Belated finished!

Well, things got tiring and fast as the trip concluded, so here's a summary of how things went:

• Total steps: Approx 370,000 steps for the trek.
• Equivalent building flights climbed: 2700 (every time we ascended it approximately 1 floor it counts, descents don't count).
• Total days hiking: 17
• Total km hiked: Unknown
• Total mars and Snickers bars consumed: too many to ever have any ever again, ever. Half way through got sick of them.
• Total weight lost: approx 5kg
• Belt notches down: 2

Lukla flight was good, not nearly as exciting leaving as landing, but still better than any other airport!

Arrived in Kathmandu and had to wait for driver for van, as an earlier Intrepid group had stolen ours!

Once I got to the hotel, I had a long hot shower sitting on the floor scrubbing my boots and trekking poles for dirt (NZ BioSecurity would have a word otherwise).

We went out that night for dinner and did the big farewells for some of our band of 12 who were flying out really early the next morning, as well has had the formal thanks to our lead guide Prem.

He's a great guy, and I think we all loved him lots.

Oh, that one member I spoke about earlier, who had some trouble fitting in - she turned out all good, after some love and care, helping her understand we needed her, she is part of the team. So that turned out well. She enjoyed her last few days lots.

The next day after getting back to Kathmandu (my final day in th city), we had a group breakfast and began our fond farewells.

I was surprised how closely we had bonded, way more than any other group trip i had done. We were very close, and saying goodbye was very very hard! Since we all lived in different places, it couldn't be "see you later", or "see you next time", but we came up with "see you on the trail sometime!"

Of course Kancha (Andrew) lives in Oakland, so I shall pop up from Sunnyvale and see how he's doing before too long. He's probably heartbroken from having to separate from Dawa! (Assistant guide with whom they both bonded extremely well)

Packing in Kathmandu consisted of taking the contents of my duffle and daypack, selecting the cleanest smelling clothes out, then dumping the rest into a giant plastic bag and shoving in my backpack for travel home... the giant plastic bag was a necessity, once I had a shower and my nose returned to "normal", I discovered the contents of that bag could also double as a chemical warfare weapon.

The flight home wasn't too bad, and involved an overnight (in hotel!) in Singapore. 

I'm currently back in Auckland, preparing for my next big adventure that starts tomorrow - moving to San Francisco!

I don't think I'll journal that trip :)

See you on the trail,

Nick

Lukla airport

Big few days. Had party last night with our porters and assistant guides who would be leaving us today... maybe...

Waiting at Lukla airport for the fog to clear. For some context here, 2 days ago we ran into a group that had been waiting for 3 days for a flight, but finally gave up and hired a helicopter.... so fog clearing isn't necessarily a given.

Made it!

More to come later, but im now sitting in a teahouse in Lukla! tomorrow I catch the plane to Kathmandu.

Namche (Saturday)

So had a small whoopsie on the way down to Namche, and hurt my ankle. Am ok, but took a few more hours than intended. Arrived after dark in Namche.

Resting up, bandaged up, and will see how things are in morning.

Pheriche (Friday)

So the weather was very changable, and whilst at 0520h Kala Patar was clear, 10 mins later it wasn't.

We were "on watch" for the next few hours, but it was snowing and showing no sign of stopping, so we headed off from Gorak Shep, not attempting to summit Kala Patar.

The walk down was great, we dropped around 900m of vertical altitude, and it felt fantastic. The air was noticeably easier to breathe. I will wait till tomorrow morning to see how I feel.

I've had a nagging mountain-cough, and nasuesa for the last week, I'm hoping it'll disappear soon.

Tomorrow we head to Namche, it'll be a long hike, with more ups and downs, but clearly more downs than ups. I'm hoping we don't have to ascend into Namche, those stairs were a killer last time.

Fitness wise it's hard to tell how things are going. Without a doubt the lower altitude is improving things, but I also must be getting fitter too. Will be interesting to see how things are after I've been at (near) sea-level for a week or two.

Gorak Shep (Thursday Evening)

It's 7:30pm, and I'm tucked up in bed, my fingers are cold so I'm typing this with my head inside my sleeping bag, trying to warm up.

It's cold up here. I'm not sure, as I've run out of wifi again, but I've been informed it's definitely at least a 4 degrees below zero. This wouldn't be a big problem, but the teahouse isn't exactly up to grade with its insulation - none. 

Whilst the dining room is warm (ish), I've got a (possibly) big day tomorrow. The highest and toughest peak yet is Kala Patar. It's 5545m (18,200ft) (cf EBC is 5363m). This is the granddaddy of them all for this trip.

There is one caveat, which is we won't do it if the weather isn't favourable, aside from not being able to see anything, it makes it more dangerous, as it can turn very very cold very quickly.

I'm of mixed minds on this summit. Yes, it's the big one, it will be awesome, a big tick, but I only just survived Gokyo Ri. EBC was easier (that's agreed by all in our group).

Kala Patar is rocky scrambling terrain, where your walking pole is both a blessing (aiding in stepping up), and a curse (way too many places to get stuck and trip you up). It's a step initial climb, eases out for awhile, and is then a very step finish. It's a 3 hour hike up. To be honest, I'm not sure how I'll do. But I keep thinking - only one way to find out.

I told Prem last time, I'm gonna keep going until I either reach the top, or he tells me I have to turn back. I will do it on my hands and knees if I have to.

EBC (Thursday)

Woke up this morning in Lobuje, and we headed out around 7am for Gorak Shep, we arrived around 9:30am.

This was our stop for a short while to fill up, change out the contents in our daypack, in preparation for our final trek. 

10:30am we set off. As we were preparing to leave, there was much discussion around what to wear, how many layers? hard shell? Walking poles?

I set off with 3 layers (base, t-shirt, and lightweight hardshell), beanie and my buff around the neck. Before long most were stripping off layers.

No matter where I've been, I've always ended up in a base layer and little else. Today it was just long/sleeve base layer and my hardshell rain/wind jacket.

A couple of hours later, we made it. We stood on the ridge looking down into base camp, made our way down past the rock danger, scrambled over the boulders, and another 10 minutes later we were standing there.

It was an emotional experience, so many days leading up to it, so much struggle, so much effort, so many steps (about 246,000), but I finally got there.

Everyone was Hi-Five'ing everyone, hugs all around. The guides brought hot chocolate, and around 1,000 photos were taken.