Phortse - arrived

Arrived at Phortse, and the first thing you might notice is that I've got Internet again.

On the last part of the trek, whilst it was "slowly slowly, to catch a monkey", I did the climb without stopping! For me, that's an achievement, and I'm pretty happy. 

I'm starting to physically feel it on my muscles. Whilst I struggle to do these climbs, it's not my muscles that are sore, just my cardio/strength. Now I'm finally starting to feel it.

But, regardless, I'm here in Phortse and feeling good. There's another Intrepid group arriving in a few hours, so it shall be fun (we've always been the only group at the teahouses, with usually a few small groups also).

Tomorrow is another hike, 7 hours this time, looks like mostly "Nepalese Flat", but looking at the topo map, I see our trail crossing a few lines.

From now on we ascend to Gorak Shep, in prep for our ascent of Everest Base Camp.

Walking towards a mountain called something like "Kum-chi-ku" or similar. Sorry, i didn't get the spelling 😄

On the way to Phortse

This morning was an interesting exercise in psychology. Most of us agreed last night that we really could have done with an extra day in Machhermo, and this morning I really struggled to get motivated. I packed my bag by means of throwing everything in the bag, ignoring any concept of proper packing.

We're stopped in Dole for a tea break, and I know we've got another few hundred meter descent followed by a 200m ascended ascent to Phortse. Not particularly looking forward to that.

Machhermo - good night

Well, time for bed. Bit of conflict in our band of 12 today, we may lose one member, I hope not, she's a great person. Will find out more in the morning.

Tomorrow's (Monday) walk is to Phortse, a 5hr trek that is mostly downhill with an uphill bit at the end. I'm doing relatively good with the hills now, not good "enough", but relatively good.

Amanda noted to me that our lead guide (Mane or Dawa) walk at the pace of the person immediately behind them. And as such Angela likes it when I'm in front. I had already noticed this, and had experimented a few times to verify. I'm tempted for the big up hill tomorrow to get in front.

Prem (lead guide) congratulated us this evening on our success today, he said he's been a guide a long time and it's rare to have a group this size where everyone makes it to the top of Gokyo Ri, usually some people turn back, or don't attempt it.

It's interesting, it's a 5 hour trek and I'm thinking "well, it's not too long". The concept of doing daily treks like this two weeks ago seemed crazy (despite me planning on doing it)

• 3 hour trek to Phakding (mostly downhill)
• 7 hour trek gaining 800m to Nameche
• 4 hour trek gaining 500m to Mongla 
• 4 hour trek, "Nepalese flat" to Dole
• 4 hour trek gaining 400m to Machhermo 
• 3.5 hour trek to Gokyo gaining 300m
• The big one, 5am trek up Gokyo Ri gaining around 500m to reach 5,365m (17,600ft), 3 hours up, 1 hour down.
• That same morning, 3 hour trek back to Machhermo (downhill (mostly))

That's every day (except one rest day in Nameche which started with an acclimatisation hike). Hiking every day, a minimum of 3.5 hours.

We wake up each morning, usually around 6:30am, depending on the day, and are walking by 7:30 or 8am. 

Anyway, time to go to sleep, it's 8:30pm, well past my bedtime.

Machhermo - clean and showered (Sunday)

I splashed out at this tea house and got a hot shower, this place has gas hot water, so no worrying about solar!

I feel amazingly clean.

One of my battery packs is also charging here too, although the clouds (we are in the clouds) might slow that down, given they are solar.

Gokyo Ri - 5365m (Sunday)

Well. I did it. I almost couldn't, but I did it. A long long steep haul. You cannot imagine how much effort it took. 

That towering snow covered peak in the background is The Everest.

As I was climbing up, and going down, I had elegant prose written in my head, telling of my struggles, a brilliant story.

I sit here now at Machhermo, having walked from Gokyo Ri to here, exhausted, eating fried Vege Mo-Mo, and waiting till I can go to sleep.

I think I'm going to buy a shower tonight.

Climb tomorrow/today (Saturday)

I'm guessing this will post some time tomorrow (Sunday). I've got no Internet at the moment.

We've got a 5am, 3 hour trek up a "straight forward, but steep climb" up to Gokyo Peak. We've been discussing what to wear (always a fashion dilemma, does blue clash with mud?), but also what layers do we wear, it's gonna be cold, but we will be working hard.

I tend to overhead quickly, so I try to ensure I can drop the layers quickly. I've generally been wearing just a base layer top, with my light weight jacket on occasionally when it's windy. It can be 5°C and I'll be too hot with the jacket done up. Tomorrow I may end up using my GoreTek rain jacket - I hope so, the general sentiment from many of us is "we've lugged half this stuff up here, we better use it at some point". (And for the record, the rain jacket has always been in my day pack, so I, not the porters, have lugged it up).

Day packs are a dilemma, the longer the trek, and the greater the altitude increase, the more you need to take, but equally the less weight you want to take. 

Tomorrow's trek will be a good test for EBC and Kala Patar, both of which have similar very early starts with long haul hikes.

Dinner tonight was a jovial affair, we had almost everyone at one table (unfortunately it's not quite big enough for all, and Holi and Andrew dined next to us). Liam gave us a few more riddles, and JB gave us one of his own. 

We're all in optimistic and high spirits for the morning trek, though most of us agree we will be taking a long slow walk up. Personally I'll have my pirate buff, so therefore be fine.

There was a beautiful sunset tonight, I am sure it's a good omen.