Nepal Part 1 - Everest Region
View from the top of Gokyo Ri (5,535m)
Kathmandu has endless amounts of stores geared for trekking and they all have highly discounted North Face and Under Armour gear. For example, I got a nice North Face winter down coat for $60USD, something that would have been over $200 if bought in the US. On Monday, March 12th I had a bit of a scare. A plane arriving in Kathmandu from Bangladesh crashed and killed the majority of the people on it. My hotel manager’s brother was actually one of the survivors, crazy. The pilot had decided he knew better than the people in the control tower who told him to come in from the south and he approached from the north. I don’t know if it was wind or what that ended up being the reason for the crash but 50+ people died. This event did not help my growing dread for the flight to Lukla. It is known to be the most dangerous airport to fly into in the world because it’s location within the mountains, the quality of the airlines which fly there, the always unpredictable and changing weather, and the fact that the runway has a 12% upward slope to it. Flights in and out of Lukla are cancelled regularly because of the weather. You need perfect clear skies to land and take off. I was also quite nervous about the trek itself. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but that’s the fun part for me. My worries were the dangers associated with Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), which a big problem for hikers in this region, and getting lost since I was doing this all on my own - no guide, no porters, no trekking partner. AMS occurs from going too high up in altitude too quickly and can result in HAPE or HACE which are both conditions in fluid starts filling your lungs or your brain due to the lack of oxygen. Both can be deadly if ignored, the cure is to get down to a lower altitude ASAP and often times requires helicopter rescue. Given my tendency to push my body to it’s limits on a regularly basis, I knew I needed to be extra conservative with the hike - not a personality strength of mine.
Naturally, I barely slept the night before the flight. It didn’t help that I was up until almost midnight packing. Packing for trekking is generally the hardest part of the whole trip. Trying to get the lightest backpack you can without compromising your essential needs is not an easy task. For anyone wanting to do a trek in Nepal, I’ve written down my packing list (with amendments I made for the second trek after learning my lessons on the first) at the end of the post as well as my route. My bag probably weighed 35 pounds, which is way too heavy. It should be 25 pounds or less. You live and you learn.
For basically all of the treks in the Everest and Annapurna regions you can stay at tea houses in villages along the trail. Tea houses are low amenity lodges. You should still bring a sleeping bag but no need for a tent or food (aside from powerbars or trailmix) or cooking equipment. You don’t need to book ahead, especially if you’re not going in high season, and generally you can either get a room with or without a bathroom and either one or two twin beds. The cost of the room will be $0-2USD for a room without a bathroom and then you are expected to eat your dinner and breakfast at the restaurant in the tea house. (I ended up averaging spending under $20/day and that even includes splurging a couple of days.)
I got the airport about 1.5 hours before my flight and that ended up being far to early. The security there is almost non-existent, I don’t think the metal detector is even functional. Kathmandu was super foggy that morning so my flight ended up being delayed by 3 hours. I was actually lucky that it even went off at all, the following 3 days all flights were cancelled due to weather. There are two other options for getting to Lukla. Hire a helicopter for $1200USD or take a miserable 7-10 hour bus ride to either Jiri or Saleri and then walk for 3-6 days up to Lukla. Bussing and walking is actually better for acclimatization but it just adds on a lot more time to the trip. It’s also way cheaper, about $15 round trip versus $360 for a round trip flight. When booking your return flight, the date isn’t a huge deal because it is very easy to change (free of charge). The bigger concern is your flight home from Kathmandu. You have to have 2-3 days of cushion between Lukla-Kathmandu flight and Kathmandu-home flight just in case the weather doesn’t allow the Lukla-Kathmandu flight to take off when it should.
Our tiny, totally safe plane
From the plane ride
Landing strip for the airport in Lukla
The next day I set off for the biggest town I would see on the trail, Namche Bazaar. It ended up being one of the hardest days with 1000m of elevation gain all at the end of hike. The yak and more so donkey trains were plentiful, carrying supplies up to the stores and lodges in Namche and beyond. There are zero roads here, only footpaths so everything is carried by porters or yaks/donkeys. The porters are truly amazing with what they carry. Most of the guys carry 80-100kg - that’s 170-220lbs! Their pay is based on the weight of the load. Most of them use what is called a doko basket to carry their loads. A doko basket is a large basket, assuming it’s made of bamboo, and has a rope that the porters put around their forehead. Some of them are bent so far over at their backs, I don’t know how they straighten out and walk normal at the end of a day. And some of the loads these guys were carrying were just insane. I saw one guy carrying 4 matresses, another guy carrying a refridgerator. They’re literally doing this while going up a mountain! I was in awe everytime I passed a porter and could only feel bad for these guys, their backs have got to be destroyed after only a couple years of work. A lot of them were even wearing sandals. I even saw some kids as young as 11 or 12 years old portering. One of many reminders from Nepal that we are very lucky to have been born in the US.
