From Kote we walked to the village of Tagnag (4 200 m) where we spend two nights instead of one. It was time for some more acclimatisation. Which meant that on our second day there we hiked up a ridge behind the village, all the way up to around 5 000 meters. The hike up felt fine but after coming down both Chris and I felt quite ill: sun had been shining the whole day and I also think that the insane amounts of water had messed up the water-salt balance in my body. The headache was intense and hard to rid, it seemed to consume me fully and I couldn't focus on much else than the pounding in my head. Same thing happened after an acclimatisation walk in Khare, the next village (at 4 900m) where we ended up staying for 3 nights.
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| Goood mooorning Tagnag! |
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| Up the ridge for an acclimatisation walk |
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| Good views |
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| Lauri |
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| Panorama |
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| High altitude kisses |
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| Avalanche spotting on the way to Khare |
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| Short break |
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| Khare! |
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| Another acclimatisation walk |
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| Clouds would come an go |
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| Mera in the back |
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| First second this |
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| Second second this |
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| Pica! (chu?) |
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| Scrambling down |
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| Safely back in Khare |
In Khare we had a "climbing clinic" where we practised the use of jumars (for ascending) and other climbing specific devices. We did a few shorter acclimatisation walks up on the surrounding hills and ridges, admired the funny sounding Tibetan snow cocks and waited for a good weather window so we could start heading towards the base camp. It seemed that our best bet would be Sunday when the winds would settle for blowing around 25-30 km/h instead of Saturday's 55-65 km/h. Everyone was eager to go but understood the difference that the wind makes. It was better to wait.
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| Climbing clinic |
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| Jumaring up |
Waiting in Khare also worked as a reality check - the mountains had a nastier side too. We saw a few avalanches on the surrounding hills. They came down with such majestic roars that it definitely made one think, even if we knew Mera should be safe. In Khare the “Khumbu cough” (cough that is created by the dryness of the air) wasn't the only cough around but a virus was spreading and at least Christina from Team Diamox and myself caught this. A dusty, coarse throat, heavy lungs and a leaking nose didn't exactly invite one to climb even higher. I was hoping the disease would vanish with more sleep but, to be honest, at ~ 5000 m it's harder and harder to recover.
Yet the most alarming wake up was the multiple altitude sickness victims that were carried away with a helicopter - one being our own porter! The young boy had been acting strange during the second morning in Khare and after Klavs' examination and first aid he was being pushed in the same emergency helicopter with a lady who had been rushed down from high camp with altitude sickness symptoms. Helicopters were not a rare sight and we even heard about a death of a porter. The guy passed away even after being taken down to lower altitudes. We were seriously thinking twice before popping pain meds for the headaches...is it safe to suppress them if they are the indication or first sign of altitude sickness?
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| Tibetan snow cock |
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| Little yogi on the table |
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| Emergency copter, or "a squirrel" |
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| And off they go! |
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| Toblerone mountain! |
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| Klavs! |
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| Franziska and Rhys! |
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| Dinner. Momos. OMG. |
On the 28.10. we packed only the most necessary gear for base camp and high camp, put on our mountain boots and headed towards the glacier. At the edge of a steep icy slope we fixed on the crampons and started kicking our way up.
By the end of the slope I felt horrible. The flu had turned worse during the days in Khare and I was tired. But up on the glacier waited one of our favourite kitchen people with a hot pot of juice. Saviour! Mera La and base camp were right around the corner.
BC was at the elevation of 5 400 m and it was a cold place to be. After arriving we sat down for lunch, picnic style, since there weren’t any huts no more. The weather turned cloudy and windy immediately and lunch was consumed with extra speed. Flu ridden, I fell asleep in the tent directly after and slept until dinner. I ate what I could and fell asleep again.
I must've slept almost 15 hours. But it was probably for good since I woke up not feeling better but not worse either. It was time to move to high camp.
