Kyajo Ri (28.10.2016)
| Start point | Mende |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | Lukla |
| Characteristic | Alpine trip |
| Duration | 225h 00min |
| Map |
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| Ascents | Machermo (6,186m) | 02.11.2016 |
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Now we were in Mende and finished with trekking around the mountain to acclimatize. I’m pretty sure we were all feeling ready to start our ascent of Kyajo Ri. Longer days with more load carrying were lined up, which I was both looking forward to and dreading.
Base camp (4500m)
The previous evening had ended on a slightly unfortunate note for Deborah, who for some reason or another seemed to be the only one affected by stomach problems on this trip. I started stressing over the possibility that I might also end up with an unexpected trip to the toilet during the night which fortunately didn’t happen, but there was a lot of tossing and turning for most of the night worrying about it. Deborah was unsurprisingly feeling quite wiped out the next morning and found the steep start up the hill a bit of a struggle. Kilu went pretty slowly so everyone could stay together, but the pace did get a bit frustrating after the first half hour.
After the first few hundred metres of height gain we reached the crest of the hill where we took a short break. From there the route rose more gradually, first walking parallel with the valley before skirting around the mountainside and across a boulder field to reach a high point where there were some prayer flags. It was scenic at least, and I walked more or less with Mani and the cook team. Mike tagged along too while the rest of the group were a bit further behind with Kilu and Pema. At the high point of the trek to base camp we waited for about 45 minutes and ate lunch until the rest of the group arrived before continuing together. It was a bit of a loose descent down to the bottom of the valley, where we met the river, and some 150m in height loss (at a guess). Just before reaching the river we took a lunch stop – although I’d by this time eaten all mine while waiting earlier……
Base camp wasn’t far away now, and after lunch it was a matter of walking up the valley beside the river in more or less flat terrain. The south side of Kyajo Ri popped into sight which was quite exciting. But it still seemed quite far away. After passing a small lake we eventually reached the site of base camp which was placed a small distance away from a distinctive rock wall at the head of the valley. It was pretty intimidating with a waterfall running down most of its several hundred metres in height. We would be making our way over the wall via a gully which would its way up and across the middle of it. The valley was bounded by remarkably steep and smooth rock walls on both its sides, meaning that the sun arrived late and disappeared early here. We’d arrived at around 1pm but already the sun was on its way behind a peak and gone by 1.45pm, after which it became distinctively chillier once the clouds rolled in as well! Inevitably, most of us spent a good portion of the day inside sleeping bags.
The next day was a sort of rest day and we used it to check and sort out equipment that we would be taking up the mountain. The plan was to do a load carry to camp 1 at around 5300m with climbing gear and high altitude boots the following day, and then return to base camp. We’d carry the remainder – sleeping stuff and clothes etc the day after, i.e. two journeys to camp 1 in total. At first it sounded a bit tiring, but in retrospect it seemed like a sensible idea to split it over two days and walk in normal hiking boots since there was around 800m of height gain and a several kilometres to cover over uneven terrain. Kilu and Mingma had used part of the morning to set up a series of fixed ropes a short way up the mountainside above base camp, so after lunch we did a bit of practice with our jumars, ascending and abseiling off the fixed lines in preparation for the summit day.
30th October: First load carry to Camp 1 (ca. 5300m)
Deborah had woken up feeling still rather empty of energy and was having doubts over whether she would continue with the ascent of Kyajo Ri. Some of the group had somehow persuaded her to give it a go anyway and offered to carry her gear so she could try and walk up to camp 1 without having to carry a heavy rucksack, which she eventually agreed to. Since it would be a fairly long day we made an early start, leaving camp after breakfast by around 7.30am before the sun had touched the valley bottom. I haven’t any idea how much my rucksack weighed, but it was definitely heavy enough. With the exception of Mike who decided to walk up in his big boots the following day, everyone else was carrying up their high altitude boots to camp 1 today. There was a bit of variety in choice of boots; Ankit and Carl had plastic Scarpa Vegas, Mike and Mark were using Boreal G1 Lites, I was using the old Boreal G1s and Tony had some North Face model which proved to be a disappointment on summit day. The approach to the gully from base camp was fairly steady and there was a semi-path marked with a few stones here and there. A short distance before entering the gully however, Deborah announced that she was too worn out to continue and wouldn’t be going any further up the mountain. It was really unfortunate that she’d been plagued by several bouts of upset stomach before we’d even got to the mountain, but she seemed content enough that she’d made up her mind. So after retrieving her stuff from the guys who’d helped carry up bits of her gear she made her way back down to base camp by herself while the rest of us continued up the gully.
