Training Log Archive: Sandy

Start of the trek from Pheriche to Lobuche (16,200 ft.) I think my watch died since I didn't charge it correctly at Pheriche.

Starting to really feel the altitude and hiking was just taking it out of me. The Sherpas kept asking if I wanted one of them to carry my day pack but I was stubborn and said no. But the last 15-20 minutes were really hard - just an overall feeling of tightness in my chest and it was impossible to take a deep breath. But I kept putting one foot in front of the other and eventually made it.

Nose started to get stuffed up as well - another high altitude symptom. Also, the air if very dry and the yaks and mules kick up lots of dust. The guides and Sherpas frequently have their buffs over their nose and mouth, but between fogging up my sun glasses and feeling like I couldn't get a deep breath I didn't manage to breathe through my buff very long. As a consequence have a bit of a sore throat. Hot water and honey has become my go to drink when we stop.

Pretty cold but stayed warm enough while hiking, taking off and putting on my hat, gloves and buff all day long.

This section is up in the tundra so very little green but beautiful, stark landscapes. We hiked next to a braided stream for most of the day with fantastic views of many of the big mountains all around.

Midday we reached the Mani Stones, a really, really cool memorial site to Sherpas that have lost their lives. It was vast with stone towers and memorials all over the place. I think Mani Stones is a generic term for the stones that have the Buddhist mantra (Om mani padme hom) inscribed on them that are all along the whole trail and in all the monasteries, but this place was also called Mani Stones.

My knee brace locked up on me at one point during this hike. The braces I've had over the years do that and I know how to work it to unlock it but it usually means that it's on its way to not working any more. So this was very disconcerting, thinking that the brace might suddenly stop working at any moment. But there wasn't anything to do about it, so I just stuck with my live in moment and don't worry about what's in the future mindset and continued on. It locked up again and I fiddled again and it was fine again. And, in the how lucky can you be category, that was it. Never had any other problems.

Another really cold night but my sleeping bag continued to be like a furnace. Really thrilled with how warm it was. Broke out my big puffy winter jacket though to sit around in at dinner and to use at night when I had to nip down the hall to the bathroom. Another good decision in bringing that - not everyone had something that warm.


The start of another day of trekking. I had a plastic baggy tied over my bladder mouthpiece to try to keep it clean from all the yak dust and dung. It worked reasonably well.


This is a tricky photo in terms of sense of scale. We had to cross over this glacial rock stuff (the white rocks) and if you look closely or zoom in you can see these tiny people are trekking down in those white rocks. So we had to work our way down and across and then back up the other side.


A view of the Mani Stones which were just up over the rise to the right of the buildings in the last photo.


Another view of the Mani Stones just trying to give a sense of how large an area they covered.


Our tea house in Lobuche.

This looks like the final part of the trek to Pheriche.

We stayed two nights in Pheriche to acclimatize. In the morning of the second day we hiked up the ridge behind the village of Pheriche with several of us declining to make the final push up to the top of a small rise. I figured I'd done enough for the day and resting for the next day was a better choice.

In the afternoon we went to a lecture on high altitude sickness at the Himalayan Rescue Center in Pheriche where they have volunteer doctors on staff during the climbing seasons in the spring and fall. They have a clinic there that services all of the villages in the area and of course all of the climbers and trekkers.

Things were starting to get tough - the hiking each day was hard work, not so much on the muscles but on the breathing, it was cold in the evenings and the facilities were getting more and more basic. It was hard to make myself brush my teeth for example, I had to use my water bottle and the water was freezing cold and all I wanted to do was climb in my sleeping bag. So a lot of mental discipline to stay positive and not get discouraged. Luckily we had great weather and each morning we would wake to the sun burning off the clouds from the night before and just spectacular views of the mountains all around which made it easy to get up and go trekking. But it was definitely starting to be hard.


Yak dung being dried to use as fuel for the stoves that warmed the eating areas.


A look back down on Pheriche from where we climbed in the morning.


