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Posts for Everest BC Trek from 04/2012

Everest Base Camp Trek: Tucker and Team Return to Lukla

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 10, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 9,350'

We had a beautiful hike down to Lukla today. Lots of greenery and local folk working away in the gardens that abound down here in the 10,000’ region. The airport was shut down early this morning due to clouds but as we approached there were a few flights that went in the afternoon. John and Kim are set for the second flight tomorrow weather permitting. The commute from our lodging for the night to the entrance of the airport is about thirty feet, no excuse for missing the flight.

Kim here. . .  wow, this has been quite an experience.  It was an amazing adventure that I won’t forget anytime soon.  There were some hard days, some disappointing days, and some really wonderful days.  Overall, it was definitely a worthwhile experience.  Thanks to all for the comments and good wishes.  I’d like to spend my last blog opportunity answering the questions posted yesterday and March 31st from Mrs. Hartman’s and Mrs. Jerome’s classrooms:
Q: How high are you? A: We were at different altitudes each day. Today we are back in Lukla where we started which is about 9,900ft.  The highest we got was about 19,000ft.  That was on Island Peak.  Q: Did you summit? A: We did not make it to the summit.  I am disappointed about that since I was the one who could not make it.  The air was very cold and each time I tried to breathe deep, it hurt my lungs.  So, I couldn’t get enough air to have the energy I needed to keep going.  The rest of the team decided to turn around with me.  Q: How high is Island Peak? A: Island Peak is 20,300ft, so we still had a long way to go.  Q: Have you used your ice ax and climbing harness? A: We did not use our ice axes or crampons on Island Peak because we didn’t get high enough, but we did use them during our training session at Everest Base Camp.  I’ll try to include a photo from that for today.  We did have our climbing harnesses on.  Q: Which is higher, Island Peak or Everest Base Camp? A: Island Peak is higher than Everest Base Camp.  Island Peak is about 20,300ft, Everest Base Camp is 17,575ft. Q: How are you feeling? A: I was feeling pretty sick up high.  It is common for people to not feel good when they get that high because of the lack of air pressure and limited oxygen.  I am feeling much better now that we are down low again.  Q:How many tea houses have you been in?  A: Too many to count.  We stopped at one or two each day for lunch and afternoon tea.  Then we stayed at one each night.  Q:  What was your favorite dish to eat?  A:  It depended on the day.  Up high, the only thing that sounded good to eat was popcorn.  So, I have been eating a lot of that.  Down lower, we all like the chicken chilly (spicy chicken. . .spelled differently on every menu).  We also liked to eat daal bhat with pappad and veggie curry.  Tell Ranish that I like the curry fine, but I prefer it to be a little more spicy than they make it up here.  I also forgot to mention the dumplings that are popular here called mo-mos.  We had a lot of veggie mo-mos.  Q: Are you staying warm? A: I was SO cold many days up there.  It was the coldest I have ever been. . . especially while on Island Peak and at Everest Base Camp.  I am warmer now that we are lower.  Q: Are you having fun or do you wish you were home?  A: Both.  I have had lots of fun, but when I was cold and sick, I was wishing I was someplace else.  I am still very glad that I went to Everest Base Camp, though.  It was an amazing place.  Q: Are yaks carrying your bags?  A: No.  Porters are carrying our bags.  Those men are really strong.  I am impressed by their strength and speed.  Q: What is the name of the peak behind you in the photo from today (4/9/12)?  A:  We all looked at the photo and we think that was the side of Ama Dablam.  We have seen so many peaks, it is hard to tell for sure. 
Hopefully we will fly out to Kathmandu tomorrow and then to India for a few days after that.  Again, thanks to all for your good wishes and your support.  We have enjoyed reading your comments the few times we have had internet service. 

John here: It’s been a while since I made an update. Too long to try to recap the last few days. Like Kim, this has been an experience of a lifetime for me. The Nepalese people are so genuinely warm and welcoming and the scenery is unmatched by anything I have ever experienced. Kim mentioned that we didn’t summit Island Peak. While that is a disappointment for all of us, Kim and I did reach a new high. Along the way I learned a lot about myself, my abilities and what’s really important. There will be other peaks in our future and we’ll both be better prepared to face them.