Namche Bazaar
It took me a little over 4 hours to get from Phakding to Namche. The clouds rolled in after about an hour of hiking and it got colder and colder as I went up. After changing and sitting in the cafe for a while, I noticed I got a little light headed. I think I pushed myself too hard on the hike that day. That night I was freezing when I went to bed but woke up in the middle of the night super hot. I began worrying I had some affects of AMS so I took 125mg of Diamox, the drug that helps with acclimitization. I felt fine when I woke up in the morning but I continued with 125mg of Diamox morning and night as a preventative measure. The view out of my window in the morning was just incredible. So many snow capped mountains that had been hidden by the clouds the day before. I kept overhearing people in the lodge who were on their way down talking about how miserably cold it had been up at Base Camp and it was making me nervous that I didn’t have enough layers. Namche is just as well stocked as Kathmandu is with trekking gear, albeit a bit pricier since it has to be carried in on foot, so I ended up buying a yak sweatshirt and a pair of weatherproof insulated pants that day. I’d rather have to carry a bit more weight than be freezing. My schedule had me spending two nights in Namche for acclimitization so on my “day off” I went for an exploratory hike up to an Edmund Hillary Memorial and then some viewpoints above Namche. Edmund Hillary was the first man to summit Everest in 1953 and the locals are obsessed with him, rightfully so though as he did give a lot back to these communities. He was from New Zealand. The sherpa that was there with him on the first summit unfortunately doesn’t get nearly as much fame but he did it all the same. His name was Tenzing Norgay. I got my first glimpse of Everest’s peak that day as well.
A Bhudist pagoda along the trail
The following day I went to Tengboche. It took about 3:45 hours and the last 2 hours was straight up. I could really feel the weight of my pack that day and I was trying my best not to push my body too hard in order to avoid having AMS symptoms. I was very happy to reach Tengboche. I sat outside in the sun for a while talking to a couple and the girl’s dad who were from Colorado and on their way down. Tengboche also has a famous monastery which I was able to walk through but the monks were lazy that day and only one of them showed up to their 3pm prayer session. He blessed me and gave me a prayer scarf to tie up on a pass or at base camp for good luck.
The next morning the skies were clear as can be and the views of Everest and the other mountains were incredible. I had a very short day, only 1:30 hrs to Pangboche. I befriended a super nice Belgian couple along the way who was also doing Three Passes. We stayed at the same lodge and after lunch did a side trek up to the Ama Dablam Base Camp. Ama Dablam is the Brad Pitt of the mountain peaks. And being at it’s base camp was awesome, I felt like I was just surrounded by an ampitheater of peaks. I sat there staring at Ama Dablam for quite some time trying to figure out how on earth people sumit it. That night I got really good sunset views of Ama Dablam from the lodge. The Belgian girl ended up getting altitude sick that night, the base camp was up at 4,600m, and had to spend two nights at Pangboche’s elevation which meant I no longer had someone to do the first pass with. I was feeling okay that night, just a slight bit of dizziness when I was sitting for a while.
Sunset view of Ama Dablam
Next was another short day to Dingboche. It only took 2 hours to get there so after dropping my bag at the tea house I did a hike up to over 5,000m to a great viewpoint. I met a solo guy from Kentucky doing the Three Passes on my way to Dingboche. That afternoon I watched the movie “Everest” in a cafe in the village. Awful idea to play that movie for people who are on their way up. It’s about the tragic 1996 climb up Everest in which like 9 people die. Good movie, just not the right place to be watching it. It got really cold that afternoon. I met a couple from the US at my lodge that were here on research for AMS and I elected to be a test subject. They took my oxygen levels and did an ultrasound of my lungs and did a cognitive test. I had good results on all of it, which gave me some comfort because I got quite dizzy that afternoon and had a bit of a headache. The following day I went to Chhukung and met back up with the guy from Kentucky on the trail as well as a guy from Michigan. We walked together for the second hour of the hike. It was another short day so I started going to do a side trek to Island Peak base camp but I turned around at half way because my head was hurting. It was super cold and windy too. Motrin took the headache away but I upped my dosage of Diamox to 250mg twice a day from then until I finished the third pass. Aaron, the guy from Kentucky, knew two other guys at the lodge, Phillip (UK) and Denis (Czech) and we all agreed to do the Kongma La Pass together. So formed Team Chainsaw - we cut through the bullshit. The owner of this lodge was super cool. He was young and really into American culture so he made it fun. We went up to Gokyo Ri the following day which had absolutely stunning views. It was a steep climb up to 5,550m but good for acclimitization. That night I met a sherpa who had summitted Everest 7 times and learned that it’s super commercialized now but still the hardest peak he’s gotten to. The Kongma La Pass was a brutal day. Four hours of ascent to get to the top and then 4 hours down including traversing a massive glacier moraine that really took the energy out of us. The views from the top of the pass were well worth it but we were exhausted at the end of the day. Aaron skipped dinner and went straight to bed! We spent that night in Lobuche, which was more or less a shithole of a town.
