An attempt at 3 passes - Day 8, 9 & 10 - Back to Kathamandu via Phortse

One of the five lakes

Morning of Day 8 I woke up refreshed, thanks to a good night's sleep. We left Gokyo at 7:30 am and stopped for some photo ops along the other smaller lakes that we encountered.

The sun was out and soon we found ourselves delayering to get cooler. Getting rid of inner thermal layer is not an easy task out in the open :)

River crossing

The warm weather and loss in altitude helped my body and I practically started running down the trail. The original plan was to descend to Dole and then go to Phortse the next day. However an hour into the trek (near Machermo), we took a stock of my energy levels and decided to cross the river and instead go to Phortse via Thare. This way reaching Gorakshep or EBC would take same number of days as it would have taken if we had crossed Cho La.

Since our earlier plan was a shorter hike, we hadn't carried any food as we hoped to  reach Dole by lunch time. Now, we needed a lunch halt because we had increased the trek duration. Due to earthquakes some of the tea houses on the way were closed and we wondered if we would go hungry today. On top of that, the weather had turned cold and windy - not easy to manage on empty stomachs.

Around 1 pm, we reached Thare and again found most of the tea houses closed, but as we were about to give up all hope, we found a place that was open and willing to serve us some hot food. While the options were limited - we were more than happy to get some shelter, hot food and hot tea inside us.


The tough climb between Thare and Phortse

We left this place around 2:00 pm and realized that weather had turned for the worse - especially the wind. So far the descent was mostly downhill or flat (barring some uphill portions as is common with Himalayan hikes) but now we encountered a long and steep portion.

Since I was still struggling with uphill portions, this one literally took my breath away. Slowly and painfully I climbed the innumerable stairs and once at the top I decided that I won't be visiting EBC in this trip. If I cannot manage uphill at this lower altitude of approximately 13,500 ft,  no way would I be able to complete the hike from Lobuche (16000 ft) to EBC (17,500 ft)



View of Dole - our originally planned halt

We finally reached Phortse around 4 pm and went to the teahouse suggested by the trip organizer (Tashi Friendship Hotel). He had talked to the owner there to help me find a porter if I decide to descend further to Lukla. There were no attached bathrooms here but the common loo was fairly clean and hence we decided to stay the night.

Over dinner, I informed the group about my decision

View of Phortse - our actual destination

to drop EBC (had done that already 18 months back) and head down to Lukla instead. While they were disappointed, they understood my predicament. Now the next item on agenda was to find me a porter. Why?

Because...Phortse is at ~12,500 ft. The route to Namche means descent to Phortse Tenga at ~11,500 ft and then a climb up to ~13,100 ft to Mong La before descending again to Namche. Today I had carried my backpack but I knew that I will not be able to climb 1600 ft with it on my back.

Finally with much effort, the owner was able to find me a porter - a lady porter! Initially I felt pretty weird asking another woman to carry my load but later on I realized that she was much stronger than me :)

Day 9, I started for Namche Bazar amidst the sad good byes and promises to meet again soon. Plan was to reach Namche, stay overnight and then proceed to Lukla next day. The descent to Phortse Tenga was easy, especially now that I had only water load on my back. The climb to Mong La was quite tough but lack of backpack helped again and lo behold I was at the top in just 90 minutes. Beyond this point, the hike was easy-peasy and we were in Namche Bazar at 11:15am.

I had called in ahead to book myself a room at Camp de Base hotel but since it was pretty early in the day, I decided to just have lunch there and proceed to Phakding instead. My thought process was to spend the night at Phakding and reach Lukla by 8 am next day to catch the flight back to Kathmandu. This would save me another day's expense on the trail and will allow the porter to get back to Phortse sooner. Since her fee was based on destination and not number of days - it was a win for her also.

My porter and I weren't able to communicate the normal way as she didn't speak any Hindi or English and I don't speak Nepali. With help from kitchen staff at Camp de Base, I conveyed my plan and she agreed. After a hearty lunch of spaghetti, we started for Phakding at little past 12 noon.

We walked fast (except when I encountered steep uphill portions) and took only couple of short breaks (mostly for her benefit as she was carrying the load) between Namche and Phakding. Near Sagarmatha check point, it started to drizzle with a clear sign of it turning into a downpour. But she kept walking unfazed and I simply followed suit.