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| Pasang leading us to BC |
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| Khare down there |
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| Crampon point |
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| Up on the slope! With some juice! |
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| Mera central in the back> the tiny little peak in the center |
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| Better view on Mera |
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| Mera La |
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| Rhys and the toilet tent in the back |
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| BC |
We were fixed in two rope teams and as the slowest one of the fast team I got to be in the front after Nuru. Nuru was going up those sunny slopes extremely slow - just as one should in these heights. I felt more optimistic: I was still able to hike up, it wasn't perfect but not too bad either! The slopes were deceiving though. They looked a lot less steep from BC but in reality they were quite a bit more elevated and getting up to high camp to 5 800 m was hard work.
High camp is a tiny spot behind a huge bare rock formation and the problem is that the space there is very limited. With our 16 people plus another few teams, the whole place was packed full. Our crew set up a handful of tents which we shared followingly: Christina, Franziska and myself were in one, Rhys, Chris and Zamir shared one and Louie, Yap and Klavs one as the team Diamox were also divided in to their respective groups. The tents were scarily half hanging over the cliffs and rocks and the "toilet" (read: area hidden from the view of most tents) was a sketchy slippery scramble next to a huge drop. I didn't even want to think of slipping on the loose rocks during the nightly toilet excursion.
Arriving to HC Chris had a monster headache and he wasn't sure if summiting would be realistic. We were sitting next to our tents, trying to down lunch while both worried if starting the summit bid in the following night was wise in anyway. The plan was to have an early dinner around 17.00, try to sleep until the wake up at 1.30 and then departing towards the summit at 3.00. I felt feverish and could hardly get air from all the sneezing and coughing while Chris could hardly talk from the overpowering pain in his head. Quite the couple we were.
Against all odds, we both managed to sleep even if eating was more or less out of the question. It's funny, I tend to have a great appetite but up there I only felt nauseous. When the wake up call was given, I downed a painkiller and an egg with a spoonful of porridge. Couldn't do much more.
But to my great surprise I found Chris outside also getting ready! His headache had eased and Team Gysin was ready to try for the summit. Fantastic.
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| Up to HC |
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| Rope team |
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| Slowly slowly |
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| HC! |
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| Steep drops |
In the pitch black darkness of the morning everyone was eager to go. There was tension in the air and at least I got annoyed by every little thing. I guess I was a bit nervous. We started off in similar rope teams than the day before with our head torches and all the possible pieces of warm clothing on. My outer gloves were way too big and clumsy and I got super frustrated trying to balance with them holding the ice axe and the ropes in my hands not to mention having to blow my nose every 2 minutes.
Walking felt extraordinarily hard. This time there was no flow or feel of easiness, not like in Bolivia. My legs were tired and I could only do 15 steps at a time and then needed a breather. I kept telling myself that it was only a few hours more. But hours feel like forever when you’re counting steps…
The headlamps were shining bright in the darkness and every now and then I would look up to see some spots of light in the far distance high up. Jesus. “Few steps at a time Inka, soon the sun will rise, you can do it!”
I tried to eat some chocolate that I had in my pocket but I left it untouched because of a wave of nausea that suddenly took over me. I was sure I would throw up anytime. One step. One step.
Afterwards most people said it was the hardest thing they’d done. Franziska told me she wanted to give up during the early hours but decided to push it until the sunrise and then revise. I guess for many sunrise was some kind of a marking point. After a few hours of walking I heard Chris say behind me “Hey the sun is rising!”. I was looking around and saw absolutely nothing but darkness and head torches. After a while I looked over my left shoulder again and indeed saw a small red stripe behind the mountains! Great, soon the sun is up!
It still took a good while before there was light but I remember clearly this moment when I looked at my feet and a sudden burst of light lit them. I looked back and there it was, the beautiful red fireball over the skyline. Soon it would be warm!
