Well, I made it back…….whew!  Man, what an adventure that was.  I was gone a total of 16 days up in the mighty Himalayas.  I have been so absolutely exhausted and weak since I got back this last Saturday I honestly did not have the energy to walk my ass down to a cyber shop and write.  I am getting stronger now.  This has to do with trekking 9-10 hour days every day, altitude and in the end one lonely Sherpa Pancake rocked my world!!!!!! 

So Yagya and I took off for Jiri Oct. 20 something with packs and a guide book.  I packed my ruck with the bare minimum and it still came out at 16 kgs (35 pounds) Of course more GREAT bus rides for one full day and we were there.  We got to Jiri late at night and found a hotel owned by a very nice Nepalese woman that gave me her seat as I was hunched over standing in the bus getting ready for the second 2 hour bus ride.  When I say hotel it’s nothing to a hotel you may be thinking of.  It is no motel six if you know what I mean.  A really really basic room usually with a bed and an out house out back.  It usually has a small dining room and very thin plywood walls at times.  We left early in the morning and hit the trail.  It was a nice trek seeing more country and not seeing hardly any tourists.  For six days we primarily stayed at the same hotels as a few other trekkers making their way up to Namche Bazaar and on to Everest.  There was a French group of 3 men.  One father/son and the son’s friend.  The father was 65 years old just divorced and hanging in the back bitching the whole time about how his son did not love or care about him because he was going so fast; his son yelling “Go Papa Go!!”.  The old man just kept talking shit and threatened to not follow any longer and stop in the next town to rest for a few days.  Ha ha ha ha, he was a great old man.  This was good for me because I ended up messing up the tendons in left knee and walked like a little 2 year learning how to walk down stairs for the first time.  I did this for 6 days.  Very brutal and slow (especially down hills) but still managed to make good time just real long days doing so.  The Old man and I bitched and talked together since we were by far the slowest of anyone trekking up.  Good company.  There was another couple that had just got married in the Annapurna circuit (b/c that is where they met) and they were on a honeymoon trek up to Lukla and then back down on another trail east.  So it was great seeing all these little towns as we gained elevation going over 2 passes the highest being 13,500 feet and then back down.  One of the passes we were actually above the planes flying up to Lukla.  That was pretty cool.  3-400 people fly in and out of Lukla everyday.  These planes are 16 seaters and this is only for about a month to two months this many people fly in and out.  Just during peak season when the weather is soo good up there.  Fall and then spring again for about 1-2 months people flood this area.  A plane probably every 15-20 minutes flying overhead.  It was a very brutal hike but got me strong and acclimatized to reach Everest.  A festival called Tehar was also underway as we trekked so the festivities made the towns that much more fun.  We actually saw Everest and the mountain range from down in the valley for the first time passed a really cute little town named Junbesi.  We had great weather all the way up.  When we passed Lukla all ragged and beat up from the passed 5 days we started to see tons of tourists just getting off of planes.  You could tell because of their brand new clean trekking outfits and boots…..they all had porters and guides and were usually in pretty large groups.  Oh yeah and everyone had trekking poles.  Ski poles for hiking, I have never seen this.  I mean everyone.  Whoever created these and decided they were mandatory for trekking is a millionaire right now.  I think they just get in the way personally.  So we got to Namche Bazaar (13,600) which is like a small city of hotels and fake Tibetan jewelry among many other things just sitting up in the Everest Himalaya region.  It is surrounded by the first sighting of a couple pretty large 20,000 plus foot peaks.  It’s pretty impressive really.  It got cloudy and nasty for the hike in and the following day.  We stayed and rested and acclimatized here ( one of two mandatory acclimitization days) for one day which was sooo great because that is all I needed.  One day of rest to shake the bad knee.  We hung out played cards and drank Roxy (local wine/whiskey).  It’s not too great but cheap and it gets you drunk.  I also washed clothes and took a cold shower (13,400 ft) and will never do that again. This was the last day I took a shower until Kathmandu.  The ATM was broken in Namche and I had no US dollars to exchange as they were spent some time ago.  This left me with 6,000 rupees (about 80 bucks).  Putting myself on a budget on this leg of the trip was not the greatest thing that could have happened to me because of how high the food prices were and just kept going up as elevation went up.  I was cutting it close but was not going to stop just b/c of the fear of not having enough money!!!!!  It was a tourist thing and the fact that Sherpas and Yaks had to pack things farther and higher.  The next morning (day 8) Yagya headed back for Lukla to catch a flight to Kathmandu.  

