I don’t understand!  It’s not like I paid to go hike up to the base camp of the highest mountain in the world…oh wait, I did.  :P

Namche Bazaar

The following day was an acclimation day.  We stayed around Namche Bazaar the whole day, but that didn’t mean we sat around being lazy.  The first thing we did was go to the Sagarmatha National Park Museum.  On the grounds of the museum we got our first glimpse of Everest.  It was still quite distant, but you could see it!  I also got a handstand photo (I wasn’t going to forget like I did in Tanzania)...in fact I even got one with both Anil and I doing handstands, though we didn’t quite hit peak handstand at the same time.  After we all got enough photos of Everest in the distance, we headed into the museum where there were some displays about life in the Himalayas, the Sherpa people, and Everest.

Anil and I doing handstands with Everest in the background!

After we left the museum, we started our acclimation climb.  The hike was around 2.25 miles roundtrip, but had a 1500 ft climb.  And it was exhausting.  Lots of little switchbacks.  About 2/3s of the way up we came across the 7th highest airport in the world.  It isn’t used for regular commercial flights, but nearly daily supplies are delivered to the town by landing helicopters or aircraft up there.  In fact, on our way up, we crossed paths with about 15 Nepali soldiers making their way down to the village with supplies…and were making it look easy, racing down with heavy things in their arms or tossed over a shoulder.  Also, sometimes people with money who want to see Everest, but not hike up there will fly out and stay at Everest View Hotel.  We took a break a little beyond the airport.  Unfortunately the clouds were starting to roll in and our view wasn't as great as it once was. Everest was no longer going to be visible.  We continued up a bit further, but decided not to go all the way to the Everest View Hotel, since we knew we wouldn’t be able to see Everest anymore.  After a short break there to take photos, we started our trek down.

Looking down towards Namche during our acclimation hike.

When we got back to our tea house, we ate lunch.  We met a guy named Jeff who was from Wisconsin, I think, and was planning to go to take the trail up to Gokyo before heading to EBC (though he must have changed his mind or decided to do EBC first, because we crossed paths again with him just as we were leaving EBC and if he had gone to Gokyo it would have been a number of days before he was up at EBC).  We also met a woman from Maine who was also planning to hike up to Gokyo, but was not on the same trek as Jeff.

In the afternoon, Amy, Renee, and I heading down into Namche to get some snacks, look at souvenirs we might consider picking up on our way back down, and looking for apples…I was craving apples.  Then we went to a bakery we were told about, where they show a documentary on Sherpas every afternoon.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon before going back for supper and bed.