Top of Gokyo Ri with Aaron and Denis
Top of Kongma La Pass with Aaron, Denis, and Phillip
Top of Pass #1, Kongma La Pass
Denis and I stuck together and did Kala Pattar the next day after having dropped our bags at the Pyramid. I also made it to Everest Base Camp that day but was rushing against sunlight. I was exhausted and frozen by the time I made it back to the lodge. The Pyramid is an old Italian research station that funding ran out for so they converted it into a lodge. It’s expensive to stay there but it’s a small slice of heaven because it has solar powered hot showers and heated rooms. Also unlimited hot drinks. Kala Pattar was freezing and windy but really great views. Base Camp was cool, I wish I could have had time to walk around a bit more but I basically just took my picture and left. No expeditions were there yet, just sherpas getting camps set up. Though the hot water was more like luke warm, the shower that night was clutch. I was quite tired the next day as well and thankful it was a short 2:15 hour walk to Dzonglha. Aaron met back up with Denis and I there but Phillip stayed at the Pyramid another day to recover from his cold and headache he was battling. The Cho La Pass was the next day. It had a lot of varied terrain which made it a bit more fun than the Kongma La but not nearly as scenic. I managed to slip on ice and fall into a small stream on the way up. We also walked up a legit glacier this day. Still didn’t need to use my microspikes though. Denis was not feeling well this day so Aaron and I took off ahead of him. The last section of the day was yet again a massive glacier moraine. These moraines just suck the life out of you because it’s super easy to get lost, they seem to go on for forever, and it’s a lot of up and down. Despite having to pause at the end for some yak traffic, we made it to Gokyo in under 7 hours.
Top of Kala Pattar
Gazing in awe at Everest from Kala Pattar
Top of Kala Pattar (5,550m)
Everest Base Camp!
Messing around on our way to Dzonglha
Top of Pass #2, Cho La Pass
The next day we did Gokyo Ri which gave great views of Gokyo Lake and Everest. Then the following day I set off for the Renjo La Pass on my own, Aaron stayed in Gokyo an extra day to wait for Denis. The ascent was the easiest of the three passes and I was fine following the path on my own. The views from the top of the pass were by far the best ones yet and I got them all to myself. I tied the prayer scarf the monk in Tengboche had given me to the prayer flags at the top. Then I made a very very long descent to Thame. At the top of the pass I made friends with an Australian couple, Felicity and Greg, and would end up spending the majority of the next three days with them. Then I went to Namche the next day and pigged out on celebratory cake and pizza! The following day I walked with Felicity and Greg all the way back to Lukla and changed my flight to a day earlier. We did a celebratory pub crawl and were all sufficiently drunk after 3 beers. Despite waking up to thunderstorms, the skies cleared and my flight took off only 10 minutes late. My prayers were answered yet again and I arrived safely in Kathmandu. I immediately took a hot shower that felt absolutely amazing.
Sunrise over Gokyo Lake as I made my way up Renjo La Pass
View from top of Pass #3, Renjo La Pass
Top of Gokyo Ri (5,380m)
Overall, the Three Passes hike was the best and most beautiful adventure I have done in my life. I highly suggest it and am happy to help anyone interested in learning more about trekking in the Everest region. Just going to base camp isn’t the greatest trek. If you are short on time I suggest going to Gokyo, and then returning via the Renjo La Pass - skip base camp, it’s really just there to say you did it. The best views of everest are from Kala Pattar and Renjo La/Gokyo Ri.
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