We’d agreed that we’d ascend the gully altogether to minimize the risk of people releasing loose rock onto others, so it took some time because we weren’t going any quicker than the slowest person. On the other hand, there was plenty of time to take pictures. It took probably a little under 2 hours before we’d reached the top of the gully, and here we took another break to enjoy the views. Camp 1 wasn’t in sight yet but we got a decent view toward the next rubble-covered slope at the upper end of the valley. To get there involved a walk along a small ice-covered lake before ascending the right hand side of the next steeper slope. The terrain itself didn’t appear so enticing for heavy-laden hikers – it was mostly a mix of boulders, scree and sand. And a few kilometers of it. Initially Pema led the way while the rest of us followed at varying speeds. Mike and I walked close behind Pema while Ankit, Mark and Carl were some distance behind. Tony decided that we should all go together so the remainder of the ascent up to Camp 1 went very slowly and I felt pretty bored at times since it felt like it was taking an eternity to get anywhere. But once up the final steeper rubble-covered slope we were ‘allowed’ to continue the rest of the way to Camp 1 at our own pace. It was only about 10 minutes away but at least it was 10 minutes of relative freedom!
At last we were in Camp 1 by around 1pm where we met Kilu and Mingma. It was quite a scenic setting, nestled on a ridge beside a lake. From here we could see at least part of the route to Camp 2 via a boulder-strewn gully, and the skyline flank leading up to the summit of Kyajo Ri. According to Pema the lake is usually frozen and it would be a straightforward walk across it to gain the glacier on the other side and then ascend the gully from there, but because conditions were warmer this year the lake wasn’t frozen and we would have to make a detour around the lake instead, adding on some hours to the journey. Kilu and Mingma had walked up to Camp 1 before us and were just getting ready to head off to Camp 2 the same afternoon to check out the alternative route!
Anyway, back to Camp 1. Since Deborah was no longer with us, I agreed to share a tent with Ankit since there were only 2 tents for the five guys to use. It was good to finally offload almost the entire contents of my rucksack before eating the rest of lunch and getting ready for the walk down. Fortunately we weren’t all requested to walk down as a group so Mike and I headed down ahead, though for some reason it seemed like an extreme wave of lethargy had hit me and I felt immensely tired on the descent, which took about 2 hours in total. My troublesome knee had been surprisingly quiet until the final part of the descent down the gully, after which I really had to go slow to avoid walking in a way which was painful. I found Deborah in the tent after arriving back at base camp and she was apparently feeling worse than in the morning, having now acquired a bad sore throat. I think she’d really had her fair share of ailments on this trip! Even though she wasn’t in particularly good health she decided she’d spend one more day at base camp and appreciate the mountain surroundings before descending down to the teahouse in Namche Bazaar with Pashu (one of Mani’s cook team). Well, I spent some time resting in the tent before dinner, though I was hardly feeling more energetic again by the evening.
31st October: Second trip to Camp 1
Today we didn’t have to get up quite so early and took breakfast at 8.30 so by the time we’d started walking a little after 9am it was already pretty warm. The rucksacks were stuffed full once again but at least on this occasion they didn’t weigh as much as on the previous day since the heaviest items were now sitting in Camp 1 and it was mainly bulky items that we were carrying today. We made somewhat faster (in a relative sense) progress up the gully this morning, though the group became a bit more spread out again by the time we’d approached the upper section of it. Mike and I waited about 10 minutes at the top before Tony suggested that we could go in our own paces today, since we’d already been up to Camp 1 and were familiar with the route. This was welcome news and I spent a lot of the time walking by myself, although I have to admit that I found my own pace pretty tiring at times. Halfway up the last scree slope I had to admit defeat and take a 5-minute break to eat and drink something before continuing up to Camp 1. I got there at 12.30pm, somewhat earlier than expected, followed shortly after by Mike then Mark at about 1pm. Tony, Ankit and Carl arrived at about 2pm, but this time it was Tony who was feeling quite rough, having come down with the same nasty sore throat and chest infection that Deborah seemed to have. Having experienced the same thing on Mera Peak and Baruntse some years ago I can say without a doubt that having a cold at altitude is a terrible experience and climbing at altitude with a cold feels near-impossible. So I really sympathized with him. It was really bad timing to have got it now.