At around 3:30 pm, we reached the Sunrise Lodge in Phakding (the same place where we had stayed on the way up). I think I was more relieved than her because the threat of downpour had become a reality. The clouds simply burst open as if they were just waiting for us to get a shelter. As usual, I ended the day with hot shower and a sumptuous dinner (my appetite was back now that oxygen was flooding my lungs). Since it was quite an achievement to reach Phakding from Phortse in 8 hours, I further rewarded myself with a beer :)

Day 10, we started very early as I wanted to reach Lukla by 8 am to catch the 3rd or 4th flight into Kathmandu. By 5:50 am we were back on the trail and walked quietly while enjoying the beautiful morning. I was a little sad as this was to be my last two hours on the hike and then I would be back to reality.

We reached the airport in Lukla at 8:15 am to meet the contact person who would help me get the flight to Kathmandu. The airport was in chaos as no flight had left for Kathmandu the previous day due to bad weather and I couldn't locate my airlines contact. I decided to wait for him at the Numbur tea house run by his wife (just next to airport) - so I paid my porter, gave her some energy bars for the hike back and prepared myself for a long wait. Given there were many people waiting there in the tea house for their delayed flights to take off, I realized I may not reach Kathmandu today.

After multiple check-ins with the wife, who wasn't able to locate her husband as his phone was off, I finally gave up on the idea of leaving Lukla today and decided to relax with a glass of wine. And as it usually happens, once you stop running after something you get it - some 45 minutes later, she informed me to go back to the airport as her husband had found me a seat on the last flight out.



Dornier that flew me back to Kathmandu

Happily I lugged my bag to airport, completed the formalities and parked myself for another wait as the flight had not yet left Kathmandu due to some air traffic issues there. Finally the flight too off from there, landed here and we were airborne.

I reached Kathmandu around 1:00 pm - both sad and relieved. Sad because my hike had come to a premature end, relieved because my head no longer ached and my appetite was back.

After I checked into Hotel Friends Home, I spent the afternoon running around to get my tickets to Bangalore for the next day. Once that was out of the way, I treated my self to a Café Mocha and Chocolate Brownie at Himalayan Java - by the time I was half way through my brownie, I realized this was way too much indulgence after 10 days of simple food.

I wrapped up my trip with a big dinner with the agency owner and dear friend RT. I had a lot of amazing local food, a mind blowing Bhutanese dish and some good Chilean wine. And I believe I ate enough to make up for the times I couldn't eat during the trek. If you ever want good food in Kathmandu, do visit this place - "Dechenling - A Garden of Joy" located near the North Face showroom in Thamel.

I left for Bangalore the next day, with a promise to myself to be back again soon!

An attempt at 3 passes - Day 7, "Excursion" to Gokyo Ri

I woke up at 6 am even though we were not going on a long hike today. Today's plan was to climb Gokyo Ri (aka Gokyo Peak) that stands at 5,357 m or 17,575 ft above sea level. The views of the entire Gokyo region and the Everest Range are simply amazing from the top. Gokyo lake is at 4750 m, this translates into a climb of 600 m/ 2000 ft to the top. As per the itinerary, the climb up and back down would take us about 3.5 hours.

We started at 8 am after our breakfast - my appetite hadn't returned to normal yet but I could manage to eat something. Today my pack had only an additional jacket and water and since we all had already been to similar height yesterday (Renjo La), it was expected that today's climb would be easier on the lungs.

AA was practically running, AD & I were moving slowly and our guide was with us two slow movers. Around 9 am we noticed a few folks coming back down - they had started at 6 am in order to get clearer skies and hence better views. One hour into the hike and I could see that we were only one third of the way up...which meant that climb up alone would take us 3 hours.


View of Gokyo Lake while climbing Gokyo Ri

 Since AA was doing well, we suggested that he go at his own pace and not wait for us. AD & I continued slowly - the previous day's altitude gain hadn't seem to have helped us. We were both struggling to breathe and hence were finding this climb quite tough. AA reached the peak around 10:30 am and while we could see the peak, we knew that it would take us another 30 minutes to get there. As he was waiting for us to catch up, weather started to turn bad and he decided to start back down - without any physical activity the cold feels much colder.

