May 2014

We had a lot of thunder and rain in the night and I allready thought we would now be stuck here. Luckily next morning the sky was clear – maybe the prayer wheels did do the trick after all 😉
The airport hall had almost everything you would expect from a modern airport. A thorough security search ;), a coffee shop and a book shop – although that one was temporarily out of order…

While we waited for the flight we could se how many packets of beer did fit in our plane. I also include a shot of a view to the new and old tower with beatiful mountains in the background. Isn’t the old tower tiny and cute? (It’s the small building right of the tower.

Today we finally made it! We arrived in Lukla and gathered with the whole staff, guides and porters, and made a little ceremony where all the tips were distributed. They all looked very happy…

On our way to Lukla we encountered these nuns on their way to their monastery.

Many of the porters we encountered carried their little travel supplies on their cargo like shoes, umbrella, charger for their cell phone,…

Coming nearer to Lukla school kids passed us on their way home.
 

Near Lukla there was a nice view into the valley which our plane tomorrow is supposed to leave through. Hopefully the weather will be fine – I turned a lot of prayer wheels to boost my Karma 😉

Here are some final impressions from Lukla ‘downtown’. Not sure whether I will post something from Kathmandu tomorrow…

The way from Namche down those endless steps was so much easier than it was up. Breathing was easy and the shadow of the forrest was nice against the rising heat at those lower altitudes. Half way down we stoped to get a last view on Mt. Everest.

After passing those impressive suspension bridges again we passed a nice waterfall scenery

Then we hiked through some smaller villages where I saw some people chating at a shop.

Here are some pictures of young and old.

Finially we arrived again at our luxurious lodge at Phakding, 2610 m (8560 ft) with nice and big room (however, no internet) and a hot shower. Nearby a new house was build and I took a picture of the workers having their lunch break. When they are at work you can hear their hammers working on the stone. This is how it might have been when they built the big cathedrals in medevial Europe and sound of hundreds of stonemasons sounded throughout the city.

This morning we had again beautiful weather as we had it on the entire trip. Fellow hikers told me that on former trips that had been entirely different at times. Looking back where we came from there was a stunning view into the valley. I took my long lense to get a last close shot of Mt. Everest. Also the monastery was nicely lit in the morning sun.

On our way down we passed some of those water-driven prayer mills – very convenient.

Also I came across one other example of what material is transportet by porters up to the mountains. Steel parts which are used for construction.

Here’s how my shoes look during the whole trip. A nice mixture of dust and yak dung 😉

You also need be careful which way you walk when you come across stupas and mani stones. Sometimes a stone looks ordinary from one side but has mani writings all over on the other side. Why is this important? Because you need to take care of your karma of course. Allways walk left (clock-wise), even if there is a construction going on…

When we finally aproached Namche we had a nice view on the valley we need to pass down to Lukla. You can also see those suspension bridges.

In the evening we got a wonderful presentation of Sherpa dance:

I hope I don’t bore you showing Yak photos but I couldn’t resist on those beauties shortly after leaving Periche.
 

Every now and then we encounter gates like this one which ar suppsed to keep bad spirits from entering. This gate had also very rich ornaments inside.

Hiking further down we crossed the tree line so we could walk sometimes in nice tree shadow. Temperatures are rising and spring is upon us.

Finally we reached our lodge for that night (again called Himalayan Hotel) which is right beside a monastery. Looking back we could see Mt. Everest again (small tip above a mountain ridge with a cloud plume to the right)

Rising up on a nearby hill there were numerous prayer flags:

Although it is supposed to go down because wee are on our descent now it is of course not true for the whole trek. The last part took us ‘a little bit up’ (that’s how our guide said it) to reach Tenboche at 3860 m (12660 ft). So again at the end everybody was pretty tired.

This morning I got wired up by John to get some scientific data for his project including ECG and EEG. Then we went half up to Kala Patthar to get some nice morning shots of Mt. Everest.
Then we had a very emotional ceremony where John spread the ashes of his father on the mountain.

On our descent down to our next lodge we passed many monuments which where decorated by a lot of prayer flags. Each monument is dedicated to someone who lost his life in this region, mainly climbing Mt. Everest or doing the support to do so.