The last bit of reassurance came when Nuru pointed out the peak: there it was, still in the distance but at least not much higher anymore. Even the almost flat part leading to the last short and steep summit push felt incredibly difficult. It’s quite disturbing when you look at this flat path and still can’t walk more than 15 steps at a go. I felt sorry for my team for going so slow when we were so close to the summit but I just couldn’t go any faster. Gladly later everyone said they couldn’t have gone faster either.
Also luckily the weather forecast had been correct and the wind wasn’t half bad. Temperature was around -24’c so don’t get me wrong, it was still very very cold. When we got to the bottom of the summit slope, we figured the easiest way is just to use the ice axe and climb up on all fours instead of fixing the ropes for jumaring.
And then suddenly we were there!! On top of this amazing snow patch that we had been chasing for weeks. I was so tired but so happy that I felt like crying. The wind on top was insane but so were the views! We took a few pics but soon the camera was giving up and we did too. It was too cold.
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| Depature selfie> towards the summit we go! |
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| SUMMIT! |
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| Mountains all around! |
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| Happy Team Gysin |
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| Everst and all the other 4 summits over 8000 meters were visible |
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| Going down |
The way down was markedly easier and with the crampons you could just step without really fearing slipping. I was so exhausted that I was more afraid to pass out while walking. Seriously.
On our way down we suddenly saw Louie and Klavs! Right there, almost at the top! It was a bittersweet sight though, I was extremely happy that they were about to reach the summit soon, but I was sad to see that Yap was not with them. Had he turned back? What had happened?
We continued our silent walk down. Everyone was quite exhausted and hurried down without a word. But a cheer of joy erupted out of everyone when we saw Yap, working his way up also not too far from the summit! We highfived him and Ngima and continued in higher spirits! Awesome work Team Snickers!
At the high camp we met part of the team Diamox. I can proudly say that Lauri, my countryman, was among the first summiters of the day! Go Finland ;) Almost the whole team Diamox also made it up, only two had to give up on the way.
I tried again to eat at high camp but it felt impossible and I could feel the fever rising. Luckily Chris felt better although his feet were numb with cold. Franziska was also mentioning her toes which were swollen and painful due to the freezing temps up on the mountain.
We continued downwards from HC around 10-11 in the morning. I just really wanted to already be back in Khare, at 4 900m and just rest. It took forever to get down from the glacier to the crampon point where we stopped to take a short rest and pack away the crampons. But it wasn’t over yet. I was looking at this steep, scrambly hill infront of me and told Chris I wasn’t sure I could muster the strength for that anymore, I felt so ill. As the knight in shining armor he is, he took some of my climbing gear in his backpack and Nuru and PD made sure to aid me in any possibly way on the way up. Usually I would’ve thanked kindly and refused but I was too tired to insist. I was really grateful. The hill felt forever long. Franziska called out behind me “Inka, we’re almost there” which gave me a very needed boost for the last 20 meters.
The last hour to Khare was gladly mostly down and it passed dreaming about sleeping and trying not to fall down. One step. One step.
On the way Chris proposed that we could take a room from our teahouse in Khare so that I could just go directly to sleep away from the sun. My pride gave in, as it was a pretty great idea. The room was only 5 USD and even if it doesn’t really provide any extra warmth, it protects you from the sun in a different way than the tent.
I passed out immediately when I reached the bed, despite the horrid chills of fever that were hitting me hard. I had last eaten the tiny breakfast 12 hours before, and walked up and down a mountain in the freezing cold for maybe eight of those. I still couldn’t eat.
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| Team back in Khare |
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| Putting up our "flag" |
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| Almost 6 476..sadly that summit is unreachable due to deep crevasses... |
But after hours of sleep I woke up feeling better. The fever was gone, I was extremely cold and finally felt like putting something in my mouth. After a handful of nuts and a boiled egg I was sitting downstairs in the lodge drinking tea and chilling with others. I was extremely happy that everyone made it to the summit and back down alive.