The sun stayed out for a long time compared with at base camp, though it did start to get chilly by mid-afternoon. Quite conveniently there was a small river flowing out of the lake, so getting water to boil for drinks and cook boil-in-the-bag meals with was quite straightforward. Since it got dark before 6pm we got underway with making dinner at around 5pm. Took a bit more time to warm up the food than expected, but I’d say the chicken casserole I had tasted remarkably good once it did get hot :) Not sure Mark and Ankit were as impressed with their rice meals, though I’m sure it must have been better than eating antibiotics which Tony had chosen to have.
1st November: Camp 1 to Camp 2 (5700m)
The day didn’t start great. I can’t recall having slept at all so I was in my Please-Do-Not-Speak-To-Me-Yet mood during the first hours or so of the morning (not an uncommon occurrence during the trip…). After a short breakfast consisting of some porridge and biscuits, we packed up everything and started making our way towards Camp 2. Everyone was walking in high altitude boots today, so with extra-heavy rucksacks and heavy footwear, it was never going to be the world’s fastest walk. To get around the lake we ascended the ridge above camp 1 and over some loose ground before traversing the slopes via a ledge-like formation. I’d got the impression that this wasn’t a well-used route, but there were some piles of rocks along the way so clearly it wasn’t the first time people had been here. We eventually descended down towards the lake before walking up to the glacier. Up to this point it had been a fairly comfortable temperature, but once we got onto the glacier it became ridiculously hot. I mean ridiculous. I was wearing a pair of thin Salomon training trousers and a long-sleeved base layer, but I could easily have worn a pair of shorts and vest top and it would still have felt too warm. I don’t recommend it though - sun that strong is most likely not the sort of sun you want to expose much skin to!
It was demoralizing to see how much glacier we had to cross before getting to the start of the gully up to the col. The heat, lack of sleep and load-carrying made it a tiring walk, even though it was almost completely flat. If it was this tiring to walk on the flat, I wondered how on earth I was going to manage to get up the steep gully. We all took a much-appreciated break amongst the rocks once we’d crossed the glacier. I ate a bit of chocolate and an energy gel before topping up with factor 50 suncream and spending some minutes trying to psyche myself up for what I anticipated could only be the hardest part of the day. As with everything I dread doing, the only solution is to get on and do it. I tried to look for the most logical route up the scree and rocks in the lowermost part of the gully but after some 15 minutes or so it appeared that the boulders in the middle of the gully were the biggest and most stable to walk over, so I eventually headed this way, as did Mike who was nearby. The rest of the gully consisted mostly of rocks that were large and reliable to walk/scramble up, but it was strenuous. It’s the kind of terrain I would quite eagerly spring up at sea level, but scrambling on no sleep at over 5500m, carrying some 20kg of rucksack and several kilos of boot on your feet is really not scrambling at its finest. Definitely more interesting than trying to walk up scree, but it was just so slow-going compared with negotiating the same sort of ground with running shoes and a light rucksack at sea level.
I took another break about halfway up to have another energy gel and more Twix chocolate. Mike was some way above and the rest of the group below and out-of-sight. After the scrambling there was a section with fixed rope to ascend to reach the final snow slopes below the col – and camp 2. By this time Id caught up with Mike who’d accidentally gone the wrong way and Pema was not far behind us. I think he wanted to make sure we were on the correct side of the gully to find the start of the fixed lines! Anyway, Mike went up first and I waited until he was off them before I made my way up. It was a short section and didn’t take more than a few minutes, but at the top of the fixed ropes it was noticeably colder, windier and icier, so both down jacket and crampons were put on here before I set off up the snow slopes to the col. It was an amazing view across toward the other side of the Khumbu – Ama Dablam, Kangtega og Thamserku were all distinctly visible from the col, and on the west side was the beautiful Thame valley and its surrounding peaks that we’d walked past a week or so earlier. It was pretty awesome to be able to see so much of the journey we’d made to get here. To the north side of the col, the final flanks of Kyajo Ri rose straight up from camp. Exciting stuff to have made it so far now and see the final part of the ascent of this impressive-looking peak!