I already mentioned the ‘Kumbu Highway’ – here is another shot of it:

Further on we encountered many porters carrying house building material. Stone is not a problem in this region obviously – it is fetched right at the spot. But everything out of wood has to be carried up high. It is amazing what people can carry…

Finally we arrived at our lodge in Pheriche at 4240 m (13900 ft) which this time calls itself ‘hotel’. The rooms were still pretty basic – the only added luxury was a mirror ;). But at least I had the first hot shower in days 🙂

This day I decided to skip the trip to base camp after I had another night with breathing problems. I wandered around and took some photos and took a nice nap in the afternoon, ahhhh…
Oh, did I already mention that getting power for batteries, phones and laptops/iPads becomes harder the higher you get? If possible at all you have to pay for it since the power comes from solar power or generators. Here is a typical charging station:

Also what I like to mention is that washing hands is really essential since it reduces the likelyhood to get one of those nasty bugs in your stomach or intestials. The availability of soap is also not always given. Here is a picture of our outside handwash station – it even had sometimes warm water in it.

The common rooms of the lodges in this region are packed with stickers, flags and t-shirts from people and groups who made it up to Kala Patthar, base camp or even the summit of Mt. Everest:

In the evening we had unusually good weather without clouds so I could get a nice shot of the tip of Mt. Everest which was nicely lit in the evening sun. Later I trid to do some star shots (you might need to click on the night shot to actually see the stars in a bigger view)

Today we had to make some distance to reach Gorak Shep at 5140 m (16860 ft). After a cold night we again started with spotless weather. On our way looking back I could not believe that I came from that spot up in the mountains.

On our way we had georgous sceneries like this one. In this picture you will find tiny spots down at the little stream (you might need to click on the image to see more details). These are yaks! Just to set the scale 😉

Later we reached the Kumbu valley which is the main route to the Everest base camp.

You instantly could see this by the size of the trails. No wonder they are called ‘Kumbu Highway’. While walking you encounter much more porters, Yak trains and other big hiking groups.

At lunch we had the classical Dal Bat, a meal which is also often eaten by the sherpa and that’s why some of us call it ‘Sherpa fuel’

We had another long trail through glacier gravel and rocks of the Kumbu glacier.

Looking up we could already see the base camp area and the Kumbu ice fall where the latest tragedy happend and many sherpas died.

Finally we arrived at Gorak Shep.

Today we got up very early again to head for the Chu pass at 4am. We had a nice nearly full moon which shined through the fog we had to go through. Once we went above the cloud we had a stunning view on the cloud-filled valley where our lodge was.

The first part we went in darkness or without sun so it was pretty chilly. We arrived at a nice spot with great views and sunshine so we could rest and eat something.

There we also saw what was about to come upon us: A steep field of gravel and big rocks leading up to the pass.

After endless climbing over rocks we finally arrived on the pass at 5420 m (17780 ft). We had a good view on a nice glacier (this time without rocks and gravel) and a tiny glimpse on Mount Everest!

Going down was a little bit easier but also not really easy. We had to cross a big ice field which was beginning to melt in the sun. Some people got wet shoes…
And finally we arrived at our new lodge (Mountain View Lodge) at 4830 m (15850 ft) which is the most basic lodge we had so fare.

The hike was announced as not so long and hard as the last one. It turned out that it was technically quiet challenging. We had to climb steep rock fields and cross ice fields – nothing for beginners. So for me it was the most exhausting day in my life (again).

Today we had a very short hike of 3 hours to recover a bit from last day’s strain and to prepare for another pass which we will do tomorrow.
After taking a look at a nice view of a snow covered mountain we headed to the glacier.

The glacier did not look like you would probably expect. No huge blue surface but a flow of rocks, sand and dust. Just on a few spots you can see the ice. But also no bright blue. I tweaked my photos a little bit to point out where these spots are. The Ngozumba glacier is 32 km long (22 mi) and thus is the largest glacier of the Himalayas.
 

It needs a good deal of going up and down over rocks and stones to cross that glacier. It was also kind of odd to know that you are walking on a moving surface (Although the speed is pretty slow)

At the end a yellow flag indicated that we arrived at Chola Pass Resort.