Everest Trek Day 10: Loboche to Kala Patthar

  Kala Patthar, Nepal
Friday, December 7, 2007

Loboche (4910m) -> Kala Patthar (5550m) -> Pheriche (4240m)

I woke up with the thought that I was heading to Everest Base Camp today however before I had left the lodge things had changed. After Mazen had another rough night, he came to the realization that he was not going to get better at this altitude of 4910m. In fact, it was painful just being here. He then concluded that there was absolutely no way that he was making it to Kala Patthar on this trip. In fact he felt he had to descend in order to get better and he wanted to descend quickly. Loboche would be the highest he would trek at least on this trip. His recommendation to me was that I go up Kala Patthar and then come down and we would both then immediately descend as far as we can.

Having to make a choice between going up Kala Patthar and going to Everest Base Camp was an easy one to make. My decision was to definitely go to Kala Patthar given the situation. Obviously I was slightly disappointed since I had come this far and now I would not be going to Base Camp. But I couldn't imagine the level of disappointment that Mazen must be feeling right now. Having come so far, trekking for 10 days, and not being able to go any further even though one of the best ground views of Everest awaits only a few hours hike away. But he was just physically finished so as tough as it was for him it was a very smart decision not to proceed. Well, it was the only choice.

Barren Landscape

Khumbu Glacier

So that morning I headed out without him to trek up to the summit of Kala Patthar. I actually wasn't going alone as I decided to take our porter Noori with me. Although I was sure there would be many people doing this trek today I still thought it safer that I wasn't alone because you never know what could happen at this altitude. Besides, Noori wasn't doing much else today anyways.

Noori is kind of an interesting character himself. He's been our dedicated porter since the 2nd day of our trek and he's faithfully carried the combined weight of 27kg that were our backpacks. One thing we could not do is converse with him as he doesn't speak our language and we don't speak his. Actually, I think he had taken lessons from his niece Neema whom we had met on the first day of our trek. She would always answer "yeah" whenever we asked her a question. Noori was very much the same way. As a matter of fact our conversation went something like this:

Us: "Hey Noori, are we about 20 minutes from Tengboche?"
Noori: "Yeah"

Twenty minutes later Tengboche still wouldn't be in sight so we would ask a different question based on what we thought:

Us: "Hey Noori, are we about 30 minutes from Tengboche?"
Noori: "Yeah"
Us: "Ok, how far are we from Tengboche?"
Noori: "Yeah"

Yup, he was definitely getting lessons on "How to Respond to Foreigners" from his niece Neema. Ok what if I tried to ask him something quite different:

Us: "Hey Noori, what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
Noori: "What do you mean? An African or European swallow?"

Ok, ok, we didn't ask him that but if we did the answer I'm sure would be "yeah" and he would always say it with a full smile and a slight head wobble (similar to the head wobble that one would see from some one from India).

Something else that surprised us was how little he wore while trekking. He usually had a T-shirt and a fleece on along with pants and a pair of running shoes that were at least one size too big. When the weather was at it's coldest, while trekking, then maybe he would put on a 2nd fleece and a pair of ski gloves. In contrast, we were almost in what some would describe as full arctic gear for some of the very cold sections.

Gorak Shep

Trail up Kala Patthar

When we're hanging out at lodge he kicks off his running shoes and throws on flip-flops. Water is turning into ice around us and he's wearing flip-flops.

Even when he's sleeping he has nothing warmer than a T-shirt but he throws on a single blanket. Meanwhile, I'm in my thermals in my down sleeping bag (usually with a hot water bottle thrown in) with two layers of blankets on top.

I think he was a bit of an anomaly even among most of his own sherpa as the rest of them looked like they were trying to dress warmly.

The most common position we would find him in while in the lodge when the yak-dung stove was fired up was him practically hugging the stove. Even when the fire got so hot that the rest of us had to back away from the stove Noori perserved and remained there inches away from the yak-dung inferno. We developed a theory that he just had no feeling or skin sensitivity as we could not find another explanation for this.

Going up Kala Patthar

Bird

Whatever the oddities of Noori if it wasn't for him we would not have got this far. I couldn't imagine how I could have carried my backpack this far and especially given Mazen's condition he would have been suffering even more under the weight of his own backpack.

In any case, today it was just Noori and I heading up to the top of Kala Patthar.

And I thought the landscape yesterday was barren. There was literally nothing but rock and ice all around us as we hiked. The sky was clear and beautiful and of course it was cold. Many times the Khumba glacier was in view of our trekking path. We made it to the tiny establishment of Gorak Shep in about 2 hours and this is where the steep hike up Kala Patthar began.

I presumed I had been sufficiently acclimitized but nothing could truly prepare me for trekking at above the 5000m line. I was out of breath almost immediately as I started going up the initial steep section. To make matters worse, the higher I hiked, the colder and winder it got.

