Everest Hike 2014

22/09/2014

Where's the rest of the pictures and videos guys?

30/05/2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kXINg0U5wM

12/05/2014

12/05/2014

We made it back to Kathmandu! Yesterday we hiked 17 miles back to Lukla. This morning we caught a plane back to KTM internal airport and took a crazy taxi ride back to the guest house.

10/05/2014

We made it to Namche Bazaar! It was a 20 mile dusty hike down 2000 feet down the mountain. We are tired from a long day of hiking, but feeling much stronger at the lower altitude. We plan to be back in Lukla by tomorrow evening for a nail biting flight out of the Himalayas.

09/05/2014

The team made it to Pheriche! Already back down to lower elevations, feeling better all the time.

09/05/2014

in case you were wondering what a trek into the mountains of Nepal looks like....

09/05/2014

As you can see from the pictures below, the team made it to base camp and back! YAY!

here is the back story for what went on behind the scenes over the past few days (from Mike):

No 3G for past 3 days. Here is a quick catch up.

Tues - Pangbouche to Pheriche - to recap, we diverted to EBC as we learned the Cho La pass was snowed in. Was cloudy and chilly when we headed out. High point was Pheriche Pass at 14,000'. Sun came out but was windy. About 3.5 hour trek.

[For health reasons, we] should only rise in elevation 1500' per day. Went to mountain rescue lecture and learned about altitude mountain sickness. This is the only hospital on the mountain and is first treatment for AMS. Adequate, but very crude facilities. Two patient rooms; 2 beds per room. Same beds as the guest house. They treated the injured in the recent avalanche. But most were dead. 16 total.

[On the plus side...]The guest house had TV! High def via satellite! We saw parts of king kong, CNN, BBC and jurassic park 3. We didn't really like the tv. Kind of disruptive to the trip. We met some Canadians who were Christians (with G Adventure tour operator). John gave them directions to KISC, the Kathmandu International Church.

Wed - Hiked from Pheriche to Lobuche (16,168') [elevation change of 2000', a little beyond recommended change]. Getting into thin air. Some headaches and labored breathing. Lots of elevation increase today. Joe gave a great devotion. Lobuche was cold. Snowing. Right next to big Himalyan mountains. Cloudy in the afternoon but clear Thurs morning.

Thurs - Woke in Lobuche and trekked 3.5 hours to Gorak Shep (last stop). All hiking is 16K to 17K elevation. This just takes your breath away.

Then went to Everest Base Camp; 4 hours round trip. We trekked about 13 miles total today and about 263 stories, per Al's fit bit. At 16-17K elevation.

Base Camp is sparse. Season is cancelled. One woman will try a solo attempt at the peak tomorrow. A film crew is doing work at Camp 2. There were about 9 tents there. Way low. EBC was 17,600'. Dal Bhat for dinner for me. Will be an interesting night. Typically it is hard to sleep at elevation.

08/05/2014

We arrived at Everest Base Camp! Mission accomplished. It's been a tough couple of days climbing into the mountain range, but the scenery is truly majestic. We stopped for tea at base camp (17,600 feet) and turned around. 3-4 of us are suffering from mild altitude sickness (difficulty sleeping, eating, dizziness). It sure is hard to breath up here. Tomorrow some of us will attempt Kalapather.

07/05/2014

The team will be hiking through the toughest (highest) parts of their journey in the next few days, the accent to the Everest Base Camp. At these elevations, travelers/hikers often get altitude sickness.

06/05/2014

We arrived in Periche! We climbed to 14,000 ft and back down into the village. Today's hike was less intense than previous days. The scenery changed from yesterday's snowy, cloud-covered mountain passes, to long streches of sand and moss. This morning we were all very excited as the clouds cleared up to reveal the big bright mountains towering above us.

06/05/2014

So, to recap: the team started out at Kathmandu (KTM), and took a helicopter into Lukla on Friday (most of the day spent waiting at the airport due to a storm) and in the afternoon hiked into Phakding. Saturday, the team hiked from Phakding to Namche Bazar. Sunday, the team hiked up the left branch on the route shown, up to Phortse Thanga.

However, early Monday morning, they received word from a hiker coming down from the north that on the path ahead of them Cho-La Pass was closed due to snow. After a quick re-routing, they went to Pangboche (right hand side of the map) instead, and are aiming to try to go to the Base Camp on Everest (E.B.C. in the upper right corner of the map) first. At this rate, I would guess they would hit Base Camp sometime this weekend; Thursday or Friday if they make good time.

