Everest Circuit Rerouted X: You Shall Not Pass!

Saturday, 19 October 2013 14:35 Hrs at 4000m (Dole)

The snow we initially encountered just above our last visit to Dole grew substantially deeper as we made the push for Gokyo yesterday. There was some debate regarding whether we should try for Gokyo at all or reroute directly from Machermo. The passage to Gokyo passing through an avalanche zone after a few days warm weather since the snow was deposited in the valley – the worst snow experienced at this time of year for 17 years, according to the locals – we relied on local knowledge and the experience of our leader and sirdar. It was clear on both our journey to and from Gokyo that there had been a number of small avalanches. Ice steps had been tramped or cut into the sides of some of these, as other trekkers or porters cut the trail earlier in the morning. We had to pass through the avalanche zone in the morning before the sun made the snow too slick. As it was, even though we re-crossed it this morning earlier than yesterday, the ice steps were not as firm and we, at times, found ourselves skidding frequently, even with our trekking poles out to assist us.

Cho La being completely closed at present and more snow forecasted, a decision was made to spend only one night in Gokyo and to forgo the ascent of Gokyo Ri to ensure we were well clear of Gokyo before it became snowed in again. After an early start of trekking at 07:00hrs, we had descended to Marchermo by 09:50hrs (the slower group arrived nearer to 10:30hrs) and had an early lunch. We subsequently departed Machermo at 12:00hrs and after an initial ascent, descended to Dole by 14:00hrs. The recent good weather saw much of the snow melted within an hour of Dole. The path had become slick with mud instead of snow slush. Being a Saturday, it was fortunate that there were not so many yaks muddying up the trail any further.

View of Gokyo Valley:

Tonight we stay at a permanent campsite in Dole and tomorrow we will return to Portse Tenga where we will take the trail up the Khumbu Valley. We will make a wilderness camp at Pangboche. Then we will spend a night at Dingboche and pick up our itinerary at Labouche, which is before Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp.

Gokyo Ri, as of yesterday, was only summitable by mountaineers. The trail had only been broken to within 20 metres of the summit and with the snow already waist deep in Gokyo, it was even more heavily snowed in again. As unfortunate as it was not to be able to climb Gokyo Ri or pass through the Cho La, we still have opportunity to make Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar without adding any really long days to our schedule. Today was 5 hours of trekking for the faster group lead by Basu. Had we remained in Gokyo to ascend Gokyo Ri, there would have been a 9 – 10 hour hike to Portse Tenga and an 8 hour hike to Dingboche (if we did not get snowed in). Due to melting snow, we could not have as safely departed from Gokyo in the afternoon.

The lakes of Gokyo, however, were well worth seeing and it was no great loss to pass them by twice. There are, I believe, 5 in total. We saw the first 3, the township of Gokyo overlooking the third on one side with Renjo La on the other and Gokyo Ri appearing deceptively small just up the valley in front of Cho Oyu. When the afternoon sun struck the third lake, it was a beautiful green amidst all the white snow and black rock. Truly stunning. I spent the afternoon traipsing through the paths cut by the locals, tripod in one hand, camera in the other, tyring to take a photograph that would do this beautiful lake justice and sinking waist deep into virgin snow for my troubles. (Trying to get back out of waist deep snow without using my hands must have been quite a sight as I was not long legged enough just to high step out of it!)

The perfect shot:

Surely it must be snowing in Gokyo presently. It is now after dinner and we have retired to our tents. After a good 15 or 20 minutes organising my gear on the spare bed for morning, it is still only 19:20hrs. Outside, the cloud is very low, clinging to our head lamps as we negotiate our way to the dining hall, the toilets and the tents. There was even light precipitation and tomorrow, I am told, it may rain again. All this drawing the Nepalese to the conclusion that it must be snowing at higher altitude and, therefore, it was lucky we left today before we were snowed in.

