Morning in the Rhododendron Forests
Dateline: March 31st, 2010
I hit the hay early last night. The lights were out by 2130. There is only so many games of cards one can play, and I was feeling much more tired than I had expected. My sleep was fitful and I woke up every hour or so. I'm not sure if I slept badly due to the altitude, or if it was the guy in the room next to me. The walls are paper-thin in these guesthouses. I could hear the guy snoring and farting even through my earplugs.
At least I was warm. And not from any farts wafting into my room. The temperature dropped down close to freezing last night and I pulled out my rented sleeping bag for the first time. After I threw a blanket over the sleeping bag I was quite toasty – actually a little too much so given I woke up in the morning with a slight sheen of sweat.
I also woke up with a slight headache, but I'm hoping it's due to dehydration since I didn't force myself to drink quite so much water yesterday. My appetite was fine and I had no issues downing my mug of milk tea, plus my toast and rather runny eggs.
Our day's trekking started right on the dot at 0800. Following the prevailing weather patterns here in the Khumbu Region, the sky was a clear, deep blue this morning. We had clear views of the snow-covered peaks from our vantage points within the rhododendron forests surrounding the lodge. From Deboche, we had a relatively gentle climb up to Pangboche. The easy one-hour hike was made easier by the fact that I was stopping so much to take pictures. My first camera battery died today and I had to pop in my spare. I'd hoped that the charge would have lasted longer into the trek – now I'm going to have to pay at the next guesthouse to charge the dead battery (which, upwards of Deboche will cost a not insignificant NRs.200 per hour to connect to a power pack).
At Pangboche, my altimeter registered 3,820m, indicating that we'd ascended a hundred-and-seventy metres since the start. Even though the grade of the slopes here are small compared to the climbs to Namche Bazaar and Tengboche, I'm feeling the lack of oxygen more and more, and moving less and less quickly. My legs and muscles don't feel all that tired; my body is just having the usual issues related to having thirty-five percent less oxygen per breath.
Resting
The good thing about today's trekking was that the time was almost all spent on uphill or level trails – meaning no crazy steep climbs to make up altitude. After Pangboche, the trail continued rolling along, passing back and forth between Buddhist stupas and mani walls. At 1000, we stopped off in the village of Shomare – our lunch stop – just short of 4,000m.
Today we had a choice. The trail diverges and trekkers have a choice to overnight in the village of Pheriche, sitting at 4,230m; or Dingboche, located a further hundred-and-thirty vertical metres up at 4,360m. Other than the difference in altitude, there is little to choose between the two. Dingboche is slightly larger, with a wider choice of lodges; Pheriche is the local base for the Himalayan Rescue Association. The headache was still there but my appetite was fine – I had a plate of vegetable-and-tuna-stuffed momos for lunch and wolfed them down. Given that I was experiencing no other symptoms of altitude sickness I consulted with Santosh and we agreed to push for higher village.
Given that I suspect the onset of mild AMS, making the decision to sleep a hundred-and-thirty metres higher that I needed to might seem foolhardy. Here's my reasoning: I was already thinking ahead to the ascent to Lobuche, two days hence. We have an acclimatisation day scheduled for tomorrow. If I can't adjust to the altitude at Dingboche, I'm screwed anyway and will have to think about descending. Staying in Dingboche also cuts down on the elevation gain up to Lobuche, which is already six-hundred metres higher.
The Himalayan Rescue Association recommends gaining no more than three-hundred metres in elevation a day and, since the start of the trek, we've been pushing that limit. I gained six-hundred metres between Phakding and Namche Bazaar. From Namche, we gained two-hundred-and-eighty-five metres to Deboche. The elevation change between Deboche and Dingboche almost hits seven-hundred metres. But I'd rather face a seven-hundred vertical metre gain with a acclimatisation day following, rather than the same gain with climb scheduled for the following day.
After lunch we broke the 4,000m altitude mark – a nice milestone. We were above the treeline, walking into the Khumbu tundra where rhododendron trees turned into rhododendron bushes. The air seemed clearer and the sky bluer. And the mountain peaks looked closer, towering around us in every direction. I finally felt like I was in the high Himalaya.
Past the small village of Orsho, we entered a section of trail littered with stone mounds. These were purported to be memorials to lost climbers, but I didn't see any names or obvious markings. From there, we turned onto the path to Dingboche, ignoring the ironically higher trail leading to Pheriche. After an hour-long steady climb, we crossed the last ridge. Dingboche was laid out in front of us. My altimeter read 4,320m. I was higher than I'd ever before reached on foot.
Beasts of Burden
We got into the Sherpa Land Lodge at 1330, and I went straight into my room to see if a thirty-minute kip would alleviate my headache. It didn't, but the small pot of milk tea I ordered help to blunt it. At that stage, I was seriously debating whether to break into the Diamox or wait to see whether plenty of fluids and a night's rest would do the trick. The thing that gave me a hope: that I awoke from my nap absolutely starving, with more than four hours left until dinner.
Fortunately I had little need for abundant energy stores over the remainder of the day. The weather that had held out so nicely during the day's trekking had turned by mid-afternoon. The sky clouded over and it started to snow. We're only five days in and I'm nearly done with one book, and the cheap-ass cards I purchased in Kathmandu are starting to fall apart.
Altitude Stats:
- Starting Altitude: 3,650m
- Ending Altitude: 4,335m
- Maximum Altitude: 4,335
- Minimum Altitude: 3,645m
- Total Ascent: 885m
- Total Descent: 200m
Related Entries:
1. Trekking in the Solukhumbu - Day 4: Hot and Cold; Up and Down
2. Trekking in the Solukhumbu - Day 3: Turns Out Monday is the Day of Rest
3. Trekking in the Solukhumbu - Day 2: This Trek's Getting Real
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