AD & I, finally reached the peak at 11 am. It had taken us 3 hours to get to the top - most of the folks take only 2 hours. Just goes on to show how much we were struggling with thin air. We were tired but jubilant at having finally made it to the top. The views at this height were simply amazing. We could see all the lakes in the region, the Ngozumpa glacier and the Everest Range. Ngozumpa glacier at 36 kilometres / 22 miles, is the longest glacier in the Himalayas. It lies below the sixth highest mountain in the world - Cho Oyu (8201 m).

View from the top

The sun, however, had gone behind the clouds and the wind chill was quite bad - forcing us to start back down just after 15 minutes at the top. The way down ofcourse felt much easier and we made it back to the Gokyo Lake (our lodge was next to the lake) in just over an hour.


View of the lake from our lodge

We wrapped up the so called excursion to Gokyo Ri with a cup of hot mango juice (yes, again!) - Though I still can't believe that the itinerary called it an excursion. Climbing 600m from Very High Altitude zone to Extremely High Altitude zone, cannot be called an excursion - at least not in my dictionary!

I was quite exhausted to have lunch. so I had some snacks instead and decided to get some rest while AD & AA continued to enjoy the view of the lake from the dining room. As I drifted off to sleep, I had only one question on my mind - can I really cross Cho La day after?

As I came back to the dining room around 4 pm, I posed this question to the group and our guide. Given my performance at Renjo La yesterday and today to Gokyo Ri, I felt that Cho La was something I will not be able to manage because it's a bit tougher than Renjo La. Of the three passes, Kongma La is the toughest and Renjo La is the easiest.

We had already decided to drop Kongma La as it requires higher level of fitness because there aren't stone steps like Renjo La and slopes are steeper. The question was now, whether we cross Cho La or not? AA & AD wanted to visit Everest Base Camp (EBC) and going via this pass would make sense. This route would mean going to Thagnak next day, crossing Cho La day after and reaching Dzongla, reaching Lobuche 3rd day and then Gorakshep & EBC.

But I had been to EBC already and I wasn't sure I could cross another high pass in my current state. After much discussion, it was proposed that we take a longer but easier route to EBC. This route meant going to Phortse next day, Dingboche day after and Lobuche on 3rd day. In terms of number of days the two routes were same, but this one meant skipping another pass from our list. Thankfully neither AD nor AA were too hung up on crossing Cho La. AD even said that she is quite happy with one pass, one peak and EBC - for someone to do this much on her first high altitude trek is more than enough.

Even though at this point I wasn't sure if I want to do EBC again, the group felt that if we lose some altitude and take additional rest, my body may get ready for the climb back to EBC. This was the key reason they both decided to join me in the descent to Phortse next day. I was so relieved at the thought of not crossing another pass that I ordered a big dinner and managed to eat well for the first time in 3 days!
 

An attempt at 3 passes - Day 6 to Gokyo via Renjo La

I woke up at 3:30 am in a sour mood - I was tired and in pain because of carrying my backpack all these days and because it was mind numbing cold at this hour. Somehow I managed to get ready in time for the breakfast which I couldn't eat as it was too early in the day for me to consume any calorie rich food.

 

We packed some food for the journey as crossing a pass means no shelter till you reach the other side and come down back to the valley. This also implies that we needed to carry more water than usual considering we would be gaining lot of altitude in one day and hydration needs would be higher than usual (to counter the effects of altitude). We had chosen the more difficult side to cross this pass - we would be climbing 1000 m to get to the pass and lose 600 m to get down back to civilization. The views are more beautiful this way but climb is exponentially tougher and most folks prefer to cross the pass from Gokyo to Lungde.

 

Anyways, it was too late for us to change our plans and thus, we started the hike at 4:45 am - the sun had started to come out giving a nominal feeling of warmth. Given I was tired already and this was to be a really tough day, I decided to offload a fair bit of my load to the porter. I had carried about 12 kilos (including water) till Lungde but today my backpack was about only 5-6 kilos. It had only essential clothing, medication and water. 