06/05/2014

The team is not sure when they will have reception/web access again, so future updates may be sporadic.

06/05/2014

the Latest from Mike:

So much to say. Right now, Mon aft, we are very cold in a dining room in Pangboche at Everest View Lodge waiting for a Nepali to bring in the yak p**p and put it into the stove in the center of the 20' x 40' room. The porters don't seem to understand that they need to close the door to the room. And the cold air comes in so fast!

Yaks on the trails and mountain goats running up and down incredibly steep hillsides. The clouds came up the valley to us, way up high. It snowed lightly on Monday's trek. But I am getting ahead of myself.

On Sunday we woke in Namche Bazzar, had breakfast, Ben gave his testimony, and at 9:30 am we hiked from Namche (11,283') to Mong (12,870') for lunch at 12:30 pm. Saw mountain goats, tall mountains and the river far below. We hiked on to Phortse Tenga (12,516') for dinner and the night. It rained shortly after our arrival at 3:30 pm. (John and I took a nap).

At dinner, there was a couple from Culver City, CA. (Near Los Angeles). They quit their jobs to come to Nepal for 86 days to trek. They will leave on May 26. Wow! This was their first trip and they went for broke! Using all the public busses (people vomiting on their backpacks has discouraged use of the bus) and walking everywhere. They did 8 of the 9 major treks.

On Monday morning, a trekker came down from Goyko and Cho La pass, our planned route and said the pass was closed due to snow. We have now re-mapped our route and will go to Everest Base Camp first, and then try the pass. After breakfast and a devotion led by Mike based on 1 Thes 4:16-18, we hiked up over a mountain (about 14,000') through some snow to get to Phortse Tenga 12,516') in about 4 hours. Our arrival around 12:30 pm gave us the afternoon to rest. We ordered lunch at 1:00 pm and got food at 2:30 pm.

So now, it is 4 pm on Monday. 5/5, we now have the yak p**p burning, it is windy outside and it is not only the porters who leave the door open. Actually I am not sure why they have doors in Nepal. No one knows how to close one! The other good news is they fixed the other toilet by our rooms so there are 2 now!

05/05/2014

This is Danny dorr, coming to you from a small bakery in Pangboche that just got the wifi. Everything is going great now that everyone is on altitude medicine. We may skip gokyo due to snow that would block the pass to Everest base camp (EBC). The hiking is hard, my lungs are struggling, as are my quads, the weather won't decide if it's cold or hot, and I am loving every God given second. Time of my LIFE!

05/05/2014

We made it to Pangboche! We climbed up rugged winding mountain passes up into the clouds. It got so cold it started to snow. Then we began or decent into the village. We are now enjoying local food and resting for tomorrow's steep ascent. Yesterday we walked around the mountains to a remote, 1 building town called Phortse and huddled around the burner playing chess and card games.

03/05/2014

The latest from Mike:

The food prices at the Star in Phakding were surprisingly high. Probably since the rooms were so nice. Now that we are at Namache, the prices are more in line with our expectations. At the Star, I got the "Pancake Omelet" at 7:30 am this morning. It was a very thick partially cooked slab of dough! I got it down with some jam. Amazingly, Chris and Danny both thought it was great! The dal bhat last night was really good (650 Rs in Phakding, 455 Rs in Namche)($6.95 vs $4.75). It is rice, lentils and chicken.

We were up at 5:30 am, breakfast at 7:30 am and headed out about 8:15 am after a devotion from Mark 4 quoting Isaiah 61 on Jesus, when He angered the crowd by declaring His divinity. We trekked to the TIMS (Trekker Information Management System) station where we each paid $20 USD and filled out a form and got trekking permits. A group of Russians shoved in line ahead of us. Hey, it's Nepal. We next trekked to the entrance to Sargamantha National Park. Another $30 USD to keep trekking! We walked until 11:30 am then stopped for a snack. We had to stop at 2 police/permit inspection stations. One at the bottom of the hill and one at the top.

Today's trek is about 13 km or 7.8 miles and about 3200' elevation climb, ending with a 2 hour uphill walk to Namche at 11,280' elevation. Keep in mind that trekking in Nepal is really a lot of up and down! We separated quite a lot on today's trek.

When I got to a long and very high suspension bridge (think 4' wide, metal slats, very windy and 200' over the river), it was clogged with burros hauling big packs. About 15 porters and trekkers waited 20 minutes before the donkeys cleared the bridge. Turns out one got their leg caught off the side between the platform and the suspension cable. Very bad! Lots of donkey blood. The Nepali herdsmen fashioned a makeshift bandage and wrapped its leg, but the donkey was holding up its leg and not using it. I don't know what you do with an injured donkey on a steep narrow trail. Yikes.

