The Habenicht Chronicles : Epic Everest

Freaking Out

The peak of Everest.

Despite what you might think, Lindsey and I actually did very little planning for our trip across Southeast Asia and “winged it” the majority of the time. In planning for this trek, we literally just wrote down EBC in the blank dates on a calendar and that was it. So when we arrived in Nepal, we had no idea what to do or where to even begin our trek to Everest Base Camp. We only had two days to get ready, and we were both freaking out pretty severely the entire time. We had to buy or rent all of our gear, pay for the permit fees, take care of our plane tickets to Lukla, and figure out the best route to take through the Himalayas since we weren’t going with a guided tour. We read up on altitude sickness (which is what really scared us) and what to expect when hiking, and after two days of preparation - off we went with our backpacks.

Lindsey, the night before we leave wondering how to fit everything into a backpack.

Day 1 - Phakding 8,560 ft

We left our hotel in Kathmandu at 4 AM to catch a flight in a 20 person prop plane to Lukla, the starting point of our trek. Lukla is known as “the scariest airport in the world” and there are lots of articles describing the “scary” flight. In my opinion, those people blow it way out of proportion and it was actually enjoyable, almost like a roller coaster ride. But that’s just me, and I’m slightly crazy. We arrived in Lukla and began the trek to Phakding, our first overnight stop at an elevation of 8,560 feet with about 70% of the oxygen compared to sea level. It was a surprisingly easy, warm day, and we arrived after only a few hours. We trekked in December, which is low season for the mountain so very few trekkers were on the trails with us (about 50). During high season for example, thousands of trekkers are on the trail at the same time. That night, our hotel showed us movies about Everest disasters, which I thought was an interesting choice to show people hiking to it. Wait, you stayed in hotels? Yes, there are towns a long the way that have very basic hotels, some are made of only plywood up higher, but are decent enough and only cost $1 a night. I have never stayed anywhere with views even close to that good for one dollar.

Some carved prayer stones. The first day was beautiful.

The great white yak.

It was typical throughout the trek for everyone to go to bed by 8 PM. That was when the hotel workers stopped adding wood to the stove in the common room, which forced everyone to retreat to the warmth of their sleeping bags. The nights were long and cold. However, the epic days definitely made up for the nights.

Day 2 – Namche 11,290 ft

This day started easy. We had read some people’s blogs describing that it is the hardest day ever, and some people even give up and turn around. Give up on day two? Give me a break. We feel great! I thought. Ha. There were trains of donkeys and yaks carrying goods to towns higher up, and lots of suspension bridges (think Indiana Jones type bridges), some of which were laughably high above the ground. We began to see the Sherpas (the local people) carrying ridiculously large loads up the trails on their heads. They are seriously the strongest people ever and make you feel like a wimp for complaining about a 20-pound backpack.

The highest bridge we crossed. It was windy up there!

Lindsey stopping to pose on one of the bridges.

A top view of the tallest bridge.

Just another day at work for this Sherpa. 100 pounds? No problem.

We made it to the last stretch of the trek for that day, a 2,000 foot incline up the side of a mountain. So, we attacked it full speed and later paid the price. The first rule of preventing altitude sickness is to not overexert yourself, which is exactly what we did by going so quickly. About two hours after we arrived in Namche, we started to feel the effects of the thinner air. I became incredibly light headed, nauseous, tingly all over, and felt like I was going to pass out in my chair. It is an incredible helpless and scary feeling.

Am I going to die? We should have got a guide. Is Lindsey going to die? Does everyone ELSE feel like this? I’m seriously going to die. My parents are going to be so mad at me if I die.

We sat like zombies in the common room for about two hours staring at the floor and before the feeling began to slowly fade. Within three hours, we were back to normal. Thank God. That was terrifying.

The view on the way up the hill of death.

Day 3 – Namche Acclimatization Day

To help our bodies adjust to the altitude, our first day in Namche was an acclimatization day. The rule in climbing is trek high, sleep low. So we trekked up to the Everest View Hotel (the highest real hotel in the world) at 12,730 feet and got our first glimpse of Everest. The view was amazing. We met two American doctors that bought us tea since we forgot to bring our money (I blamed it on altitude brain). The funny thing was, the doctors gave us the money and left, but when tax was added to the bill we didn’t have enough. So we had to ask some Europeans for more money. Silly Americans, they probably thought. Luckily, they were nice and paid the rest of our bill for us.

Tea anyone? That was before we realized we didn't have enough money to pay the bill.

Lindsey on the prayer wheels in Namche. I was seriously impressed with the size of the buildings that high up.

Day 4 – Tengboche 12,660 ft

We left in the morning and after 30 minutes realized I still had our room key from the previous night (altitude brain again!). I managed to give the key to someone passing in the other direction back down, but I still felt dumb. When we arrived in Tengboche, we were able to go inside an old monastery and watch the Buddhist monks perform their chants while wrapped up in some serious blankets because it was freezing in there. Right before sunset, the clouds covering the view blew away, and I ran outside to snap some colorful pictures of the mountains.

The Tengboche Monastery with the mountain Ama Dablam in the background.

The mountains on fire right before sunset. I didn't even edit this picture - it really looks like that.

Day 5 – Dingboche 14,470 ft

The morning was cloudy, wet, and freezing cold when we started. Lindsey had a breakdown moment where she was scared to climb higher, but luckily she pushed on through the gloominess. After a few hours, the sun came out and we stripped our layers down to just t-shirts. It was amazing how fast the sun would warm us up during the day. However, the second the sun went behind a cloud or dipped behind the mountains, my goodness…. it got cold fast. When we arrived in Dingboche, we hand washed our socks in freezing (it literally had ice in it) water and hung them up to dry. The next morning they were still frozen solid.

