Altitude strikes!

Day 6 - Day off Machermo

Today was an unexpected day off in Machermo, reason being acute mountain sickness....aka altitudue sickness. During the course of the night, I slept like a baby, but Stewart was up coughing, having difficulty breathing and developed a pretty severe fever. He got no sleep and I awoke to a state of panic. There was no way we were going up today. As I mentioned in yesterdays post, we had climbed 600m to a town called Dole and didn't stop, we then continued up another 250m to Machermo. Well, common practice for getting acclimatized says that you shouldn't go up more than 1,000 feet per day (300m) but we nearly tripled that in one day. Its a miracle that I was fine from the altitude but Stewart was not. Fortunately he got sick in the best place to get sick, Machermo which has one of the two medical facilities on the entire trek there. He headed over the doctors office, office is a bit of stretch, more like cabin where 2 cute english doctors helped him. The diagnosis was good and was told to rest here for the day before continuing up, no complaints from me because we were already at some serious elevation. I rested and climbed a ridge in the afternoon with Arjun to get some beautiful views of Cho Oyu. That evening we met Alan, a older fella from the UK who we would end up becoming quite close with over the next few days. He reminded me of a Santa Clause when I first met him and he was very pleasant to talk with. That night we relaxed around the wood stove to try to keep warm, it would end up being the coldest place we would stay at the entire trek.

Quick note on the porters: The two hosptials in the region (here and in Pheriche) were actually established for the locals, specifically the porters, not the tourists. The porters put themselves through hell, carrying loads that are twice there body weight and seemingly look like 4 times there size up these hills. Since they are paid so little many of them don't bother with traditional lodging and sleep outside to save money, heck most hike in beat up old flip flops because shoes are too expensive. They all have tremendous back and knee problems due to the way they carry the loads and they are the ones in need of medical help more than anyone else, including the tourists. I've read several blogs about the trek describing the porters but words don't do them justice. They certainly keep the region alive and running but their quality of life is abysmal at best.

Day 7 - Machermo to Gokyo

Today was slow going for sure, especially due to Stewart's condition. The trail was still following the same valley and river, only now we are much higher up the valley fall than before. It was amazing to look back and see just how far we'd come since the view down the entire length of the valley was not obstructed. Ama Dablam still flared up in the background with Cho Oyu becoming ever larger in front of us. The town of Gokyo is at the end of one of the 2 major trails in the park and was quite possibly my favorite place that we stayed. Most of the towns along the valley are in side valleys that run perpendicular to the main valley, Gokyo however lies at the top of the valley and runs parallel the main valley. The Gokyo valley was formed by a glacier and is thus filled with thousands upon thousands of rocks of all sizes, many of which were stacked up in nice little towers that were quite picturesque. But the reason Gokyo is so famous is because of its lakes. 5 to be exact, name 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th lake. They are make up of the tropical blue water too boot, amazingly beautiful. The 1st lake is quite small an is at the mouth of the valley, the 2nd lake was larger and mostly frozen over still, though if you stood still you could hear the booming and thundering of the ice as it began its spring thaw. The town itself sits overlooking the 3rd lake and a nameless hill. I have no clue why this hill would be nameless since it was breathe-takingly gorgeous but it was so I named it Mt. Simba in honor of my dog. The guest house overlooking the lake and mountain was amazing. The Gokyo valley wall blocked most of the larger peaks but we could still see Cho Oyu further down the valley.

So I mentioned that Gokyo is at the end of the trail in one direction and there is certainly a reason to go here aside from the lakes and that is Gokyo Ri.

Quick aside about the naming of the hills. Arjun told me that there are 4 classifications for for the hills in the Himalayas.

Ri - For hills that rise above towns and are between the elevations of 4500-5500m
Pass - For mountain passes that are between 5000-6000m
Peak - For "hills" between 5500-6500m
Mountain - For the stuff higher than 6500m.

That means that technically Mt McKinnely the highest mountain in North America is only a peak by there standards, have I mentioned Nepali's are crazy?

Anyway, the other reason to go to Gokyo is to climb Gokyo Ri (5400m) for a panoramic view of the entire range. Not a bad deal. We had a day off the next day to do just that.

Day 8 - Day off Gokyo (Gokyo Ri)

As I mentioned before the mornings up here are crystal clear and the clouds roll in in the afternoon. So when we started climbing Gokyo Ri (a 2000 foot hike uphill) a bit late in the morning I was worried about clouds. We were still slow going due to Stewart's ailments and I was anxious to get up as I was feeling great. I then looked down the valley and saw a cloud and I was off. I basically ran up the hill and thought my heart was going to explode upon summiting. Hey, at least I'd done it in just over an hour, faster than anyone else I met. Once there, the views were (insert every positive adjective you have ever read). It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Everest, Lhoste, Nuptse, Cho Oyu, Ama Dablam, Cholatse, Mt Simba, Thamserku, Mera Peak, Peak 38, Pumori.....I could go on. The highest mountain range in the world was mine. Snow capped peaks surrounded me. For the first time everything seemed lower than me and I only had to look out in any direction to see one of the hundreds of peaks visible. I can't begin to describe the feeling in stirred inside me. It was like seeing the rockies of Colorado with an addition 2 miles slapped onto the top, nearly impossible to imagine. The view from the top was hands down the most beautiful that my eyes had ever seen. The experience was moving. I sat on top of this precariously perched rock for 2 hours soaking it all in. Pictures (though I did take over 200 from up here) will never do it justice. The sheer number, size, and variety of peaks to behold was too much.

And this viewpoint isn't even suppose to be the highlight of our trek. The trip could have ended on that day and I would have been satisfied, the views were lik nothing I'd ever seen before.