We hiked out from Namche Bazar today. It was bittersweet. While it meant this part of our journey was coming to an end, it also meant we had hot showers and clean clothes to look forward to. We also have all the wonderful experiences and memories that we worked so hard over the last few weeks to create. Thanks to Tuck we’ve also met tons of folks along the way, all who added to the texture of the experience.

Thank you to all of you who followed our journey, we look forward to sharing our experiences and pictures with you when we get back. Pop some corn - we have LOTS of pictures.

Namaste.

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Everest Base Camp Trek: Tucker and Team Return to Namche

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 09, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 11,300'

Hello,
We are back in the big city of Namche Bazaar. What a great shower! The feet are a bit tired but here in Namche life is sweet. In fact we just finished our lunch at the bakery topped off with some apple strudel.

What a whirl wind it has been since we left Everest Base Camp. Seems to me that once you get above 15,000’ time goes by a bit quicker. We had a grand time at Base Camp. So fun to show the team my office for the weeks to come. We had great training at the base of the Khumbu Ice Fall, such a historic setting and perfect location for technical ice climbing training and team dynamics for the Island Peak climb.

Our travel from one amazing valley to another went without a hitch, once in the Imja Khola Valley with views of Island Peak, the excitement level rose. The storm we had to deal with at Island Peak Base camp was felt throughout the region. Although the conditions on the route were less than perfect, the night we went for the summit was pretty nice. The moon was so bright I didn’t need my headlight till we were higher up into the tight rocky area. It is such a unique experience to climb at heights like these in the middle of the night surrounded by bitter cold, working hard and breathing hard with every step. Why do I call this fun? Tough to express what a special time we had looking out at the high Himalaya watching the sunrise at over 19,000’. With so much earth below but amazed at how much still loomed above was hard to take in.

It’s been a long march in the last three days to get here. We were just ahead of the big seasonal traveler push up to Everest on the way in, but now it is peak time for large groups. It’s been fun to see lots of old friends going up to Everest Base Camp.
After all these miles with no feet problems, my toes go out to Jeremy Foust and the crew at Whittaker Mountaineering for the fantastic job they did fitting me with a great pair of Asolo trekking boots and LaSpotiva climbing boots. Thanks so much.

It’s not over yet. We are off to Lukla tomorrow and flights for John and Kim the day after.

RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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Everest Base Camp Trek: The Team Back in Chukung

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 07, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 15,514'

RMI Guide Mark Tucker left a message, which was too garbled to transcribe.  We did hear that the team is doing well and back in Chukung.

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Everest Base Camp Trek: Tucker & Team Getting Ready for Summit Attempt

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 06, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 16,685'

Hey Mark Tucker here checking in from Island Peak Base Camp. Well, know sooner than us signing off from the dispatch yesterday that it started to snow and pretty much continued throughout the night. Had a pretty good blanket when we woke up. You know…. was enough so that our move up to high camp was probably not the best idea. So we stuck around down here… Now I’m looking down….. So we did a little hike up towards Camp 1 just to kinda get a feel for it and the conditions so we’re all ready for that. Now we’re packing and adjusting and fidgeting with gear all day today. Resting, eating… a little bit earlier than normal because being down at Base Camp so we are going to start looking at the weather around midnight. Just finished a nice dinner and we’re going to crawl in the bag. Start resting and hopefully get a few hours of shuteye. We don’t really need to sleep for this event, we just need to rest. We’ve got a bunch of batteries stored up so we are looking good… We’ll check in with you guys progress in the near future.

RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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Everest Base Camp Trek: Tucker & Team Arrive at Island Peak Base Camp

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 05, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 16,685'

Mark Tucker here calling here from Island Peak Base Camp. We had a 3-hour hike up from Chukung to a nice lunch. Beautiful day. Nice and warm until the sun set and now a little bit of clouds and wind. Came out to a little ridge here to get a better signal. I’m in three layers, heavy down and it is chilly. I guess it could be worse. We’ve had a great day so far. Everybody’s doing well. We have a fabulous staff assisting us so overall, as a mountaineer goes, we’ve got it pretty easy. It is still a tough environment to handle. We are all doing well. We are all looking forward to a late start tomorrow up to our high camp. Beautiful, beautiful day. Peaks surrounding us, just awesome to stare at. Had a nice dinner and it is into the sleeping bag with my favorite water bottle to get me through the night. All’s well.

RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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Everest Base Camp Trek: Back in Kathmandu!

Posted by: Linden Mallory | April 04, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 4383

We woke up to the sound of rain pounding on the roof and a sinking feeling descended over me: rain meant cloudy weather and no flights into Lukla and I began to wonder if we would be forced to spend the day waiting for clearer skies in order to fly back to Kathmandu. I hesitantly looked out of the window of the teahouse and much to my relief it was only a light rain falling from a thin layer of clouds above. By the time we packed up our bags and sat down for breakfast the skies cleared and soon airplanes began making the harrowing approach into the narrow strip of runway in Lukla. 

After wrapping up breakfast we said goodbye to our porters and Sherpa staff and walked the hundred yards up the trail into the Lukla airport where we checked in for our flight. We reweighed all of our bags, once again amazed at the loads our porters were able to carry for the duration of our trek, and then found a seat in the waiting area. Every loud roar accompanying the landing of an airplane we would jump up to stare out the window to see if the plane arriving was ours. Finally, after a couple of planes came and went the green tail of our Tara Air appeared on the runway and and we lined up outside of the idling aircraft to take our seats.

The flight back to Kathmandu lacked the views of our flight in and the plane was forced to take a long route around all of the clouds already building by mid morning before we finally began the descent back into Kathmandu. We landed safely and stepped out into the thick and warm air of the city, a very different feel than the mountains above. Once all of our gear was loaded into the back of the van we set out for our hotel. Needless to say, the melee of cars, motorbikes, horns, buildings, and throngs of people is a radical change from the relative quiet and calm of the Khumbu and it is taking us a good bit to make the shift back into the scene here in Kathmandu.

We arrived at our hotel but not all of the rooms were ready so we sat down next to the pool behind and ordered lunch: fresh salads, vegetables, and burgers (even in Nepal!). It was a feast. We then turned our attention to showers and clean clothes - another luxury for us. By late afternoon, showered and dressed in fresh clothes, we headed into Thamel, the heart of Kathmandu, and spent a few hours wandering the streets and taking in the scene. It feels great to be back in Kathmandu but hard to believe our adventures are over; we’ve settled into our trail and routine and it’s a bit strange to not have to wake up tomorrow, pack the duffel bag, and start walking. It’s going to take a bit to readjust. We are heading out for our celebration dinner tonight, looking forward to another good meal. Tomorrow is our contingency day, just in case weather prevented us from moving at some point during the trip, and we are using it to check out a few of the sites in Kathmandu before our flight home the following day. The team is all excited to get home and share their stories, thanks to everyone for following along with us.

RMI Guide Linden Mallory

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Everest Base Camp Trek: The Team at Chukung

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 04, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 15,514'

Mark Tucker here calling from Chukung. I’m not sure which one I like better Phakhing or Chukung. Pretty tight-laced. The teams in great shape up here. It was a nice about two and half hour about 2000-foot gain hike from Dingboche. It was just enough to get the blood flowing and breathing level up and still making that acclimatization effort. It’s going real well, real happy with how the team is doing. The weather socked in once we got here to our tea house, and perfect timing for that. We hung around and had some food and fuel and did fine there. And then just in time it cleared up for perfect views and photos of fresh snow, on the white, tall Himalayan peaks that are surrounding us. We met up with our local guide, Perba and assistant/cook, Raz. We got a couple of nice guys. They helped out with Linden so they got all the recent information for the route, so that is great to have as well. Couple of nice guys and so thankful to have them with the team. So back in 1953 was the first ascent of Island Peak. It was made by a prestigious team. They were training in preparation for an ascent of Everest. One of those guys was Tenzing Norgay, who accompanied Kili on that famous day. So it makes you wonder if things go well here for Kim and John, could this be a stepping stone for the Big E? Maybe next year? I guess time will tell.

RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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Everest Base Camp Trek: Another Day in Dingboche

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 03, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 14,800'

Eight hours of foot travel yesterday and a descent of 3,000’ resulted in avoiding the normal altitude feelings of fatigue, headaches and exhaustion (sounds like fun ) were not the case this morning. We are still at over 14,000’ here at Dingboche and crazy to feel like we are gathering strength for the climb ahead.

The difference between 17,000’ and 14,000’ is dramatic in the way you feel at rest and at work. Its back up hill in the Imja Khola Valley to our last tea house in Chukung before tent time on Island Peak.

RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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Everest Base Camp Trek: Tucker & Team in Dingboche

Posted by: Mark Tucker | April 03, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 14,800'

Down in the low lands, below 15,000 feet. Bushes abound! Not as low as tree line but I will take it.

We were having too much fun up at Everest Base Camp and left a little bit late. Eight hours later here we are in Dingboche. We changed our location for the night based upon information that our lodge in Pheriche was booked full. Not a bad option since we were able to take the high route into here and will not need to climb a small hill in the morning from Pheriche. Our teahouse here in Dingboche is on the way to Island Peak.

Light snow showers started as we left Everest Base Camp and continued throughout the day. We were able to get John on the Khumbu Country Club for one par three hole. I hit a five iron spot on for a hole-in-one on this beautiful par three right out of camp. John ended up with a par, not bad. Short day tomorrow but lots of prep work when we get in to our last teahouse before tent time. All is well.

RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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Everest Base Camp Trek: Long and Rainy Walk Back to Lukla

Posted by: Linden Mallory | April 03, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 9,350'

A forest fire burning lower in the valley gave the skies a light haze this morning over Namche and we could catch glimpses of the smoke rising from the valley sides further down as we left our teahouse. It was warm as we walked out of Namche and descended the hill to the valley floor but by the time we reached the bottom, clouds crept up the valley to block out the sun. As we crossed the suspension bridge above the river the first few droplets of rain began to fall. Soon the rain was falling in force and thunder echoed in the mountains above, and the smoke from the fire began to dissipate. We walked through the villages below Namche, crossing back and forth across the river on suspension bridges, while the rain came and went. Before long thunder was rolling through with hardly a pause between claps and we sought refuge in the nearest shelter we could find, piling into a tiny shack on the side of the trail already full of porters also seeking refuge. 

Sitting crammed in the one room building, we sipped some tea heated up on a fire nearby as the thunder and lightning passed over us and faded away higher up the valley. Once all we could hear was a light rain pattering on the roof we set out on the trail again, picking our way down the trail as we skirted the small streams and puddles forming in our path. We made steady progress back down the valley, finally pausing in the village of Phakding for lunch. The rain kept coming down and we sat around the stove in the teahouse doing our best to dry out as we ate lunch. When we set out and the rain was letting up; with every step we made closer to Lukla the clouds seemed to rise equally as well. Soon we could see the fresh snow covering the base of the peaks above and all of the fields around shone a brilliant green with the arrival of spring in the lower Khumbu Valley. The cherry trees, rhododendron, and piries janponica trees were all in full bloom - pink, red, and white flowers dotted the trees bordering the fields and we kept pausing to take it all in. 

By late afternoon we climbed the final rocky steps of the trail and walked into Lukla. We found our teahouse and shed our packs and damp gear, finally reaching the end of the trail. We are happy to be warm and dry again after the many hours of walking in the rain today and if the weather cooperates and the clouds continue to lift we hope to catch an early morning flight back to Kathmandu tomorrow. It is a bit strange not to have more trail to cover tomorrow but we are excited to get back to Kathmandu and keeping our fingers crossed for clear skies so we can fly out!

RMI Guide Linden Mallory

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