That morning I headed out around 6:30 and it was super cold!!  The clouds lifted and it was very very clear.  It ascended the whole way from here to Kalla Pattar (the closest you can get to Everest without climbing it).  As I got out of Namche and around the corner on my way up I immediately started seeing massive mountains.  It was soooooo beautiful as the sun was coming up……..  I ascended 1200 meters to Pheriche at 4,240 m (14,600 ft).  I got lost on the way.  The first of two times I got lost.  The first was my fault and the second was not.  I’ll explain soon.  I figured out quick to look for Yak shit.  Yak shit ended up being my best friend!!!!!  If I found it I knew I was on the right trail.  So my first encounter of altitude sickness was on the eve of this day as I dropped into Pheriche.  It was only a headache though, a little hard to sleep and my pulse seemed to be fine so?  Two guys stumbled in right before me and one guy had an oxygen level of 43!! 43!  That is damn near dead.   I know this b/c I volunteered to take an Ibuprofen test up to Lobuche through some medical students set up there from the states.  You know I probably counted 5-6 helicopters a day bringing people back down the mountain.  That is 6,500 dollars a pop.  This town ended up being kind of a God sent for me.  When I entered it was very dead.  A hotel owner yelled at me “where are you going!?”.  I told him I was going farther into town and that I only had 6,000 rupees.  He told me he had no guests and gave me a room for free.  Hell yeah!!!!!  He said he had also been in this situation before and sympathized with me.  He charged me minimal for food and even let me unload some of my things for a lighter ruck on the hard ascent left to come.  Man I thanked him so much.  His name is Kul.  He has a Sherpa wife and a 2 year old daughter.  All Sherpa women have very red Rosy cheeks.  So I got up early the next morning and headed out knowing that I needed to get to Lobuche early to get a room indoors to sleep.  You see almost everyone else already had reservations by going through an agency with guides and porters etc. etc. (which I recommend because it makes it sooo much simpler and easier…..even though winging it does kick ass!).  So I had to race the groups of tourist and more importantly the runners up the mountain to get shelter.  Each guide sent a runner to reserve rooms for the following groups because of no phones up in these areas.  Plus the guides always had a cousin running a hotel.  It was not too bad though because I was in kick ass shape by this time.  This is the second time I got lost.  I was making really good time and and was descending down to a town I thought was Duglha.  A young porter stopped me and asked for Pani (water).  I immediately stopped to get it out of my pack.  As he drank my water I asked him if this was the way to Lobuche and how much longer it would be, knowing I was on the right track and would be in a room in no time!  He told me that no it was the wrong direction and that the town was Jhula not Duglha.  So everyone up to this point had never steered me wrong and I joyfully headed straight up the mountain looking for a different bridge to cross.  Well I went for about 45 minutes and realized again I was lost and there were no tourists, no more trails and definitely no yak shit up here.  I was sooooo Pissssed offff!!!!!  I practically ran down this steep ass hill back towards the bridge knowing I had wasted very valuable time and had been passed by tons of tourists.  I got to Dughla and searched everywhere for that little son of a bitch!  I came up empty handed.  I had lost a lot of time.  I thought I had lost him and sat down to eat some biscuits and water from my pack for a real nice lunch!!  mmmmmm!!!  I went up by far the steepest part of the trek to Lobuche from Duglha.  If you wouldn’t know it I saw him sitting against a rock resting his little ass.  I made a B line straight for him in complete rage (who the hell would take someone Else’s water and then pretty much tell them to piss off by sending them in the complete wrong direction!).  It was my fault for listening to him and not just trusting what I knew but still!!  It’s the principle.  So I walked up to him while he was mocking me huffing and puffing like he was spent.  I looked at him straight in his eyes and said “you want some pani!!?”.  He said “hajure, hajure!” (yes yes) like he was dying of thirst.  The little bastard spoke English too, broken but still English.  I pointed and got real close to his face and said “fuck you man!!!!” in a loud voice and stormed off.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha tourists mouths all around me dropped open at the same time like oh my God how could this American be so mean to this poor little porter boy working so hard……..ha ha ha it felt so good.  It was better then kicking his ass right!!!!