 

We were already in Very High Altitude zone to begin with and I was not surprised that initial few steps of the climb started to leave me breathless. I decided to slow down to allow my respiration to catch up with the ever thinning oxygen. A few minutes into the hike, AA realized that he had forgotten his phone back at the lodge and he went back to retrieve it. Not wanting to delay us, he decided to run back to the lodge - a big mistake at such altitude. By the time he caught up with the two snail paced women, he was very breathless and kind of turning blue thanks to lack of oxygen. Given his current condition and his discomfort the previous day, I and the guide both felt that he needed to start taking Diamox. 

 

AA took some Diamox and we rested a bit for his breathing to become normal before proceeding with the hike. After the initial climb to the ridge, the route was mostly flat. The views were amazing and at one point we even walked through a dried up mountain lake - felt like a dessert crossing. The ups and downs of the route were not really steep but the lack of oxygen had started to tire AD & I out significantly more as compared to AA (who was on Diamox). 

 

Lake en-route to Renjo La

We encountered another lake (this one had water) and after that the route started getting steeper. The last 90 minutes to the pass comprised of stone steps which were more uneven than usual due to the frequent seismic activities affecting the region.

Renjo La lies at an altitude of 5340 m which is considered Extremely High Altitude - so it was no surprise that as we got closer, we could barely walk a few steps before requiring a rest to get breathing back to normal. Low oxygen levels also tire you out as body is unable to convert glucose into energy.

 

These last 90 minutes felt like torture - I couldn't breathe, I couldn't climb (was extremely tired) and I couldn't go back as Gokyo was closer than Lundge at this point. Both AD and I continued to struggle till we reached the pass. AA was doing amazingly well and showed no more low-oxygen related distress.

 

We reached the pass around 11:50 am - 7 hours is a long time to walk without much break and at such altitudes. On the way, a hiker had passed us and he was practically running - he was high altitude runner and his aim was to do the whole trek from Lungde to Gokyo in 4 hours!

View from the pass - Gokyo lake in the distance

Once at the top we all had something to eat (I couldn't manage much due to my tiredness) and some black sugarless tea to drink. The views were just awesome but the cold and thin air didn't allow us to stay here longer and we started the descent just after 15-20 minutes. We still had 3 hours of hike ahead of us - all downhill or flat but not easy. At this point the cold and the low oxygen had started to give me a dull headache - a sure shot sign of altitude sickness but since it was almost time to descend I wasn't too worried - descent meant more oxygen and hence improvement in all vitals!

Descent to Gokyo Lake

 

First one hour of descent was nightmarish for me - the slopes were steep with lot of loose stones and dirt - making it difficult to get good footing. Then we encountered snow on a very steep slope - at one point I just couldn't move forward lest I fly off the face of the mountain. Our guide noticed my dilemma and held my hand till I was comfortable to get down on my own.

 

Our guide helping me on the snowy slope

My headache that should have subsided with loss of altitude instead increased with time and my tiredness continued to get worse. Only thing that kept me going were the amazing views of the Gokyo lake and valley. Guess my inability to eat had caused me severe fatigue - once again! (I had similar issues at HMI base camp)

 

Finally around 3:30 pm, we were in the lodge at Gokyo called Fitzroy Inn. We chose this one because we wanted attached toilets. As luck would have it, only one of the available rooms had attached toilet and AD & AA were gracious enough to let me have it - I must have looked pretty close to dying :)

 

After a cup of hot mango juice, I gathered enough energy for a shower and went to bed - I was too tired to even sit, let alone chat. While I didn't sleep (it’s not advisable to sleep immediately at high altitudes) I did manage to get some rest before joining them for dinner. I ordered some lasagna but I couldn't have even one bite. I had some potato croquettes instead and retired for the day.

 

Thus ended one of the toughest and longest days (10.5 hours from Lungde to Gokyo) I have ever encountered while hiking. Only HMI trek comes close to this one but there I was able to carry the full load till the top. Today even without the full load and then no backpack for the last few hours, I was quite close to just giving up. The big difference in two treks was the altitude - our hike today had started at the altitude of HMI base camp and then taken us to the same altitude as EBC before descending to Gokyo.