Routine has become very important to us. So much of our daily activities being outside our control or influence, we rely on the routine set for us and are as a group happiest when the routine is met. “6, 7, 8.” That is Meet’s way of informing us that we will proceed with our normal morning routine of tea at 06:00hrs, breakfast at 07:00hrs and departing camp at 08:00hrs. Washing water normally appears at our door (tent or otherwise) at 06:15 and 15:30hrs. Afternoon tea is at 16:00hrs. Dinner at 18:00hrs. Lunch depends on when we arrive at certain destinations and could be anywhere between 11:00 and 13:00hrs. We have learnt to take our own snacks for morning tea. I have a stash of mini Mars bars and Toblerone which I take one of each with me every day. Often I will take something squirreled from breakfast, like a boiled egg or peanut butter and jam on toast. I have never eaten so well as I have here, although yesterday at almost 5000m, my appetite was waning. I could hardly stomach one piece of buffalo and after that, everything else on the plate did not appeal to me. The others fared similarly.


Postscript: A lack in appetite at 5000+ metres is associated with the altitude. I personally had stomach only for soup and Pringles, and was not the only one in our group that felt that way. I think we all craved salt from sweating under the even moderate exertion of the trek.

Everest Circuit Rerouted IX: Machermo Porter Shelter & Rescue Post

Thursday, 17 October 2013 19:57 Hrs at 4470m (Machermo)

As rain fell in Namche Bazaar, so did snow in Machermo. It is knee deep in some places and in others maybe more. The peaks surrounding Machermo are little more than black rocks to the locals but with the recent dusting, it has become completely transformed into a valley of exquisite views. The white cut through by small stone buildings or walls, or by the heavy tread of yaks and trekkers and Nepalese alike.

The yaks intrigue us greatly to the horror of our sherpa guide, Basu. We all stand on the path with our cameras poised to capture a truly Nepalese photograph as he calls to us: “Safe side, safe side,” by which he means for us to keep to the uphill side of the trail in the event that we do get knocked over by one of these great, plodding beasts. Better to fall up the hill than down it. Although it certainly is interesting trying to step off the trail into thigh high virgin snow.

Of limited experience as I am with snow, I found it absolutely fascinating trekking through it. We passed the snow line quite early, within an hour or so of leaving camp, and I was surprised by how warm it was. I need only pull the hood of my Patagonia R1 over my head and sleeves down when the wind came up the valley. It was, otherwise, too hot to trek in a hard or soft shell. The trail was slick with mud and every step was with careful consideration. The use of a single hiking pole helped keep me on my feet when the step taken was not considered carefully enough and I skidded or slipped, most often on the declining slopes. I tried to remember to dig my heels in, but when it came to the last descent before camp – which Basu himself almost skied down in his leather hiking boots – I went off track using the deep steps made by other intrepid trekkers.

In Machermo there is an established porter refuge and medical centre called the Machermo Porter Shelter and Rescue Post. It offers porters with free accommodation and medical treatment including treatment of Acute Mountain Sickness or AMS, as provided by volunteer doctors from the UK. Westerners and travellers may utilise the medical services also but for a fee comparable to that in the US (at approximately $50 per consultation which is redeemable on travel insurance). A fee that assists to maintain the rescue post so that it continues to be free for the porters. Every afternoon at approximately 15:00hrs, the volunteers provide a free presentation on AMS, HAPE and HACE, and on the general wellbeing of the porters. For a nominal fee of 100 rupees (or USD$1.00), they will measure your blood oxygenation levels which are recorded as part of a study on normal oxygenation levels and acclimatisation at 4500m per age group. The wall was covered in names recording their value. Mine was 90-91% without Diamox (I have yet to require it); a very average figure judging by the number of names stuck to the wall against 90%. The highest in the group was 97% (on Diamox) and the lowest 80% (without Diamox). One of our porters was 97% also and the doctors were so pleased with his acclimatisation and his gear outfitting, as provided by World Expeditions, that they requested to take his photo in front of the centre.

The talk itself was really very moving. It amazed and horrified me that porters are often left to find their own accommodation at night and where there is none available, sleep in caves or under the stars. I could not imagine being so barbaric. Since the founding of the International Porter Protection Group approximately 10 years ago, tour groups more and more, have been better at outfitting and caring for their porters as trekkers with greater awareness know now to ask these questions of trekking agencies. Still, however, sick porters are turned away to make their way down alone, sometimes suffering HACE or HAPE. Only in Dole we watched on with disgust as another trekker made it clear to his porter he would rather the porter-guide not share his room that night nevermind that the porter was trying to convey to him that there was nowhere else for him to stay.