Kilu and Mingma had been busy fixing ropes on the mountain while we were moving up to Camp 2, so they were back in camp shortly after I’d arrived with Mike. Mark was not long behind us either and just as fascinated by the views as we were. Camp 2 held the sun for a few hours into the afternoon, but it was definitely windy here. The winds picked up a good deal and continued way into the night, so everyone boiled water and made dinner in the tent porch instead of going outside. I wasn’t actually that hungry and had a mug of soup and some biscuits for dinner, though I probably didn’t drink enough during the afternoon. It was just not appealing to have to make frequent toilet trips outside in gale force winds ;)
2nd November: Camp 2 – Summit (6186m) – Camp 1
The day I’d been looking forward to for so long had finally arrived! This was it. At some point another during the night the gale force winds had vanished completely and there was only a small breath of wind when we woke up at 4am on summit day. But it was still fairly cold though. I’d been a bit uncertain about what I ought to wear and had initially planned to put on a pair of waterproof trousers, but since there was neither precipitation nor wind it seemed a bit pointless. After much faffing in the tent, packing my rucksack, trying to consume some food and drink and attempting to attach my headtorch to my helmet in the dark, I was convinced I’d be the last person ready to leave camp but surprisingly this wasn’t the case. I think I was the second behind Mark. Tony announced that he’d got some sort of upset stomach after having visited the toilet and appeared to be quite flustered as a result, oddly enough it was the trip leader who was last to be ready this morning….. Once he had tied in, we moved up toward the rock band altogether on one rope. There was a good deal of stopping before we reached the start of the fixed ropes but fortunately they weren’t that far away and it had already started to get a little bit light by the time Mark had clipped in to the first rope length. I followed on once he was past the first anchor and appeared to have clipped in to the next section of fixed ropes.
The first few lengths of fixed rope took us over the rock band, which was initially straightforward (VDiff-ish) and I did a combination of jumaring solely up the rope and at other times pushing the jumar up and then climbing parts where there were good handholds and footholds. It was actually less tiring to climb it properly. One section was slightly trickier to do with stiff, heavy boots on and was more slabby in nature, lacking any decent holds for hands (especially hands that were covered up by thick mitts), so there wasn’t a lot of alternatives other than to haul myself up using the jumar, which was a good deal more strenuous. However, it was only a short section until I reached the next anchor and could take a bit of a breather and a few pictures. I can’t remember how many metres the rock band was but I do remember it lasting longer than I’d expected. After the final anchor at the top of the rock section the rest of the ascent was on snow. And it was fairly hard snow as well. Initially the snow slopes were just about ascendable by side-stepping with one foot and front-pointing with the other, but the steeper parts required front-pointing the whole time. The problem was that the snow was so hard that it was near-impossible to kick out a ledge to take a rest from front-pointing, so the calf muscles got a rather decent workout ;) Just before reaching about halfway up where the slopes became temporarily gentler I finally reached the sunshine and the warmth was gorgeous. I met Mark and Pema here who was in turn waiting for Mingma and Kilu to come up and past us since they hadn’t been able to fix the entire route the previous day (presumably they ran out of rope) and was climbing last in order to collect rope from the lower section over the rock band once the last of the group had got up them. Kilu had already dashed past me lower down but it was a while before Mingma also had made his way past the rest of the group.
Pema explained that basically the sherpas usually only fix 500m of rope on the mountain for the climb up from camp 2 to the summit, but this year they needed to fix 700m because of the hard and icy snow conditions. It did seem like an awful lot of extra work to collect up rope from lower down and then run up to do the rest of the route to the top, I can’t exactly remember why we didn’t just rope up into 3 groups or something and climb the part of the mountain which didn’t have fixed ropes. Maybe we hadn’t brought enough climbing ropes to do it that way. Mark commented later in the trip that he missed doing proper climbing and wasn’t all that enthusiastic about jumaring. I completely agreed, but on the other hand I think it would have been hard to climb the rock band with big mitts and big boots on without the jumars. I also think we would have needed to be a lot better acclimatized to do the summit day alpine-style. And anyway, if the mountain didn’t need fixed ropes then we wouldn’t need sherpas. Personally I am really glad that we did need these awesome people to make the ascent as swift, safe and successful as it was. It is a true privilege to have their company.