Lindsey and I when we arrived in Dingboche.

A giant pile of yak dung that hotels use to fuel the fires. No wood is up this high, but there is an unlimited supply of dung.

Day 6 – Dingboche Acclimatization Day

We had another acclimatization day to continue to help our bodies adjust to the increasingly thin air. We hiked up to 16,700 feet and the view was simply beautiful from the top. The weather was warm and sunny on the way up, but clouds rolled in and we froze on the way down since we left our gear at the hotel. That was the last time we didn’t bring our jackets with us everywhere we went. You never know how the weather will change and we learned that the hard way.

Lindsey preparing for the cold clouds as best she could.

The two of us at 16,700 feet - the top of our acclimatization hike.

The clouds beginning to roll in. We were in for a cold one!

The one time Lindsey attempted to read.

Most blogs recommend that you bring books on the trek since you have a lot of free time to read during the evening. Lindsey and I only read one time. In air that thin, reading was the last thing either of us wanted to do. Our minds weren’t really “functioning” like they normally would. Therefore, we spent the evenings playing mindless card games with the few other trekkers in our hotels. So, if you happen to ever trek up to EBC, I would recommend leaving your book behind – it only adds weight to your bag.

Day 7 – Lobouche 16,100 ft

The first half of the day, we trekked next to a beautiful, wide-open gorge with snow-capped mountains visible in every direction. The shear size and openness of landscape was awe-inspiring. After lunch, we climbed up a steep hill and begin to see a lot more snow and ice on the ground. There were no more trees or shrubs - just rocks, dirt, and the occasional grass patch that yaks would chew on. We were breathing seriously heavy after only a few steps and had to take breaks often. We saw about 5 evacuation helicopters that were rushing altitude sickness victims back down to safety, and we got a little freaked out by that.

The view from our hike to Lobouche.

I am posing on the only rock I could climb.

The mountains always light up at night.

Day 8 – Gorek Shep 16, 860 ft

We reached the highest altitude of the trek this day. We had an easy hike to Gorek Shep in the morning, left our bags at the hotel, and continued up to Kala Patthar, which has the best views of Everest on the entire trek. The elevation of Kala Patthar is 18,200 ft, and the oxygen is exactly 50% that of sea level. It was difficult to make that climb. Once we made it though, a sense of relief rushed over us because we had reached the highest point on the trek. It was all downhill from there!

The trek up Kala Patthar. Do you see the Kumbu Glacier on the left? And the "town" next to it?

We finally made it to the top at 18,200 feet. Everest is the one almost directly above me without snow.

This is how happy we were. Everest is right next to my head.

Climbing to that ridge was scary. There was probably a 3000 foot drop on the other side. Good thing it wasn't windy.

There was one other person on the trail with us, and he happened to be from Texas. What are the chances? He let us borrow his miniature Texas flag to take pictures with at the top (he was on his way down when we passed each other) and something occurred to me – Texans are crazy. Only a Texan would bring a Texas flag to the top and not an American flag.

Lindsey with the Texas flag!

We caught the sunset on the way down. Again, I did not edit this picture. Everest is in the middle.

I didn’t sleep at all that night. When you are at a high altitude, your heart beats faster and you breathe much harder than usual. As you can imagine, that can make it hard to sleep. Every time that I would start to fall asleep, I would literally wake back up gasping for air like I had just run a race. No sleep for Timo that night. I was happy that we would be descending the next day.

Day 9 – Base Camp 17,600 ft, then down

Everest Base Camp is on the Khumbu Glacier, so it is a rocky and icy place. It is often compared to being at “the end of the world” and we were the only ones there the morning we went, which added to the eeriness of it all. There were huge ice formations that towered above us in the distance, and you could hear the deep rumbles and cracks from the glacier slowly moving. It was pretty cool.

We finally made it to EBC. We were the only people there.

I think Lindsey is practicing to be a monk, but I could be wrong?

We explored for about an hour, and then decided it was time to get down to thicker air. We saw an avalanche on the way out and arrived back to Dingboche at sunset. We were exhausted.

Day 10 – Back to Namche

Another view of Ama Dablam.

We both thought this was the hardest day of the trek. Even though we were going down into thicker air, we had to cover twice the distance as before and go up and over several mountains to get there. It was a rough day to say the least.

We rewarded ourselves with a hot shower when we arrived to boost our moral. It was the first time we had bathed since we left Kathmandu since most places do not have showers or you have to pay a pretty penny to use them.

Day 11 – Back to Lukla

This was also a tough day because we kept getting stuck behind stupid trains of baby yaks that kicked up serious amounts of dust. I probably inhaled several years worth of dust in a single day. We were happy to arrive in Lukla, and were even happier to be done walking. We needed a break.

Day 12 – Fly back to Kathmandu

After waiting in the airport for several hours for the clouds to clear, planes finally began to land to shuttle trekkers in and out of Lukla. So we loaded up in a prop plane again and “ski jumped” off the side of the mountain. That is kind of what it felt like anyway.

Our trek to EBC was over and we made it.

And even though these pictures I posted are good, believe me when I say that they are not even close to doing justice to the shear size and beauty of the mountains. We will definitely be back. It is also humbling to think that we only went to the base of the mountain – the real climb is another two miles up!

The End

We had a few days to left in Nepal before our flight back to the US so we were able to see a fair amount of Kathmandu. We toured around, bought some last minute souvenirs, and prepared ourselves for the 45 hour journey back to Texas. I couldn’t believe that after two and a half years, we were finally coming home.