I hiked with a nice couple from England and Germany for a long time, and got to Namche about 2:30 pm. It was lightly raining but really came down about 3:30 pm, with clouds everywhere. We were still missing 5 people and John went out and got 3 of them. We got the other 2 at 5:30 pm. They were at the Everest Hotel and we were at the Tibet Hotel. All is good now and we had a good dinner together. John had yak steak!

It was a lot of hiking. We will all sleep well tonight!

03/05/2014

We arrived in Namche! We are staying at the Tibet hotel. We climbed 3,000ft higher today. We started at 8,000ft and are now at an elevation of approximately 11,000ft. We can feel the effects of the altitude on our bodies and minds. Two people went missing for several hours, but were found after some strategic searching techniques. We are just about to sit down for dinner on Day 2 of our hike to Everest Base Camp. - Alistair

03/05/2014

Post from Mike:
Oh what a day! Friday, 5/2 - up at 5 am to shower and pack and leave the Trinity Guest House. A great place to stay! About $6/night to share a double room. Joel and Sue operate orphanages for boys and girls and a bakery to sell goods to pay orphanage expenses. They send the kids to school, which is expensive. So now they have started a school! They are busy, needless to say, and have been in Nepal for only 6 years. Two years ago, we helped clean and fix things at the orphanages and Greg W. did a magic show. Today, Joel got us a van really cheap to take us to the airport at 6 am. In the rain! Uh-oh!!

The flights to Lukla were indefinitely delayed! We waited from 6:30 am until 2 pm, then cancelled our airline tickets and took a helicopter! What an exciting ride! And it was only $34 more than the airplane tickets. The flight costs $170 for a foreigner and $44 for a Nepali! (Target the tourist!)

The trip was really exciting to fly pretty much straight west at 110 knots and about 7000' at the beginning and 11,000' towards the end until landing in Lukla at about 9000'. There were many trekkers (maybe some climbers too) waiting to fly out of Lukla to KTM, also delayed by the weather! They turned around our helicopter in 4.5 minutes and it was off, back to KTM!

My REI nalgene water bottle fell out of my side pocket of my backpack in the transition. I was sad! I am pretty sure it is still in the helicopter. It has been with me for many backpacking trips. I bought a replacement bottle for 500 Rs ($5.00 USD) in Lukla and was off to trek!

We hiked 3 hours, from 3 to 6 pm, and went from about 9300' down to 8600'. Tomorrow we hike about 4 hours and go to 11,280' at Namche Bazaar. The trail was beautiful. Passed several yaks and their yak herders. I don't think we will see many on our trek northbound as very few flights made it to Lukla today. I accidentally dropped my camera! Ugh. The screen works intermittently now. I can hit it on the bottom and the screen will light up. Not a good system. We will see how long this lasts.

Our guesthouse at Phakding is really nice! It is clean, the guest rooms are huge and we have a western style toilet!! Wow!! (Consider the alternative of a squatty potty!).

Nice dinner of dal bat and we are off to bed at 9:30. TonightPhilip and I are roommates. Based on our walk to the room and that we easily see our breath, it is about 40 degrees outside. (No heater and thin walls). Should be cool in the room tonight!

Mike

02/05/2014

Mike's Nepali Driving Rules:

So you wondered what it is like to drive in Nepal. The key to a minimal amount of accidents is generally slow speed, small cars and horns.

1. Learn to drive on the wrong side of the road from a driver’s seat on the wrong side of the car. Important to this item is the need to look right, not left, when stepping off the curb. Again, I emphasize the importance of this.
2. It is not important to drive on your side of the road.
3. If your taxi is stopped for a light, expect that many motorcycles will flow through traffic to the stop line. Think sand flowing to the bottom of a glass jar with rocks in it. Think swarms of motorcycles!
4. Speaking of motorcycles, this is the Nepali family vehicle. Often, a small child in front of the driver, with mom holding a child on the back. It is the law for the driver to wear a helmet, but no requirement for the passenger. (you can guess how many passengers wear helmets!)
5. It is ok to make a u-turn in the middle of the road, since you are driving a very small car.
6. You must drive with your horn. One quick honk means “hey, I’m here”. Two means I am coming through. Short/long means I am mad at you. Quite the interesting process. Similar to Egypt.
7. You can drive 6 inches away from the next vehicle or motorcycle. Just don’t hit it.
8. You can squeeze in front of another car, and it is expected that they will back off. There is an unwritten rule that you expect the other driver to act in a certain manner, for example, to continue on with their turn. If they don’t, uh-oh! There is an amazing amount of trust that goes along with this chaotic driving.
9. Last rule: Take a taxi or ride a bike!

