Everest Trek Day 3: Acclimitizing in Namche Bazaar

  Namche Bazaar, Nepal
Friday, November 30, 2007

Acclimitization day in Namche Bazaar (3420m)

One of the frightening things about altitude is the effect it has on the human body. If one isn't careful when trekking at higher altitudes then they run the risk of being impaired or even dying from Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS).

Mazen had met a couple of individuals before the trek that got AMS. One got it at 5500m and even though they brought him back down to 4900m and placed him in an oxygen chamber he still went unconscious and had to be air-lifted out from there in a hurry. Another guy got AMS while in Namche Bazaar and he also had to be brought down to Kathmandu in a hurry. I think statistically only a very small number of trekkers die from AMS in this region each year.

Although the effects and degrees can be different for each person the vital thing that must be done is to make sure one spends sufficient time in a particular altitude zone before climbing higher. In any case, hearing about those two guys who had problems with AMS did not actually make me feel comfortable with this whole altitude thing. I mean not only does it get colder and harder to breathe at higher altitudes but on top of this we have to worry about AMS too?

Enter our acclimization day in Namche Bazaar. Since we come from Kathmandu (about 1200m) to Namche Bazaar (3420m) in the space of 2 days then this day was a good day to acclimitize. What that means for us is that we would climb to a higher altitude today but then come back down and sleep in Namche Bazaar.

So we trekked out to the villages of Khumjung (3780m) and Khunde (3840m). These villages provided a good upwards climb and also it took sufficient time to hike up there and all the while take in some of the spectacular scenary.

During our day hike we went past a high altitude runway.

Runway near Namche Bazaar

Well, actually we crossed the runway but it's my understanding that it isn't used for planes any more and I'm quite sure that the cows that graze on the grass runway are quite thankful of that.

It turns out that it is still used for helicopters though and our timing was good in that we did see a helicopter touchdown there while we were hiking along.

Chopper

Just a little bit higher up was a hotel where we could see a better view of Everest than we had seen the day before. Still it had the classic cloud wisp coming from its peak. We also for the first time viewed an interesting mountain named Ama Dablam that is also pictured here. This mountain we would see a lot of during our trek and what I found neat about it was how it had a double peak. One significantly higher than the other but all the same the double peak was something I don't usually see or find as pronounced as this.

View of Everest from the hotel

After these views we continued our acclimitization day hike up to the higher villages and then back down to Namche Bazaar to spend the night. The altitude-related headache that I had yesterday was already gone when I had woken up in the morning but this hike served to prepare me even more for what was to come in the next few days.

I found it quite nice to stay in Namche Bazaar for another night. They have some nice amenities that I mentioned yesterday but there is also a bakery there that serves up a damn good apple pie that tastes even better after a day of hiking.

Another interesting point of interest is the Tibetan market in the lower sections of the city.

Tibetan market in Namche Bazaar

So citizens of Tibet travel by foot and animal to Namche Bazaar to sell goods that they have brought along with them. Most of these are clothing related but the also offer some really random stuff. My friend Mazen is a master bargainer with them. They are quite poor (or so it seemed to me) as they stayed in make-shift tents right beside where they sold goods and by the way they looked (and some times smelled) they likely haven't seen so much as a bath in weeks. It's just would be a difficult life for them trying to transport these goods (in a journey that would number in days and maybe weeks) and then sell the goods just to try to make a living.

Anyways, my highlight of the day was definitely seeing Everest again. This majestic mountain is hard to beat.

Everest