Pasang, the Sherpa in charge, standing next to a stone tower that Ang Dawa had just built. We decided that it was an appropriate tower for our MIT trek what with the cantilevered stone on top. The top of the hillside had a whole bunch of stone monuments, some simple and some elaborate, all over it. Note also how Pasang had the whole keep the buff over the nose and mouth thing down.

Deboche to Pangboche (13,000 ft)

This was an easy 2 hour or so trek but I forgot to start my watch and had trouble getting the satellites. Some more hiking along and across the steep ravines. This day was built in by WWT in case of problems - it could be combined with the day before or day after if necessary. But we were right on schedule so we got a bit of an easy day.

The tea house was one of the nicer ones. They were selling Snickers Bars for $3 a pop and I thought a Snickers was one thing my stomach would be happy with so I bought 3 and ate one and saved the other two for other days, Anything for sale had to be carried up the mountain whether by person or yak so prices reflected how far up the valley you were. Lower down they were only $2 and higher up $4 or $5.

In the afternoon, we hiked up the hill behind the tea house to visit another monastery and to also help with acclimatization. But the hike was advertised as an easy "walk-about" so I didn't bring my poles. Big mistake - this was a very steep hillside and I had major issues getting back down. One of the Sherpas, Pasang, went in front of me and one of the guides, Patrick, went behind me and between leaning on Pasang and Patrick grabbing my pack I managed to get down with only a few slips and slides. We collectively agreed that I would take my poles on any future walk no matter how benignly it was described!


Our yak train coming by.


A view from one of the suspension bridges. You can also see how we're losing the forest and getting more into just scrub bushes.



At the monastery. It's amazing how beautiful and colorful and well maintained these monasteries are so far from what we think of as civilization. I guess you put resources into what's important to youl

Pangboche to Pheriche (14,000 ft.)

More GI issues overnight so feeling a little weak to start out. We were high enough in the valley that we were mostly out of the trees and only small bushes around. And there were hardly any villages other than the ones we were staying in. So very different from lower down in the valley.

A really great hike with phenomenal views of all sorts of mountains like Ama Dablam and Nuptse (but not Everest). Not too long of a hike and we are taking a second day in Pheriche to acclimatize. But it's still hard work climbing 1000 ft. at this altitude and it's also getting colder and harder to stay warm.

I think this track is the first half so we must have stopped for lunch somewhere. My journal is a bit vague.


Getting the bags ready for the yaks - a morning ritual. We each had one of the black North Face duffles which they would out in a white bag and then usually three would go on a yak. The woman in the center in the green sweater, Mingma, was in charge of the yak operation.


Yes, we did have to go up that trail in the distance climbing the hillside.


In the distance you can see the blue roof tops of Pheriche. But first we had to climb down to the river to cross it.

Hiking up on the hillside above Namche Bazaar. This was an acclimatization day and we stayed a second night at the same tea house in Namche Bazaar.

It was interesting getting up in the morning and seeing that the town was surrounded by these tall snow covered peaks. When we arrived the afternoon before they were all hidden in the clouds and there was no sense at all that they were there. Very cool to wake up to completely different views.

First we visited a Buddhist monastery. There was a monk there and he did a ceremony and a blessing and gave each of us a red string that he blessed and tied loosely around our necks. These apparently are good luck and no one took theirs off for the whole trip. We then hiked to the National Park headquarters and actually got some views of Everest. The clouds had started rolling in though so it was just glimpses here and there. We also visited the Sherpa museum which was pretty cool.

A word about our Sherpas. There were 20 MIT trekkers and 4 western guides. There were only supposed to be 3 but the 4th was a woman, the significant other of the head guide (and owner of the trekking company WWT) and she was scheduled to climb Ama Dablam which is a 22,500 ft mountain that we could see for much of the trek right after the trek. She actually didn't come all the way down with us, but met the rest of her climbing team the day before we finished and headed back up for the climb.
And then there were 10 Sherpas that assisted with the trek and 4 more Sherpas that took care of the yaks that transported all out gear. So Sherpa is the familiy name of everyone from that region of Nepal. The 10 that assisted with the trek did everything from filter our water, to serving us tea and coffee, helping serve all the meals, staying with stragglers on the trail and carrying the daypacks of those that needed help. Assisting on a trek like ours was a very good job and they were so professional. They really took to heart the idea of trying to help us have as good a time as possible. And the trekking was a piece of cake for them - here we were huffing and puffing and putting one foot in front of the other and they were singing and laughing and jumping from rock to rock. Just incredible. We'd finish the trek for the day and collapse in the tea house, and they would get to work serving us tea and hot water and refilling our water bottles and helping get the meals ready and served. And they were always smiling. And of the 10 Sherpas, they were all somehow related - the brother of the wife of someone, or the son-in-law of the brother of someone, etc. It was wild. But because of that, they were like family and you could tell they just loved what they were doing and they were a team.