Next update will be from the trail, hopefully!

Mike

02/05/2014

Update from Mike: Thursday PM – Mo Mo; Ready to Go!

We had some rain today as we did final prep for the trek tomorrow. Danny’s suitcase is still in Philadelphia, so he and Alistair and Chris went to Tamel to buy replacement stuff. Fortunately, Philip’s bag which was diverted to London made it to KTM this afternoon, on time!

This was surprising since for the past 3 days, we have had delayed flights into KTM due to weather. It is lightning and raining tonight! Should be an interesting walk to Joel and Sue’s!

All 10 of us had a great mo-mo dinner together and got a chance to do some introductions. Serita made us mo-mo’s which are a chicken inside with a pastry outside, in a half moon shape about 4” long, with a spicy sauce. For $1.50 each!! Amazing.

Rain broke up dinner and now it’s time to pack and get up at 5 a.m. We will leave at 5:50 a.m. to walk to the van to the airport. Flight is at 7:30 a.m. We still have some open issues that hopefully will work out. We will get our permit up at Lukla, and the ministry of tourism is also on strike. Hopefully someone will be there or we can still file our trekking permit.

01/05/2014

Danny models this fetching see-through poncho as we hit the ATMs the day before we set out on our trek.

01/05/2014

A bit of a tongue-in-cheek post From Mike:

Observations of the Nepali Electric System

1. Put as much wire onto a pole as possible.
2. If the wires sag between poles, just take some extra wire and wrap it around all the wires to make a really big bundle.
3. No need to cover electrical boxes.
4. If a wire breaks, no problem. Just let it dangle down from the pole.
5. If the wires dip to interfere with pedestrians walking, no problem. They will duck. If you are riding a bike, don’t get “clothes-lined”. Not so good. Be sure to duck.
6. No need for high voltage signs. If you are dumb enough, or ignorant enough, to touch a downed wire, you probably aren't much good to society!
7. If the electric company cannot install enough power plants, no problem. Implement a “load shedding” program, so that you have rolling blackouts, and you don’t have as much load to serve. Make the rolling blackouts at the most inconvenient time of day, so that you cannot do the laundry, for example.
8. Create a different plug standard for your 240 volt system, with two narrow round prongs. Make sure they don’t fit tightly into the wall sockets.
9. Be sure to install a battery back-up system with compact fluorescent light bulbs, since they use very little energy.
10. If you are a business, it is ok to install a generator on the sidewalk outside your store and run it during the daytime and during the blackout. If the exhaust blows into the sidewalk, remember that it’s not your problem.

I hope to give you the rules for driving on our next installment!

Mike

01/05/2014

As I receive emails from the team, I'll be posting them here as updates. - Amanda

From Mike: (Note - some formatting edits made by AW for clarity on FB.) Thursday, May 1 – Labor Day! A.M. – Bike Ride, NEC (Nepali Electric Code)

It seemed like a short night last night. 11 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. to be ready for our 6 a.m. bike ride to the mountains and valleys. We rented 2 bikes for me and Phillip, and John, Joel, Ed, Ben, Phillip and I headed out across town to get to the country side.

Wow! It was quite a ride, even at this early hour, to just get across town. We were weaving in and out of traffic, cows, and people carrying all sorts of things on their shoulders and heads. A guy was hauling a dead cow’s rear on his bicycle seat, while walking the bike.

It was quite a sight.

We headed up steep roads through neighborhoods, where the women were bringing out a morning candle, presumably for Buddha. A few kids said “hi”. It is unclear why the government installs a 1 lane road through these neighborhoods. It does cause quite a problem when trucks going opposite directions on steep inclines meet.

We rode up a rather large hill to a great viewpoint, then walked our bikes down a steep stairway, where we stopped for milk tea, before riding back to town. I was able to use my Garmin so I can see later where we went. We traveled about 14 miles in about 2-1/2 hours. Afterwards, John rode his bike to work for awhile and Phillip, Alistair and I had breakfast.

Good news – The three guys who got diverted to India were able to ultimately land at KTM last night, and they got a hotel in Tamal. They should be here at Trinity Guest House (in Pattan, about 20 minutes away) soon. Two of them have their luggage. Phillip’s luggage is due here from London at 3:30 p.m. so we’ll take another trip to the airport. And the tenth person, a late add from India, is arriving today as well.