So the jumaring continued. It was more of the same but the views were getting even more incredible than they already were! We moved up another steep section quite close to a rocky rib, before emerging out into a more or less continuous snow flank. The pace was slow, but both Mark, me and Mike who was now behind me moved at the same slow pace, so the distance between us remained quite even apart from on the last pitch to the top when Mike seemed to have disappeared. It was hard work though. We were only managing a few steps up at a time before having to take a short break to get our breaths back, but even the breaks didn’t give the toes and the legs much a rest. Nevertheless, despite having started the day on poor sleep I felt in a good mood and most definitely motivated to get to the top. At no point did I feel like I was too drained to climb the mountain. The views were superb, the sun was shining and I had adequate supplies of chocolate somewhere in my rucksack. Happy days.
The last section was probably the steepest part of the snow slope, but with the summit in sight it was worth every ounce of energy to keep going. Pema was waiting at the penultimate anchor a few metres away from the summit while Kilu and Mingma were at the top. Mark got up a minute or two ahead of me and got the obligatory summit photos before starting to descend. The summit ridge was very aesthetic. To the east Mount Everest more or less dominated the view, in the foreground there was Pharilapcha (looking less impressive from here though), and Ama Dablam somewhere so the south of Everest, though it didn’t seem so prominent as when we’d seen it from Camp 2. I have more or less no idea what was to the west of us, but I guess it was all the peaks overlooking the Thame valley. Sitting on the top was a fantastic moment to enjoy and to be quite honest I didn’t want to leave the summit. There was no wind, two cheerful sherpas for company and 360 degrees of mountains to look at. Perfect. Well, I did start to make my down the mountain after a while, abseiling back down the fixed ropes – at least to the point where I started to meet the rest of the group who were on there way up. Carl and Ankit were about 100m below the summit when I met Pema and Mark who were waiting to let them by before continuing to ab down. They were sounding pretty worn out, but seemed determined to carry on and didn’t waste too much energy on chatting! The three of us eventually began to make our way back to the flatter section where we chipped out some nice bucket seats with our ice axes and waited a long time for the rest of the group to return…..
Fastward ca. 1.5 hours (or maybe an hour) and everyone had descended to where we were waiting. There were three more anchors to pass before reaching the top of the rock band, which was currently free of fixed rope, so we could get down to that point at least before being a bit suck. However, Mingma and Kilu were so quick to descend and clear the fixed rope from the upper part of the mountain that they actually managed to get down to this point at more or less the same time as Carl and Ankit. One long abseil, probably the longest abseil I’ve ever done took us from the top of the rock band right down to the snow slopes at the bottom. From there it was a careful plod down to Camp 2 where we arrived early afternoon – and where I would have liked to have spent the remainder of the afternoon drinking to rehydrate, but the plan was that we would have an hour there to pack up all our gear from the tents and descend to Camp 1. I was rather dreading it to be honest. The thought of having to deal with all that rubble we’d ascended the previous day and while feeling pretty tired was not appealing. My rehydration plan also seemed to be a bit hampered by the fact I just could not manage to drink even though I knew I should.
Anyway, it seemed like the majority were eager to leave behind the wind-battered location of Camp 2 and get down to the bigger tents and running water at Camp 1, so it was going to be a matter of getting on with it. People descended the gully at various speeds, but we mostly stuck together as a group. After all the dread of having to clamber down, around and across all the boulders in that gully with a 20kg rucksack on my back, it actually didn’t turn out to be so awful. If I hadn’t felt so sleepy I could almost have called it an enjoyable experience. Almost. By the time we’d reached the glacier again it felt like the worst was over and now it was only a matter of dawdling back over the snow and up the last section of loose rock to get back to Camp 1. We took 2 major breaks along the way, but the final – just after coming off the snow – felt very cold indeed. I was now back to wearing my down jacket (over my thin primaloft jacket and base layer) and remember sitting on a rock and shivering whilst waiting for others to catch up, which for me is somewhat unusual. I put it down to several days of hard work on too little sleep.