Although apparently Chris and Franziska at least had suffered some 1st degree frostbites, also known as frost nip on their toes. Zamir had some numbness on his fingers and Louie’s big toe nails were blue with bruises and would probably fall off sooner or later. Everyone was completely knackered and the evening was quite short for all.
At least Chris and I were quite done with the trekking and were happy to head back. I think everyone was. After a night in Khare we continued all the way to Kote, stopping for lunch in Tagnag. The day was easy but long with a lot of walking. In Kote the villagers were celebrating Diwali but only Louie and Rhys had the energy to participate. Kote was as cold as we remembered it.
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| Off to Kote |
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| Solar boiler! |
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| Beautiful autumn colors |
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| Team Snickers, eating those Snickers. |
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| Huuuge boulders |
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| Ngima and the nephew Dendu :) |
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| Louie and his awesome Mera Peak hat! |
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| Last good bye to Mera |
From there we walked another long day to Thuli Kharka. The first half of the day was Nepalese (or Toblerone) flat: up and down and up and down, ending up at the same elevation as before. And the rest of the day was just up,up,up all the way from around ~3 000 to 4 200 meters.
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| Pull ups on the resting spot |
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| The thing was about to fall |
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| Lunch break |
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| :D? |
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| One of them high passes |
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| Arrival selfie daaay...17? |
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| Thuli Kharka |
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| Evenings' teahut |
Thuli Kharka was cold and I’m sure I can speak for everyone that we were very much fed up with the cold by now. In Thuli Kharka we did spot a beautiful national bird of Nepal, Danphe, with Klavs and were enjoying the company of a puppydog Kanchi which followed us from the village of Kote and even on the next day when we pushed all the way up to Zatrawa La Pass to 4 600 meters and then all the way down to Lukla to 2 800 meters. 1 800 meters down, holy cr*p. My knees were begging for mercy in the end but by around 15.00 we were happily in Lukla and enjoying well-deserved cappuccinos and lattes.
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| More huge boulders |
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| And up again |
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| Zatrawa La |
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| And this is where we came down from |
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| Lunch spot was incredible |
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| O_o |
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| Lukla hospital. Gladly only seen from outside! |
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| LAST ARRIVAL SELFIE |
In the evening we had a farewell party with the whole crew, Nepalese and foreign with dancing and tasting some local whisky and rum. Next day we headed off back to Kathmandu. Of course the Indian president was visiting Nepal and the whole air traffic was a mess. We ended up waiting for our 22 minute plane ride for 6 hours. Excellent ;D But we made it back to Hotel Shakti, hot showers, great momos and masala teas, busy Thamel streets and the Astrek climbing wall. Alive.
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| Celebrations cake! |
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| Waiting for the plane to be emptied. Loving the "Cut here to break in" |
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| Luggage |
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| Our favourite restaurant in Kathmandu. Hello Kitty!!! |
Afterthoughts:
I know the whole story sounds like a massive struggle and mostly complaining :D in all honesty it was very challenging but every bit worth it. The flu and the headaches were unfortunate but then again...sh*t happens. Still, it was only a small part. Unfortunately the recovery took and still takes some time: Chris and Franziska’s toes started a slow but painful recovery after getting warm. Chris still has hard time walking and gets stabbing pain in the toes. We’re hoping it’ll ease soon. My flu turned into a full blown mucusfest and I ended up having an ear infection as an “after disease”.
About the climb, I think our 100 per cent success rate is a good indication on a well-planned itinerary. Many other companies take a short cut which now to think of it seems quite mad. Mountain Monarch in all was excellent: their staff was kind, helpful, competent and took care of safety all the way. The gear they provided was very good quality and food, as mentioned, was incredible.
One could tell that the company took care of its employees which is of great importance to me. The company being fully Nepalese meant that all the money went to the locals. This was also evident during the trip as our guides told us why the two teams were mostly located in separate teahuts: it was to divide the money fairly to the villages. All that being said, we can fully recommend Mountain Monarch as a tour operator for trekking in Nepal!
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