O.k. so I had to tell that story…………wait if you are still reading this there is even more drama to come.  I got to Lobuche after a 700 meter climb now at 16,900 ft. and there were absolutely no rooms in all 4-5 lodges that were there.  Yeah, I slept in the dining room.  Got my oxygen level and pulse taken for the research project and I was fine (84 Oxygen, 77 pulse).  Met some cute girls from South Africa and England and a garbage man of 21 years from the Bronx of NY.  I slept by this guy just sawing logs all night long beside me.   I could not take it anymore and got up at five in the morning packed my shit and got the hell out of there.  I pulled into Gorak Shep another 250 meters ascend at 17, 200 feet.  I got to a hotel by 7:30-8:00 that morning……..another great clear day with the sunrise.  I saw Ama Dablam very clear down below, Nupste to the right and Everest towering above the camp as I dropped down into it.  I was for the first time completely engulfed in peaks all around me.  It was soooo neat.  I burst into the hotel without looking around and put my stuff down behind the curtain leading out of the dining room to the rooms and when I came out  I noticed a big bundle of blankets and there was a woman wrapped up in it on oxygen.  I started asking around.  Well her and a team of climbers were rope climbing the south face of Everest and she got crushed by a huge block of ice.  She broke the side of her face, her arm and leg were busted and she had internal abdominal bleeding.  The guys she was with did not think that she would be able to be air lifted out by a helicopter and asked for anyone wanting to help carry her down to Namche if they could not get one.  I said I would help and there was also a bunch of English high school kids on a trip that were also going to help.  They got word a helicopter was going to be able to land.  Four hours later a tiny helicopter came in to pick her up and get her out of there; she was still breathing. 

I hung out there all day soaking up the views and just enjoying it.  I decided to go up to Kalla Pattar that afternoon and catch the sunset.  It took me about two hours to get to the top and along the way I followed this great big rock ledge able to get a great look at the Khumbu glacier that leads to the base camp and big glacier lakes.  I stacked some rocks on a point and continued up.  I was expecting some sort of set up look out point but it was just one giant steep cliff reaching out to a very sharp point that had just enough room to stand on.  I squeezed myself through and passed some people to the very very tip.  It was kind of an adrenaline rush just hanging of this little point.  I was now at 18,500 feet right directly in front of Everest above the clouds and above or  what seemed like eye level with peaks all around me .  I felt like I could touch Everest.  I stayed up there at that point until the sun was completely gone and until my ass was about frozen off.  I cannot explain how beautiful that sunset was. 

In my room that night it was -2 and outside was -6.  I did not sleep at all because of a pounding headache.  I got up at 6:30 and headed down to Pheriche.  I got to the same hotel feeling much better after the descent.  Kul had some rice frying up when I got there.  I spent the day talking to a couple, the guy from Australia and the woman from Holland.  I stayed there to go on a side trip the next day.  I went to Chukkung to see Island Peak past a town called Dingboche.  These were such outstanding views and a great shot of Ama Dablam!!!!!  I got back that night and Kul asked me if I wanted special Sherpa dish he only makes when there are not a lot of guests.  He said it was a type of Sherpa pancake with potatoa, wheat and butter spread on top with chile sauce.  It sounded harmless to me.  He said “now it might give you a little diahrea?”.  I told him I had had the shits for 2 months so bring it on.  I felt priveleged and agreed.  It came out and I put butter on it and some sort of white chile sauce that his wife said was a kind of sherpa butter but did not know the english name.  I ate it and it was o.k. and then went to bed.  Ever since then until today my life has been one living hell.  I trekked 2 days down the mountain to Lukla to get a flight shitting my brains out running off the trail constantly…..puking at night and extreme stomach pain.  I laid by the trail praying to God just to let me make it there.  It has taken 7 days to get over the weakness and gain a little strength back.  I lost another 3-4 pounds I know it.  Just skinny.  Honestly no joke it took everything I had to get to Lukla.  On my way down a guide walked with me for encouragement and told me a story……..I did not feel so crappy after this story.  He was the guide for a Swedish woman and her husband.  They were on a pass coming back down to Namche and she died from cold and altitude sickness.  He had to carry her dead body for a day and a night back to Namche to be helicoptered out.  He was exhausted.  he had two kids a 5 year old and a 2 year old and smelled of a very strong garlic.  The garlic supposedly helps Acute mountain sickness.  After paying for the plane ticket I got to the airport and they wanted an airport tax of 170 rupees.  I pulled money out of my pocket and I shit you not I had exactly 170 left in my pocket from the 6,000 rupees 9 days before.  Wierd huh?  You know it takes people a minimum of $1,500 U.S. to get to Kalla Pattar without any extra days for side treks, round trip airfare, guides, porters, all meals and rooms payed for.  I did it with one flight back and starting 6 days trekking from the low lands for $311 U.S. dollars.  This is not bragging at all I just think it is interesting what you can do on your own when you just rough it and wing it!!!!  I got a plane ticket the next day and here I am.  Now making another plan.  I am going to an orphanage out of the city for the weekend with a friend staying overnight.  I am going to help the kids study and just to play around with them……..should be awesome.

I may one day forget the sight of Mt. Everest but I guarantee I will never forget………Sherpa Pancake!!!!!!! shew

Love,

Camen