The sun was well and truly gone by now and darkness was imminent, but we just about managed to stumble back into Camp 1 under a gorgeous sky just before it did get dark. It was around 6pm. There was little enthusiasm for making dinner and a few people bothered to boil some water for a drink, but I made the classic mistake of getting into my sleeping bag straight away. There was zero chance I was going to do anything else after that! I did realize this was a really bad idea not to try and rehydrate a bit before going to sleep, as I knew I’d probably wake up with a terrible headache the next day, but somehow it seemed too tiring to get out, fetch water and wait for it to boil.
3rd November: Camp 1 to Base Camp
Unsurprisingly I did manage to sleep very well for several hours, but eventually woke up later in the night feeling too warm and very thirsty and I did have the banging headache when I got out of the tent at around 6.30am. Walking back up the slope to the tents from the stream was like the biggest challenge of the trip so far! But anyway, I returned with a full pan of water to boil. And so the rehydration challenge began. First it started with a cup-of-soup (half of which tasted good, the rest made me feel a bit nauseous), then a 3-in-1 coffee (same as for the cup of soup). Rehydrating with only fluids was proving to be harder than I’d expected so I moved on to another solution; muesli and hot water. I’m not really a muesli fan, but this morning I only seemed to have an appetite that, so I ended up having 3 half-cups of muesli topped up with as much hot water I could pour in. Water and carbs have never tasted so good!
It was a nice laid-back start to the day and we took our time to wake up and pack up. I thought the rucksacks had been heavy the previous days but now they would be even heavier since everything had to be taken down in one go. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were all carrying around 25kg today. Carl and I were first to be ready to leave, but I ended up going on some sort of sherpa-shortcut down to the first rubble-covered slope under Camp 1 while following Mingma and Kilu. The remainder of the descent to the start of the final gully can only be described as an unexpected training session with the world’s heaviest rucksack and two very fit sherpas. Kilu joked that we ought to have a race down the final gully but fortunately they decided to wait for some of the guys in the cook team who had come up to help carry some stuff down and I wandered back down to base camp from there in my own pace. And there could be no better welcome than being greeted by Pashu and Mani who had made some more of his awesome noodle soup. As usual it was a few hours before I saw the rest of the group. Appetites seemed to have disappeared when we all gathered in the mess tent for our final dinner on the mountain that night. Tony, Mark and Carl definitely didn’t seem to be able to eat much, while Mike, me and Ankit were feeling quite hungry. So there was plenty of pasta for us three to finish off tonight!
4th November: Base camp to Namche Bazaar
It felt like the end of an era, leaving behind the mountain. The upside was that we were only several hours of walking from a teahouse and a proper bed. It was a fairly long walk though; first down the valley and up to the ridge overlooking Mende, then joining the trail down to Namche, which was pleasant though busy with trekkers, but it took a fair bit longer than most of us were expecting. Several of us had come down with a cough during the night and some had got a sort of cold and were feeling rough. There were a lot of stops for people to catch up with others and the breaks were fairly long. Perhaps sometimes too long for those of us who were eager to get to Namche now. So when we reached the top of the hill overlooking Namche Bazaar it felt like we’d finally come home and it was a big relief! Deborah had already spent several days there recovering from her cold/flu thing and seemed her lively self again when we met her at the entrance to the teahouse at around 4pm. Since the yaks that were carrying our gear and tents were expected to be arriving a bit late in the evening, it was more or less decided that we should stay in the teahouse for the night. Even better was that a single room only cost $10 a night so most of us were quite happy to sleep there for both the two nights we would be in Namche Bazaar. The rooms even came with an en-suite toilet (with a toilet seat!), sink and mirror. Under normal circumstances this probably wouldn’t seem like a big deal, but compared with camping it was definitely something to be appreciated!