Summit of Kala Patthar

Everest at last

I have to admit I was a bit worried about climbing Kala Patthar. Yesterday, as we were trekking to Loboche, Noori pointed at a mountain in the distance and simply stated "Kala Patthar". Mazen and I looked at the mountain and then at each other. We were both thinking the same thing. That's Kala Patthar?! How the heck were we going to climb that? It looks sheer on all sides and the fact that the top is covered in a layer of ice is not easing my mind. We don't have any equipment to make that sort of techinical climb let alone the know-how or the guts.

We had tried to ask Noori more questions yesterday to ascertain whether that was actually Kala Patthar and that we would be climbing it but how much additional information could we get from him when his only response is "yeah" accompanied by a smile and head wobble.

But now that I was on my way up Kala Patthar I understood better how the landscape was layed out. What we had assumed yesterday was Kala Patthar was actually a much larger mountain named Pumori (7161m). However, from the lower slopes of this mountain one will find a ridge that heads toward the south. This ridge ends at a peak and this peak is named Kala Patthar (5550m).

Everest Closer

Everest and I

So Noori had been pointing in the general direction of both Pumori and Kala Patthar but from yesterday's distance we could not discern one peak from the other. In any case, once I realized which peak was which and that we were going up the lower of the two, I could breath easier now. Well, I suppose at this altitude there is no breathing easier but you know what I mean.

This was by far the toughest time I was having on the trek so far. I was going up excruciatingly slow and I was taking many breaks. I had to come up with some kind of system so I decided I would count 50 steps and then rest for a few seconds. This seemed to be working. Granted, I wasn't looking around much at this point to soak in any scenary. I just wanted to get to the top of this 50 steps at a time.

The middle section was not as steep but then the final section turned out to be steep once again. Granted, it was still a hike so I rarely even had to use my hands. Soon the top of Kala Patthar was in view and it was close. It was a real scramble across rocks upon nearing the summit but finally I had made it. I turned around to see Everest under a perfect sky. After 10 days of trekking I had made it to the top of Kala Patthar and was gazing at what is arguably the best ground view of Everest possible. That was my reward. It is just a magnificent mountain to look at. Stark black with hardly much snow with its classic triangular shape. It truly is a natural wonder. I could have stayed up there all day if it was for the fact that I was truly freezing my ass off. Oh yeah, also I had to get back so that I could descend with Mazen. But I stayed up here as long as I could as when was I going to see a view like this again. Mountains all around, many of which are higher than 7000m and a few higher than 8000m. The Khumba glacier carving its valley down below. The greenish-blue glacier lakes and the sight and sound of small avalanches from the mountain glaciers. And Everest, the king of all mountains, right in front of me. I was hard to believe that I was seeing all this live and with my own eyes.

Everest Base Camp

Nuptse

When I concluded that I couldn't stay up here any longer I started to make my way down. It was only now that I realized that Everest and many of these mountains were in plain view even as I descended. On the way up I was so focused on trying to get up to the top that I hadn't noticed Everest or the other mountains until I was at the top.

It was quite fast getting down to Gorak Shep and from there we took the path back to Loboche. I don't know what happened to me at this point as I just felt exhausted, I had a headache, lost my appetite and was starting to stumble. The affects of altitude at this height were maybe starting become apparent or perhaps it was also dehydration. So after what seemed like an eternity we made it back to Loboche.

Mazen was having a variety of symptoms for something. Maybe a combination of altitude and bronchitis recovery or perhaps something else. He was in serious discomfort and wanted to get down immediately. I was exhausted but realizing the state that he was in I agreed that we pack up and just get down.

So that's what we did. We headed back to Dughla (where we stayed the previous night) but even though the sun was going down Mazen wanted to head to the lower altitude of Pheriche (4240m) so we kept plodding along just get there as it was starting to get dark.

Ultra Close-up of Everest

Me and Everest

Many of the lodges had already shut down for the season making the place have a sort of ghost-town feel but we found one that was open and seemed reasonable.

As luck would have it, we bumped into a fellow trekker that we initially met a few days ago as we were all heading up. She was a woman named Yuko from Japan and had made it to both Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar.

The owner of this lodge had some interesting experiences as he had been as assistant guide for Everest a few years ago. One of his many tasks would be shuttling supplies to climbers attempting Everest. The highest he got was the south summit of Everest which apparently is only 40 minutes from the actual peak. He has two young daughters so his wife no longer allows him to go near Everest any more.

I remember sleeping even earlier than I had any of the previous nights. I was exhausted. But what an incredible day it was. One where I would reach the summit of Kala Patthar and take in some of the best mountain scenary on the planet. The experience of Everest Base Camp will have to wait for another trip.

Towards Pheriche