In the monastery with the monk that did the blessing hidden behind the square post.


Not Everest, but some other mountain that would peek out from behind the clouds up above Namche Bazaar.


View of Everest from the Sagamartha National Park Headquarters - it's way, way in the background just poking up above the clouds.

Day 4: Namche Bazaar to Deboche via the Tengboche Monastery.

This was a hard day. The beginning part was fine, contouring around the hillside above Namche with a lot of rolling ups and downs (more ups than downs), but then a grueling down to the river where we stopped for lunch. The down was really difficult and mentally exhausting.

After lunch we crossed the river on another suspension bridge and then climbed about 2000 ft up to the Tengboche Monastery. All I could think about on the way up was that I was going to have to come down the trail on the way out and as hard as it was going up (around 12,250 ft at the top) it was going to be just as hard coming down. Eventually though I told myself to stop worrying, I should focus on the here and now and enjoy myself. That helped.

The monastery was another elaborate Buddhist monastery but it was very cold inside and I had gotten a bit sweaty on the climb up and didn't have an extra layer to put on or a hat or gloves so I was pretty chilled by the time we left. Lesson learned - put extra layers in my day pack. Anyway, the monk was not there so we didn't stay too long. I think this was one of the oldest monasteries in Nepal and had some relics that were supposedly from a Yeti. Afterwards, we hiked to Deboche through a really cool rhododendron forest arriving at our tea house pretty late.

This was the first time that I was cold in the evening. The rooms in the tea houses are not heated and since we arrived late in the day the sun was already behind the hills so the rooms were pretty cold. The common eating room is heated but it wasn't all that warm so I was in my medium puffy jacket all through dinner. For meals we would order off the menu - the menus were pretty similar at all the tea houses. I would usually have soup of some sort and potatoes or spaghetti of some sort and maybe get a dessert of canned fruit cocktail if I was feeling especially hungry. My stomach was always a little iffy for the whole of the trip and so I tried to stick to bland things as much as possible. I also was very conscious of the fact that I kept thinking I could eat more than I actually could so tried not to order too much,

This was the first night that I really tested my sleeping bag. I was so cold when I went to bed that I jumped into my bag with lots of layers on and lay there shivering for a while. Then I remembered that the only way to warm the bag was to not have many layers on and so I stripped down to one layer and soon enough I was toasty warm. So warm that I had to unzip the zippers to let in some cool air. That was a nice problem to have!

No bathroom in my room but only a little ways down the hall, so I would jump out of my sleeping bag and put on my down booties (a last minute addition to my duffle that I used a lot!) and jacket, race down to the bathroom and back, and jump back in the bag. (The diamox I was taking for help with the altitude meant several trips a night.) And that bag would warm me right up. Did I mention my sleeping bag was really warm? I had a liner that would give me an extra 15 degrees of warmth that I never had to use. This was a real treat knowing that I had this really warm sleeping bag.


The trail out of Namche Bazaar - very steep hillside with the trail cut into it. If you zoom in (right click on the photo and select view image) you can see that the little ribbon of white is the river way down below. Later that day we had to climb down to that river to cross it and go back up the other side.


Part of the monastery at Tangboche (I have a better picture on the way down) with a random Sherpa taking a rest from carrying his heavy load.


My room at the tea house in Deboche; fairly typical with two bunks (I had to pay extra to have a room to myself) which meant all my stuff spread on one bed and my sleeping bag on the other.


The view out my window. A few of our yaks tethered to the ground and behind them some local villagers who are building a new tea house and are hand chipping away at stones to make them usable in the construction.