Our evening in Namche consisted mostly of tea-drinking, discussions around the US presidential election, a heavenly and long hot shower and lots of food. Oh, and the bed and the pillow was amazing. And it was an absolute luxury with the ensuite sit-down toilet and not having to put on a down jacket to go and visit a hole in the ground first thing in the morning…. Instead of walking straight down to Phakding from Namche Bazaar, the new and revised plan was to spend the day in Namche Bazaar and then do one longish day of walking all the way from Namche Bazaar to Lukla the following day. It was a relaxing day and we all walked down into the centre of Namche at some point or other during the day. I had a coffee with Ankit, Mark and Deboraha during the morning before going back up to the teahouse around lunchtime. Whilst sitting out in the sunshine I met a relatively large group of Norwegians travelling with Hvitserk who were taking a short break to visit the Sherpa museum while on their way to Everest base camp and Island Peak. Other than that the afternoon was quiet and uneventful and very chilled out.
6th -7th November: Namche Bazaar – Lukla - Kathmandu
For the final day of walking we woke up to fine weather again and it was a real contrast compared with the last time I’d done the Namche to Lukla walk in shedloads of rain 5 years ago. The trail was just as busy as when we’d walked up to Namche Bazaar, so even though it was all mostly downhill there were still the usual hold-ups due to having to wait for donkeys or zopkio to pass or just getting held up by slow hikers. We eventually got to Phakding and ate lunch inside the teahouse where we had camped outside a few weeks back since the sun outside was scorching hot. After lunch was the final leg of the journey and most people went at their own pace – some had eaten a bit too much food at lunchtime and were feeling sleepy :) I rather underestimated the long slog back up to Lukla and at some point got a bit carried away in my eagerness to get there. Power-walking uphill for an extended period of time proved still to be quite a workout, even after having descended 3000m in altitude! But finally I arrived in Lukla and took a sneaky visit to Starbucks before heading on to Tara Lodge since I expected it would be at least an hour or so before anyone else in the group showed up.
The final evening in Lukla was celebrated with the whole local team at Tara Lodge and in keeping with tradition, tips and equipment were presented to each one of the sherpas and cook team which we’d contributed to as a group. I’d like to say I put in a good effort to join in with the dancing afterwards but that may a slight lie. But I did join in for a bit of it before heading off to bed. Kilu and Mingma managed to get a seat on the flight back to Kathmandu with us the next morning but Pema would be travelling back the day after, so we said a final goodbye to him and the rest of our local team at the small airport in Lukla. It’s always been rather sad to part ways with the local team at the end of a trip, and this time was no exception. The trip had been a success, both in terms of summiting a fine peak and the fantastic people we’d met in doing so. And even more so when Pema had mentioned to us that there had been 3 or 4 other groups attempting Kyajo Ri this season, but had not summited because of the hard conditions. It just emphasizes what a privilege it was to have had the terrific Sherpa team we did, who worked extra hard to make the ascent possible. I’d also had a relatively pleasant experience at altitude on this trip compared with in 2011, mostly due to not getting a horrible cold and chest infection this time, so hopefully there won’t be such a long break before the next visit to some big hills :)
User comments
Steike!
Written by kobbenes 07.12.2016 14:10Fantastisk tur og veldig fin rapport!
Amazing Pictures
Written by mortenh 07.12.2016 11:10Amazing Pictures Hannah from what must have been one delightful experience. One stunning scenery after the other. Enjoyed it very much!
Re: Amazing Pictures
Written by hmsv1 07.12.2016 11:48Thanks Morten! Though I still think the views were more stunning in reality than in the pictures :)
Wow
Written by Þróndeimr 04.12.2016 00:27Flotte bilder og beskrivelser fra en ekte topptur!
For ein tur!!!!
Written by Eikås 03.12.2016 21:50Fantastiske naturbilder du deler ifrå vanvittig flotte, mektige fjell og natur. Dette var lørdagskveld underholding :) Får jo berre lyst å reise avgårde!! Takk for at du deler denne flotte rapporten Hannah :)
Re: For ein tur!!!!
Written by hmsv1 03.12.2016 22:19Det var hyggelig å høre! Takk.Det er bare å sette i gang med turplanlegging da :) jeg får også skikkelig lyst å reise dit igjen når jeg ser på bildene mine!!!
Tur
Written by Garm 02.12.2016 21:48Litt av ein tur/topp.
Den der gjer nok godt i sjela, lengje... :)