Everest Trek Day 8: Dughla

  Dughla, Nepal
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Dughla (4620m).

It's amazing how early one gets up when trekking. Well, maybe it's just me as I'm usually awake and sometimes just up by 6:30am while Mazen doesn't usually want to move until later. Of course on the flip side it's rare to stay up past 7:30pm or 8pm as most of the time we're tired or sometimes we're bored or sometimes the yak dung has been all burned and the people who run the place don't want to re-fill it. Actually, I think those are the 3 predominant reasons why we sleep early here:

- tiredness
- cold (i.e. they will not fill the stove any more)
- boredom

Anyways, back to trekking.

It was -2 degrees Celsius in the room this morning. Warmer than the morning the day before although it really didn't feel warmer. I'll just have to take my thermometer's word for it that it is warmer.

Again Mazen did not have a good night's sleep and is truly feeling run down. The altitude is getting to him or his recovery from bronchitis had been less than full or perhaps they are both contributing factors. Regardless of the exact cause one thing was certain, Mazen was re-considering going down in altitude.

If he were to go down in altitude then I would do the same. Before we started the trek we agreed that we would stick together so if one of us had to turn back early for whatever reason then the other would turn back as well. Granted, I don't think either of us thought it could come to this. Mazen, as well as myself, was beyond eagerness to make it to this trek's end that for him to consider heading down was almost abstract.

If we were to head to a lower altitude then it would probably be to Pheriche or back to Dingboche and then from there we would re-assess to see how he feels. However, in the end he decided that he would push onwards and that we would head to the higher altitude of Loboche (4910m) today.

Of course this started to become a bit of a dilema for me as well. Do I encourage him to keep pushing onwards? Or do I suggest that we stay at this altitude or go lower? I want to reach the goal of the trek just as much as he does but it makes it difficult to navigate through these feelings when the risk is greater. One thing that we both do keep in mind is that if things start getting worse then we will always have the recourse of heading back down immediately from whereever we are.

And so we begin our trek to Loboche.

Today we were lucky enough to witness the Everest Marathon. Some crazy idiot conceived up the idea of having a marathon that starts in Gorak Shep (5140m) and ends in Namche Bazaar (3440m). To add to this, if that wasn't crazy enough, the 42km course uses the trails that trekkers hike on to get towards base camp. This is hardly an even trail as it is a rugged and rocky trail. Moreover, though it is generally a down hill race, there are two steep uphill sections.

Everest Marathon

Anyways, there were some insane fools taking part in this race and we were fortunate enough to observe the last of these participants pass the race station at our lodge in Dughla as they were running the course.

We were actually more fortunate than we even initially thought that the Everest Marathon was today. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself.

So Mazen was really having a tough slog today. In fact, he was likely having his worst trekking day so far. There's a fairly lengthy climb right from the start in Dughla and we didn't actually make it too far as our lodge was still in full view of us (instead of a distant spec). The fortunate thing about the Everest Marathon is that there are many doctors on hand for this event and Mazen thought it best to track one of these doctors down.

He stopped one of the participants coming down and he told us that there will be a doctor coming down in just a few minutes. He described him to us and only some minutes later a gentleman was on his way down towards us who could only be the doctor that was earlier described to us.

Mazen politely stopped him and asked for his help. He told the doctor of his symptoms at which point the doctor proceeded to give Mazen a bit of an examination. Considering we were on the side of a hill at around 4700m with no shelter, it was a fairly good exam. The doctor measured his lung power and analyzed his breathing with a stethoscope.

The doctor was concerned about Mazen's recovery (or lack thereof) from bronchitis and he also felt that we had climbed too high too fast. Before this point I thought we had only climbed altitude moderately since we were following a trekking guide's itinerary. In any case, the doctor handed Mazen some steriods that would hopefully help his lungs and recommended that we head back to Dughla (where we were the night before) or head down even lower.

We thanked him and Mazen thanked him profusely and the doctor proceeded on his way. The two of us and Noori slowly began descending back to our same lodge in Dughla and secured the same room we had the previous night. So this would turn out to be our 3rd acclimitization day (although our 1st unscheduled one). But staying here an extra night would give Mazen that extra day of recuperation at this altitude and hopefully provide him with sufficient rest so that he can proceed better the next day.

Since we hadn't ventured out too far today I felt inclined to do a little bit of a day hike since we were in Dughla for another night anyways.

Memorials

Scott Fischer memorial

So I headed up the trail until I got to the top of the pass. Once up there I noticed that there were many stone monuments about. Some were basicly small piles of rock but sime others were quite large with plaques on them. There were also many prayer flags strewn about.

I had heard about this place. Although I hadn't heard what this place is called by name but essentially there are many monuments honouring some of the climbers who have perished in their bid to climb Everest. Most of the monuments honour sherpa victims however there are other honoured here as well. Scott Fischer, a famous Everest guide who died during the 1996 Everest disaster has a monument dedicated to him here.

The wind had been quite brisk especially during the last couple of days of the trek. Actually we had come to expect some form of wind now that we were quite high in altitude. However what was unusual about this place of the monuments was that the air was eerily still. In any case, I had reached the top of this pass which was my goal for the day so after taking a few pictures I headed back down towards Dughla.

More memorials

Me and the scenary

Returning to the lodge I found Mazen taking it easy trying to recover. I also found that the lodge was really quiet. This was a stark change from the previous night as there were quite a few people staying here but now it appears the only people staying here today were myself, Mazen and Noori. At least we wouldn't have to compete too hard tonight for stove space to keep warm.

Apparently one of the people managing this lodge took a bit of an interest in Mazen. After looking at Mazen for a few minutes (while Mazen and I were playing cards) the person shyly told Mazen that he thought he was very handsome. Mazen managed a rather uncomfortable "thank you" while I tried my best not to break into so much as a smile. I think the compliment would have been better received if Mazen was receiving it from a female.

Mountains