So I tried to use my GPS watch to track all the trekking but I wasn't very good at remembering to turn on the watch at the start, and sometimes it was hard to get satellite coverage when we were in a steep valley (most of the first several days) and when I wasn't able to recharge it. Also, Nepal is something like 9 hours and 45 minutes ahead so the treks don't line up quite right with the days.

Anyway, this is the first day of trekking from Phakding to Monjo. WWT (World Wide Trekking - the tour company that was used) knew that the airport at Lukla is frequently closed due to weather and so they start all their treks with helicopters to Phakding. This was a good call since Lukla was closed the day we were starting, it had been closed for much of the week before and was closed for a couple days after we started. But we had helicopter reservations so we were going to go. Unfortunately, everything was very backed up and so it took most of the day to get all of us shuttled out of Kathmandu and to Phakding. We needed 4 helicopters to move us all and two groups went and then we had to wait for those 2 helicopters to return to take the next two groups. I was in the last group and I was pretty miserable. I was afraid to eat or drink anything and the public bathrooms are pretty scummy so I didn't want to use them (you have to carry your own toilet paper and it was 50/50 whether there would be a toilet or just a hole in the ground). Anyway, I was feeling pretty miserable but trying to just endure and we finally got airborne. It was a pretty cool helicopter ride looking down and seeing the country side as we started to fly up the valley. No great views though since everything was clouded in (hence the airport being closed). By the time we got Phakding, the other three groups has started trekking to where we would stay that night so it was just the five of us on the final helicopter plus a couple of the guides and several sherpas.

And I was struggling. I couldn't really tell if it was from being at altitude (9000 feet), being out of shape or being sick but part way in they had one of the sherpas take my day pack which helped a bit. At one point though I said I need a bathroom and I need it now and they found one I could use. For this part of the trek, we were hiking through small village after small village so finding someplace that would let me use a bathroom wasn't too hard although I suspect they had to pay a couple dollars. The rest of the trek is a bit of a blur but eventually made it to our first tea house.

The tea house was pretty good with my room having it's own bathroom and even a shower, although no hot water. The beds were comfortable and although they had sheets and comforters I just used my sleeping bag. Meals were in a common room and we actually ordered off a menu although with my innards still unsettled I think I had rice and plain potatoes not wanting to risk anything else.


A very bad picture from the helicopter that gives a sense of the steepness of the terrain.


Our ultra sophisticated landing pad for the helicopter!


And the start of the "trail" in Phakding. This was typical trail when passing through a village - stone walkway with lots of steps.


The common room in our tea house in Monjo with two of our Sherpas. The Sherpas had all sorts of gear provided by WWT including these red jackets and hats so they really stood out.

Second day of trekking from Monjo to Namche Bazaar.

Felt much better when I got up in the morning and everyone commented on how much better I looked so I guess I really was pretty sick the day before. Carried my own pack and the trekking seemed straightforward - I won't say easy because we climbed about 2200 ft. and ended up at 11,550 ft so there was a lot of huffing and puffing going on but I felt pretty good. The trail is really interesting - about half of it is stone steps. Just a gorgeous hike though along a really steep ravine. The trail crossed back and forth across the ravine a couple of times on these massive cable suspension bridges. Lots of beautiful waterfalls and the river with the milky sea green color from the glacier runoff roaring along down below.

So after climbing for what seems like ages you come around a corner in the trail and there just clinging to this hillside is a massive town. Just breath-taking.

The tea house in Namche was excellent - showers with hot water and actually outlets in the rooms. And they would do laundry for $1 an item. Most of the tea house would charge you a fee to charge items at the main desk. And I actually had cell service.


One of the many cable bridges we would cross on our way up the valley, this one with a mule train coming towards us. You definitely didn't want to meet a mule or yak train on the bridge; it was scary enough on the trail where you would squeeze yourself to the hillside to let them pass.


One of many beautiful waterfalls on the way up the valley,


A view of one of the cable bridges we crossed looking down after climbing up the hill on the far side.



Coming around the corner in the trail to find Namche Bazaar nestled in the hillside.