(Postscript: The volunteer doctors advised us all of an incident in which an unsupported trekker, having attended the AMS talk at the Rescue Post, came across a very unwell porter on his ascent toward Gokyo. The trekker had been unable to communicate with the porter but he soon located another Nepalese porter or guide and was able to communicate his concern that the unwell porter may have AMS. The porter was carried down to Machermo by the Nepalese porter or guide and despite being placed in an oxygen tent, needed urgent evacuation to lower altitude. The volunteers were able to fundraise the money required to evacuate the sick porter by helicopter within the day by approaching other trekkers that passed through Machermo which ultimately saved the sick porter his life. Porters often come from the lowlands and are not acclimatised when they commence trekking for a company. They are just as susceptible to AMS, HACE and HAPE and can die if they are abandoned by the tour group and forced to find their own way down the mountain because they are too sick to continue.)

Everest Circuit Rerouted VIII: Yak Yak Yak

Wednesday, 16 October 2013 14:40 Hrs at 4040m (Dole)

The road between Phortse Tenga and Dole is relatively short. Only three hours separated them. It is also much less traveled than the road from Namche Bazaar. As we wandered along the path – slowly, slowly as always – the panoramic Himalayan vistas that were concealed from us the day before were finally revealed. We are now only a few hundred metres below the snow line, and at over 4000m, the foliage has changed. There are no more soft pines or conifers or what appeared to be paperbark. The trees are smaller, scrubbier, and very soon will end altogether.

Dole is a sleepy little place, smaller than even the main drag of Amphitheatre, Victoria (the nearest town to where I grew up where the population is a little over 200). Constantly bells ring from the necks of grazing yaks and dzopkos. There are very many yaks here, and appreciative few which I would judge from their uncollared necks and the way at least one local chased them from his land, are wild. They are far hairier than their bovine cousins, with tails much like that of a horse, and great horns protruding from their heads. They have voracious appetites as they grazed almost continuously since our arrival a few hours earlier.

Having arrived at Dole before midday, and the weather much finer, a number of the group took the opportunity to wash soiled clothing by the river. We then laid them over rocks, as the Nepalese do, so that they would dry. The walk down to the river and back would have been much more pleasant had the 2 litres or so of fluid consumed before lunch not made for such a hasty retreat to the facilities which, in Dole consists of a small building with a hole cut into the floor. There is leaf litter piled at the back of these ‘facilities’ to cover any more substantial deposits through the gap. These composting toilets, I understand, are used to help fertilize the land on which vegetables are grown for human consumption. A practice long utilised by the Nepalese people.

The less that pristine weather has made much of the land unsafe to tread, circumventing any afternoon excursion aside from the short laundry trip. As we meandered up steep steps and great wallows of mud, the mountainside on the other side of the valley was subject to a landslide, the crack of falling rock as loud as gunfire. Aside from the road to Machermo where we will be trekking tomorrow and the road back to Phortse Tenga, there is no other real tracks to take and so any excursion would have been on very smaller, lesser used trails. Meet was concerned we could dislodge rocks.

The trails have been, thus far, steep but doable. Our lungs run out of oxygen before our legs their strength. The reduced oxygen is very noticeable on exertion, as though you were carrying an additional 16 or 20 kilograms and it will only worsen as we are to ascend another 1600 metres. Our pace, thankfully, has been slow. Regardless, we generally make each day’s trek within the approximate times as outlined in the trek overview. Even with a cold, I have had no difficulty keeping pace with that set by our sherpa guides. Today D.B. lead us and Basu was located somewhere toward the back of the group. Meet watched us all walk in turn, ever mindful and observant of signs that any one of us may be exhibiting AMS. The drone of helicopters in the valley is becoming our constant morning companion, as ever more trekkers are airlifted from the hillside.

(Postscript: This was the day I commenced the course of Cold and Flu tablets I brought with me in the hope that I could relieve my symptoms before Cho La. While my cold symptoms did subside a little, the cough persisted until I returned to Kathmandu. Developing a persistent cough is quite common in the Himalayas, I understand. It is often called the Khumbu Cough for those that develop it in the Khumbu Valley on the way to Everest Base Camp. I have since been advised by a fellow hiker that a ventolin inhaler could assist with persistent coughs developed at altitude.)